Through the looking-glass – the pleasure of technical translation

 

[photographer and a mirror*]

Most people connect translation with literature and believe that it must be a fascinating to render Tolstoy’s Russian or Balzac’s French to another language. By contrast, translating official documents or financial reports seems as dry as Alice’s history lesson. In practice, the vast majority of commissioned translation is highly technical by nature. Contrary to the general impressions, these documents often create drama by opening up a privileged view (both in terms of special access and confidentiality) of people lives. To illustrate, I will present some examples of what I look for and follow when plowing through my day’s tasks.

Marriage certificates – thought for speculation  - Israeli marriage certificates include a wide variety of information, including the age, profession and place of residence of the couple  as well as the background of parents. Sometimes it is clear what the bride and groom have in common while other times it is not.

Death certificates – the unknown – due to the vagaries of documentation in some parts of the world, the family or the deceased sometimes don’t know the date of birth, leaving the wonderful statistic of 1920, without day or month. Of course, translating the certificates of those that died very young or very old sometimes leads to personal contemplation.

Divorce agreements – priorities – What is a single mother willing to give up to be able to live abroad with her children? How strict are the arrangements for paternal visits? You would be surprised.

Commercial contracts – local character – if you want to know what problems are typical for a certain area, professional and/or geographical, look at the relative weight of the words. BTW, based on the number of pages dedicated to this matter, drinking is a problem at Russian oil fields.

Salary slips – addition with subtraction – It can rather disturbing to have to note how much of the salary or wages disappears in taxes or how much more money other people earn. On the other hand, it can be merely interesting or even encouraging.

Grade transcripts – student life – It is amazing how some students seem to wake up in 12^th grade or college and start achieving high grades. Until then, I imagine that their parents were pulling their hair. On the other hand, I wonder whether certain people ever had fun during their years of study.

Medical questionnaires – awfulness – Ignorance can be bliss. Many diseases have extreme effects on people’s lives.  I always feel appreciative that I don’t have that problem.

As you can see, while numbers and facts can appear to be dry and uninteresting, all it takes is a small leap of imagination to see the story being told and discover an unknown world. Technical translation is similar to looking at Alice’s looking glass, seeing both the subject of the document but also reflecting on the translator. I consider that far more interesting than literary translation, having no desire to get into Dostoevsky’s head, but chacun son gout, to each his/her own.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Picture credit: Pixabay