Your favorite saying/quote(s) for a translator? Thread poster: Linh Hoang
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Linh Hoang 
Vietnam
Local time: 11:33
Member (2011)
English to Vietnamese
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Dear my fellows,
You may have been working as a translator for years. What's your favorite saying/quote(s) about a translator? Could you share it?
Do you think this one true: "The reason why you should date a translator: they can stay up all night if you want them to."?_^_
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:33
Member (2000)
Russian to English
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| Bad translator's reply to query | Dec 6, 2016 |
"Don't ask me what it MEANS, I only translate this ruddy stuff!"
| | | | | Definition of a good translator | Dec 6, 2016 |
"A good translator leaves no work for a reviewer. A good reviewer findes room for improvement even then."
Some words I try to live by.
But sometimes it looks like what I said about a project where the source was written extremely bad (by a barely literate non-native, if you need some assesment). "I'm gradually turning this pile of horse s**t into a masterpiece."
| | | | | Favourite quote for a translator | Dec 6, 2016 |
"When I have problems, I escape into translation" - I don't know its author. I've found it in the space of the internet.
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Gerard de Noord
France
Local time: 06:33
Member (2003)
German to Dutch
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| Translations (like wives) are seldom strictly faithful if they are in the least attractive | Dec 6, 2016 |
Translations (like wives) are seldom strictly faithful if they are in the least attractive.
Roy Campbell 1901–57 South African poet: in Poetry Review June-July 1949
| | | | Rosalind Haigh
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:33
German to English
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Gerard de Noord wrote:
Translations (like wives) are seldom strictly faithful if they are in the least attractive.
Roy Campbell 1901–57 South African poet: in Poetry Review June-July 1949
An unpleasant enough statement even over 60 years ago, but in today's climate? You have got to be joking.
| | | | Daniel Frisano
Switzerland
Local time: 06:33
Member (2008)
English to Italian
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| Somebody please explain this to her | Dec 7, 2016 |
"A cuarantevot ains, no ise ore che tu cjatis un lavôr?" ("At 48, don't you think it's time to get a job?")
My 75-year mother on the phone the other day, after I've been doing this for 19 years.
| | | | Daniel Frisano
Switzerland
Local time: 06:33
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
| Here's another one (don't tell anybody or we will all be jobless) | Dec 7, 2016 |
HER - So what do you do?
ME - I am a translator.
HER - Like when they show in TV like Putin meeting like Angela Merkel and there's someone in the middle translating what they say to each other?
ME - Well, technically that's called an interpreter. I do written stuff.
HER - Who would need that? It sounds useless.
ME - Well, next time you buy a new cell phone and you find the instructions in Italian, it's because somebody translated them from English.
HER - Wouldn't it be easier to just write it directly in all the languages?
ME - ...
(Yes, she was blonde, and, no, I am not saying that all blondes are like that.)
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Linh Hoang
Vietnam
Local time: 11:33
Member (2011)
English to Vietnamese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Like good translator! | Dec 7, 2016 |
I like good translators, of course.
Aha. It would really take time to turn such s**t into a masterpiece. It certainly makes us crazy!!!
Aleksandra Muraviova wrote:
"A good translator leaves no work for a reviewer. A good reviewer findes room for improvement even then."
Some words I try to live by.
But sometimes it looks like what I said about a project where the source was written extremely bad (by a barely literate non-native, if you need some assesment). "I'm gradually turning this pile of horse s**t into a masterpiece."
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