Authoritative Comments

The 2017 Israeli Translators Association Conference has come and gone. It has left me a strong feeling of camaraderie, especially with my fellow legal translators.  There was a strange sense of a bar in the sense of a group of law people, not the watering spot. The lectures regarding legal translations, those of Emanuel Weisgras and Sue Leschen, became free, fascinating discussions of various issues that left, as they say in Hebrew, of a taste of "ode", the regret that there wasn't more time. Contrary to the old adage about lawyers according to which you can only have one lawyer change a light bulb because no room is big enough for the egos of two lawyers, legal translators disagree but are not 110% certain of their opinion.  All in all, they were productive and entertaining sessions.

Still, my highlights were the two plenary lectures by the invited writers, Yannets Levi and Amos. The first is the author of the Dod Arie (Uncle Leo in English) children stories. He spoke about the birth of his successful series of books. Like J.K. Rowling, he originally made up the tales as stories for his nieces and nephews. They were so successful that he wrote them down. He then discussed the various directions the translation took.  In particular, he mentioned that in Korea, the book was taken various seriously as a tool for installing Israeli creativity in Korean children. On a similar vein, Japanese children apparently require more visual images to follow the stories, possibly because of the complexity of and time required to learn Japanese. By the way, I also began as a translator, albeit unknowing, by translating impromptu the four first Harry Potter books into Hebrew to my young daughter.

The lecture by Amos Oz was also of note. He discussed his creative process, elaborating on his early morning walks and café observing as he tried to imagine the thoughts and history of all those around him, a bit like Sherlock Holmes. He then discussed several terms that he and his English translator struggled with. It emphasized that creativity is no less than important than language knowledge in translation.

In summary, the program was rich and satisfying. I return to work tired but filled with esteem for translators and writers alike. As Walter Konkrite used to say, "and that is way it is."

Dubbed magic

As a translator of written texts, my main focus is the transfer on the content and style of the text to be translated into the equivalent in the target language, English in my case.  Watching the Hebrew-dubbed version of Mary Poppins, I was reminded of the lecture by Richael Glickman I heard at the recent ITA conference regarding dubbing of children’s shows. I watched the move in awe at the level of translation.

The translator/dubber succeeded in doing took things that I could never imagine impossible.  Not only did the translator express the idea but added two elements that involve the ear. The syllables /  speaking time in the Hebrew must closely match that of the English.  That equivalence is far from simple since English uses some 40-50% more words.  In other words, Hebrew translators actually have to add fillers to “complete” the text.  Moreover, the nature of the sounds as reflected by the form of the mouth, such an open “o” or closed “t”, must be the same.  So, even the words in Hebrew and English are parallel in terms of length, they may be inappropriate in terms of the video picture. If the character ends the song with a open mouth, you can’t have the localized version with a closed sound.  It simply looks funny.

As a demonstration, watch the youtube video of Spoonful of Sugar in several languages. In my opinion, the Danish was masterful but the Japanese dubber did not quite succeed.  As for the Hungarian, anybody that has ever heard Hungarian knows why the song was not even translated. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pih_f8GH31E)

So, if you wish to appreciate the art of dubbing, I strongly recommend looking at scenes from Mary Poppins or most Disney movies in Hebrew or most other languages.  Amazingly, it actually appears like the song was written in the target language.  That is truly seamless translation. 

*I would be interested in hearing about dubbing in other languages.

A Passion for Words

As a teacher and a translator, I live in worlds that focus on words.  Yet, pedagogy and translation take radically different approaches.  I have just returned from the three-day Israeli Translators Association Conference in Herzliya.  The most striking impression taken from all the various encounters with fellow translators, whether through lectures, workshops or simple conversations, was the passion for language and purposeful meaning beyond the formalistic aspect. This dedication to communication was expressed in many ways.  Here is a very small sample of the products of such enthusiasm and dedication:

A reading in the Arabic original and Hebrew translation of a chapter of book from Mahmoud Darwish describing a Lebanese man making coffee that not only transmitted the meaning of the source words but the rhythm and sound of the process.  As the host said, you could smell the coffee being made.  See the following: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4382946,00.html.

A lecture by Fabienne Bergmann and her husband Haim Shiran, who collaborated to bring into words the distant sights and sounds of the Jewish quarter in Morocco where he grew up.

A lecture by the translator who provided the documents that confirmed that Toyota was conspiring to hide safety issue explaining why she took the risk to share her words for the general good.

A seemingly business-only seminar on expertise positioning by the Polish translator and businesswoman Marta Stelmaszak, who showed that beyond the nuts and bolts of marketing is the serious desire to help the customer use words to succeed, in this case international businesses expanding into Poland.

Medical interpreters earnestly discussing the challenge and dire need to translate the content and culture of their customers so as to allow them to attain proper medical treatment.

A lecture on the translation of the Argentinean writer, Julio Cortázar, who invented words that anybody could understand.

A serious academic reading about the oral and written silence in Israel regarding the issues of the Holocaust and lost sons and daughters in Israeli wars, showing that even a lack of words express buried but existent thoughts.

Even in the driest of the literary fields, accounting, more than 50 people enthusiastically participated in a “quiz” compiled by Alan Clayman checking whether the translators knew the correct term because the correct term is important for everybody’s financial future.

There are countless other examples at the conference f this desire to express effectively ideas of one language into another, many of which I was unfortunately unable or too oversaturated to hear.  In any case, my heartfelt conclusion about the conference is that, like all good craftspeople, Israeli translators strive not only to earn a living, which is important, but also reach beyond the “good enough” and attain the beautiful of mix of beautiful and effective words.  Translators, like other artists, at their best make you say “wow!”

For another blog regarding the conference: http://ruthludlam.blogspot.co.il/2014/02/ita-conference-2014.html

What do Translators do in their free time? The ITA conference 2012

I have just come back from Israeli Translators Conference in Jerusalem on February 13-15. The question that may come into mind is what exactly do translators do at such a conference.

The banal answer is what everybody else does: talk, eat, complain, and drink coffee.  However, due to the nature of the audience, the entertainment is a bit difference.  Of course, there are the nuts and bolts seminars on converting PDF’s, CAT (Computer Aided Translation) tools, and pricing (I and my partner Tzviya Levin gave the last).  There were discussions on translating Alice in Wonderland, personal names into Hebrew, Jewish place names, the Hebrew word davka, to name just a few. While most translators do not need to know those, they are far more interesting than the more practical lectures.

Finally, there are the special events in my mind.  This year, we learnt about translating Mozart’s arias into Hebrew and even got to listen to opera singers perform them. We heard the woman who actually chose to translate Shakespeare’s sonnets into Hebrew.  We even received interesting historical surveys of Israeli film and Pashkevil, the ultra-orthodox version of popular newspapers.

However, fundamentally, the conference represents the annual opportunity to leave our little caves (granted with computer windows) and interact with real flesh and blood human beings.  It is a pleasure to meet the faces behind the email addresses and see the variety of people who choose to make translation their profession. 

Of course, after three days, all the translators were extremely tired of constant social dialogue and were quite happy to return to their caves and get back into word games.

If you want more information on the ITA and/or the conference, go to the ITA site.

I’ll be visiting the states for two weeks, but will go back to writing when I get back.