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English to Arabic translations [PRO]
Law/Patents - Certificates, Diplomas, Licenses, CVs | | English term or phrase: 2/23/01 12/19/1931 | | Dates of birth and dates in a death certificate. What is the best way to render the translation in a way that is unamabiguous, for example, is 23 فبراير 2001 acceptable, or is this not an honest translation? |
| | | Here is the practice I have been following: | Explanation:
In the United States, translations of official documents are accompanied by the following affidavit:
"I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is a true and correct translation into [target language] from [source language], and that I am competent to translate the same."
The translator's signature on the affidavit may sometimes have to be notarized.
In light of the serious liability implied by this affidavit, and considering the litigious nature of US society, a translator is best advised to exercise more than the usual degree of scrupulousness with documents of birth, death, marriage, divorce, etc. Such documents are often submitted to civil authorities to obtain certain benefits, such as immigration status adjustment, social security, etc. Any hint of impropriety in the translation can impugn the translator’s integrity or competency.
With that in mind, I usually copy dates exactly as written, merely substituting Arabic numerals for Hindi numerals (my situation here is the reverse of yours, as I translate Arabic birth certificates into English).
If the date is all numeric, I keep it numeric. If the month is spelled out, I spell it out in the translation. If the whole date is spelled out, I spell out the whole shebang. If slashes (or dashes or spaces) are used to separate fields, I use the same symbol in the translation.
I only make two exceptions:
Exception 1: If the date is Hijri, and the client makes it known to me that the translation would be entirely futile without a date conversion, I would add a Gregorian equivalent in brackets next to the Hijri date.
Exception 2: A special problem arises if the date is all numeric and the day field is 12 or less, as in 5/6/2000. In most of God’s creation, this is taken to mean the fifth of June. In the US, however, this would be interpreted as the sixth of May. For that reason, I stick my neck out and spell out the month, putting it in brackets.
These are the only exceptions I make. These are exceptions that I can defend if questioned.
I don’t know if my situation is relevant to yours, as there are obvious differences, both in terms of the legal ramifications and in terms of the language direction. If you translate for clients in various Arab countries, you may have to confront other questions, such as whether to keep Arabic numerals or switch to Hindi numerals, and whether to translate August as AUGHUSTUS (for Saudi Arabia), GHUSHT (for Morocco), or AB (for Syria).
Fuad
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| Selected response from:
Fuad Yahya
| Grading comment Thank you to all who contributed.
I chose Fouad's comprehensive answer because of the useful information he provided for US practices. I have ended spelling out the month names because the translation is intended for the Egyptian bureaucracy where the US date format would not be very helpful. I felt that this is a safer choice than transposing the month and day in the numeric format, which would open up the translation for serious doubt. At least spelling out the month names shows that the transformation is deliberate.
Thanks again.
- Alaa Zeineldine
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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1 hr Here is the practice I have been following:
Explanation:
In the United States, translations of official documents are accompanied by the following affidavit:
"I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is a true and correct translation into [target language] from [source language], and that I am competent to translate the same."
The translator's signature on the affidavit may sometimes have to be notarized.
In light of the serious liability implied by this affidavit, and considering the litigious nature of US society, a translator is best advised to exercise more than the usual degree of scrupulousness with documents of birth, death, marriage, divorce, etc. Such documents are often submitted to civil authorities to obtain certain benefits, such as immigration status adjustment, social security, etc. Any hint of impropriety in the translation can impugn the translator’s integrity or competency.
With that in mind, I usually copy dates exactly as written, merely substituting Arabic numerals for Hindi numerals (my situation here is the reverse of yours, as I translate Arabic birth certificates into English).
If the date is all numeric, I keep it numeric. If the month is spelled out, I spell it out in the translation. If the whole date is spelled out, I spell out the whole shebang. If slashes (or dashes or spaces) are used to separate fields, I use the same symbol in the translation.
I only make two exceptions:
Exception 1: If the date is Hijri, and the client makes it known to me that the translation would be entirely futile without a date conversion, I would add a Gregorian equivalent in brackets next to the Hijri date.
Exception 2: A special problem arises if the date is all numeric and the day field is 12 or less, as in 5/6/2000. In most of God’s creation, this is taken to mean the fifth of June. In the US, however, this would be interpreted as the sixth of May. For that reason, I stick my neck out and spell out the month, putting it in brackets.
These are the only exceptions I make. These are exceptions that I can defend if questioned.
I don’t know if my situation is relevant to yours, as there are obvious differences, both in terms of the legal ramifications and in terms of the language direction. If you translate for clients in various Arab countries, you may have to confront other questions, such as whether to keep Arabic numerals or switch to Hindi numerals, and whether to translate August as AUGHUSTUS (for Saudi Arabia), GHUSHT (for Morocco), or AB (for Syria).
Fuad
| Fuad Yahya
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:  Arabic, English
PRO pts in category: 8
|
| | Grading comment Thank you to all who contributed.
I chose Fouad's comprehensive answer because of the useful information he provided for US practices. I have ended spelling out the month names because the translation is intended for the Egyptian bureaucracy where the US date format would not be very helpful. I felt that this is a safer choice than transposing the month and day in the numeric format, which would open up the translation for serious doubt. At least spelling out the month names shows that the transformation is deliberate.
Thanks again.
- Alaa Zeineldine |
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2 hrs I think I misunderstood the question
Explanation:
In Australia the practice is quite lenient in the case of translating birth records, driver's licences, ...etc where the required is usually an extract of the source document and would be done on a proforma. In this case it's acceptable either way to use words (in formatting the date) as opposite to figures. This is, as I said, especially done in cases where the translation is not accompanied by an affidavit and the required translation is not a full translation, and what's is required in only extract translations of birth records, driver's licences.
In translations accompanied by affidavit we follow the exact format appearing on the source document i.e. words in case of words in source documents and figures in case of figures in the source documents. This is particularly applicable in cases where the translations are lodged with the court and/or a solicitor, or is required as such (full translations) by the client.
I suppose the guidelines would be in the agreement between you and the client before you start the translation. In some organisations here, they issue comprehensive guidelines on how they would like their translations carried out including the formatting of dates, translator's notes, extract translations, full translations, alternative transliterations of names of clients, … the works.
HTH
Mona
|  Mona Helal
Local time: 06:34
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Arabic, English
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| Changes made by editors |
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| Feb 15, 2006 - Changes made by Fuad Yahya: | | Level | Non-PRO => PRO | | Feb 15, 2006 - Changes made by Fuad Yahya: | | Field (specific) | (none) => Certificates, Diplomas, Licenses, CVs |
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