| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Have you ever translated texts from the 19th century or earlier? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever translated texts from the 19th century or earlier?".
This poll was originally submitted by Oleg Delendyk. View the poll results »
| | | | Julian Holmes 
Japan
Local time: 19:11
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
But only as part of my Japanese degree. A whole range of selected extracts from famous Japanese literature, in fact, dating back to early 8th century in my 3rd year of university.
Oh, come to think of it, I mustn't forget all the stuff dating back to the 7th or 8th century BC that I translated for my Latin and (classical) Greek 'A' levels. I used to read 40 or 50 pages of the Illiad and the Odyssey every day on the way to school.
Quirk of fate that I ended up studying a... See more But only as part of my Japanese degree. A whole range of selected extracts from famous Japanese literature, in fact, dating back to early 8th century in my 3rd year of university.
Oh, come to think of it, I mustn't forget all the stuff dating back to the 7th or 8th century BC that I translated for my Latin and (classical) Greek 'A' levels. I used to read 40 or 50 pages of the Illiad and the Odyssey every day on the way to school.
Quirk of fate that I ended up studying and translating Japanese.  ▲ Collapse
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17th century--Polish mixed with Latin, some Old Swedish Manuscripts and 19th century Russian literature.
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But never professionally! In school we read Shakespeare (Hamlet) in English and Molière (Le Malade imaginaire) in French and we had to translate some texts. Later on, when I attended university in Lisbon I secretly read in English and translated some of Marx and Engels’s works (these books were forbidden in Portugal during Salazar’s dictatorship).
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At school, back in the days when you learned about the culture and background of a country at A level. I continued for a while at what was then Newcastle Poly as well, with more Chaucer, MHG and 18th and 19th-century French and German authors, though I don't remember how much we actually translated.
In fact only this week I translated a paragraph of John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) into Danish - it is quoted in the source of a text I am translating. A pity they don't want more - I was real... See more At school, back in the days when you learned about the culture and background of a country at A level. I continued for a while at what was then Newcastle Poly as well, with more Chaucer, MHG and 18th and 19th-century French and German authors, though I don't remember how much we actually translated.
In fact only this week I translated a paragraph of John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) into Danish - it is quoted in the source of a text I am translating. A pity they don't want more - I was really enjoying trying to give a hint of Ruskin's style for modern Danes! The target readers are university students.
As part of my work, only quotes and snippets like that tend to come up, but if I can't find an earlier translation, I do my own. I have translated some private letters for a family in Australia.
Bible quotations come up in speeches for weddings, and I usually find a couple of versions. Clients ask for the 'real' King James text - which I give them - and then they balk at reading it aloud!
Danes have difficulty pronouncing the th sound. (That 'Charity suffereth long and is kind' passage can be a challenge for English natives too, both to read and understand.)
So I refer them to a couple of more modern versions, which are far more like the Danish they are familiar with, and let them choose.
It is important to check whether the translation should be into the language of today, or whether it should be in the style of its own century in the target language. How to render both the style and the meaning will vary from language to language and century to century, but I would like to do more of that kind of thing when I retire.
Ruskin's beautiful descriptions, followed by the pithier observation of the quote, would in fact be very difficult to render in modern Danish. It was probably a good thing I was only asked to translate a hundred words! People just don't seem to think that way any more. But some of the Danish students would be able to read Ruskin in English if they had the time.
Deadlines, deadlines...
[Edited at 2014-05-04 23:02 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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My husband and I had a grant from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities to translate and annotate Brazilian documents from the 1700s. They were documents about the gold rush in Minas. The project amounted to several hundred pages. It was tough work, because the sentences went on for pages. We would sit and puzzle over them together, trying to find the main verb.
Also, I translated letters written from the Portuguese government to Thomas Jefferson.
In addition,... See more My husband and I had a grant from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities to translate and annotate Brazilian documents from the 1700s. They were documents about the gold rush in Minas. The project amounted to several hundred pages. It was tough work, because the sentences went on for pages. We would sit and puzzle over them together, trying to find the main verb.
Also, I translated letters written from the Portuguese government to Thomas Jefferson.
