Categories: translation, trials
Date: 15 December 2008 17:44:15
And the winner of the "Lost it in Translation Award" goes to........
none other than myself! And what incredible boo-boo have I committed? Read on....gentle reader.
A German colleague asked me if I would quickly look over half a dozen phrases which she was wrestling with. The document arrived in my in-tray.
There were two columns. English on one side, German on the other. I suppressed my disapproval of my colleague translating into a language which was not her native language, read the German, hummed and haahed, screwed up my face, looked into the distance, turned on Track Changes, and went to work. Such curious phrases, surely this one would be much clearer phrased thus and another one phrased like this. Satisfied with my work, I mailed it back to her.
A few minutes later, I received another mail from her. Thanks for all your efforts but actually I was asking you to comment on my German translation - not on the original English!!
Ah. Whoops. Far be it from me to tell a German how to speak their own language. But I will weigh into the argument concerning clear English. Whoever wrote the original text needs a dressing down from the Clear English Campaign.
I apologised to my colleague - and did as she'd asked me - as best I could.
I think I have said on many occasions that my brain operates like one side of the dictionary these days. I can happily translate from German into English but when trying to do the task in the other direction it feels like all the cogs are suddenly required to work anti-clockwise - and I can hear them crashing together, shifting and cranking round rustily.
What a loon.