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| [A rose*] |
If there is one area of translation that seems rather straightforward
and simple, it is official documents. How many words are there on a certificate
of birth, marriage or death? What is difficult about translating names, dates
and status? Alas, translating such short documents is very demanding as all the
details must reflect the source language but follow the rules of the target
language, with no errors tolerated. A perfect illustration is the translation
of names in French, Russian and Hebrew to English.
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| [French handwriting] |
French conveniently uses the same letters as English but names pose a
challenge in terms of their format. First, it is standard French practice to
capitalize all the letters of the last name in order to distinguish it from the
first and middle names, as in George CLEMENCEAU. This is quite a convenient
rule but it is not applied in English. Thus, the name of the former prime
minister is George Clemenceau on official British documents. On a
trickier note, it is quite common to see handwritten original French official
certificates, especially those issued in Africa. For those unfamiliar with the
standard French loopy-loop handwriting, rather aesthetic in itself, it is often
difficult to distinguish the letters especially when long African names,
generally unfamiliar to Western translators, are written. I personally remember
how difficult it was to read the handwriting of my mother, educated in France
as she would say, in her correspondence to me in summer camp many years ago. If
there is any doubt, the translator has to conduct a careful letter comparison
with known words. Since every letter is important in a name, it is vital to be
certain about the spelling of a name and not blindly follow the formatting of
the source language.
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| [Russian cursive] |
Russian documents also involve handwritten certificates but also include
the issue of grammar cases. Even today, many clerks in the Russian Federation
carefully and beautifully write out birth and marriage certificates. While as calligraphy the text may be impressive, interpreting the actual letters often requires
comparison with other words. It is my practice to sit with Russian natives to
have them decipher the Cyrillic hieroglyphics to ensure that I have correctly
read the word. On a grammatical scale, Russian has six cases, grammatical
functions, marked by suffixes. Accordingly, Ivan Ivanovich Pushkin comes
out Ivana Ivanovicha Pushkina when it is a possessive, as in his child.
By contrast, English has no cases, meaning that the translator must identify
the name in the nominative form and use it consistently throughout the document
regardless of the actual Russian form. Knowledge and due diligence are
important when working with Russian certificates.
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| [Hebrew letters] |
Hebrew poses issues due to the alphabet in terms of sound and spelling.
Several letters have two pronunciation options, including bet ב (b and v), vuv ו (long u
and long o) peh פ (p and f) shin ש (sh and s]
and kav כ (ch and k). When the vowels are marked or the word is
Hebrew, there is no problem knowing the correct form. However, in texts without
vowels involving foreign names, it is actually impossible to be certain. For example,
the last name in Hebrew שוף, could be Shoop, Shope, Sop.
Sup, Shoof, Shofe and Shuf, to name a few. Adding to this ambiguity the random hand of
immigration clerks and immigrants with creative spelling creates complete
uncertainty on how the name is actually spelled regardless of the direction of
translation. The English form of most
standard last names have several options while first names are limited only by
imagination. The only solution is to ask customers for clarification and remind
them that the spelling should reflect that in the passport to avoid problems.
The importance of name spelling cannot be overestimated. People have had
their applications for visas and Green Cards rejected because of spelling discrepancies.
In official applications, short cuts make for long delays. Poor quality,
home-done translations often torpedo the best laid plans. In some matters, it
is best to pay a professional. After all, a rose is rose is a rose in general
but in some cases, especially for governments, only if it is properly
translated.
* Captions allow the blind to access the Internet.
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