In addition, I have helped people translate some genealogy records.
I would never do this kind of work as part of my business because it's much too time-consuming. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Just finished one | May 4, 2014 |
A breath of fresh air after contracts and car repairs! I'd done a fair amount of nineteenth century and early 20th "zarzuela" but this was my first venture to earlier times.
And it was 17th century "tonos" - basically poetry, both religious and secular, set to music, much of it recitative style. Word order is a major challenge as you can imagine! I couldn't have done this without my degree in Spanish in which I studied a lot of literature of this period, meaning the vocabulary was l... See more A breath of fresh air after contracts and car repairs! I'd done a fair amount of nineteenth century and early 20th "zarzuela" but this was my first venture to earlier times.
And it was 17th century "tonos" - basically poetry, both religious and secular, set to music, much of it recitative style. Word order is a major challenge as you can imagine! I couldn't have done this without my degree in Spanish in which I studied a lot of literature of this period, meaning the vocabulary was largely familiar, and my musical experience was very valuable too.
And I loved it, even if it was far more time consuming than more prosaic categories. It takes a while to find your "voice", changing to such a radically different genre, but you get there eventually. Now I'm back with tourism for the next couple of weeks and I must check that I have regained my 21st century voice!
Edited for a typo.
[Edited at 2014-05-04 14:48 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | as part of my degree in Danish philology | May 4, 2014 |
Does that count?
I used to really enjoy it. We even tried translating extracts from The Gothic Bible as part of our etymology class. Goths would have been impressed
As for my professionall work the oldest text I had to translate dated from the 1940s.
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Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 06:11
English to Spanish
+ ...
I have a newfound respect for colleagues who have worked with old texts. The closest I've been to a 19th century text (or earlier) has been my visit to The Cloisters museum in Upper Manhattan. It was a humid July in 1995 (I think) and the only air conditioned room in the entire building contained the books: illuminated books, tiny books, the whole thing.
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 06:11
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Sorry I misread you | May 4, 2014 |
Julian Holmes wrote: But only as part of my Japanese degree. A whole range of selected extracts from famous Japanese literature, in fact, dating back to early 8th century in my 3rd year of university. Oh, come to think of it, I mustn't forget all the stuff dating back to the 7th or 8th century BC that I translated for my Latin and (classical) Greek 'A' levels. I used to read 40 or 50 pages of the Illiad and the Odyssey every day on the way to school. Quirk of fate that I ended up studying and translating Japanese.
Somehow my eye only read your second paragraph thus:
“I mustn't forget all the dating back to the 7th or 8th century BC...”
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 19:11
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| I draw a line | May 4, 2014 |
Mario Chavez wrote: Sorry I misread you Julian Holmes wrote:
...
Oh, come to think of it, I mustn't forget all the stuff dating back to the 7th or 8th century BC that I translated for my Latin and (classical) Greek 'A' levels. I used to read 40 or 50 pages of the Illiad and the Odyssey every day on the way to school.
.... Somehow my eye only read your second paragraph thus: “I mustn't forget all the dating back to the 7th or 8th century BC...”
at women who can remember the Battle of Hastings and Queen Boadicea even though a bit of experience is appreciated.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 12:11
French to English
I had to translate a letter by Victor Hugo for a tourism website extolling the glories of the northern coastline of France.
I must say I felt very honoured.
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| Several times! | May 4, 2014 |
Some old documents, newspapers and handwritten texts on artefacts like medals, bricks, embroidery items, utensils and jewelery!
Polish, Russian/Ukrainian, old scripts into/from English/French
These job have been challenging but extremely exciting and, probably, ones of the most interesting I've ever done.
[Edited at 2014-05-04 17:33 GMT]
| | | | | I answered "No", but... | May 4, 2014 |
then I read Christine's post
Christine Andersen wrote:
Bible quotations come up in...
which reminded me that I officially kick-started my translation career as a back-translator for a Bible translation project. So, the answer should have been "Yes".
| | | | | Latin only ;) | May 4, 2014 |
Other than some stuff for my own academic work.
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: Have you ever translated texts from the 19th century or earlier? | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
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