| Страниц в теме: [1 2] > | Can a translation ever be perfect? Автор темы: Tom in London
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Tom in London
Великобритания
Local time: 08:41
Член ProZ.com c 2008
итальянский => английский
Every time I decide that I've polished one of my translation jobs and I hit the "send" button to deliver it to the client, a feeling of unease overtakes me: is there something that could have been better put? Have I overlooked some idiotic spelling or grammatical error? Couldn't the whole thing have benefitted from one more print-out and final correction?
After many years as a translator I'm learning that no translation is ever perfect. That explains why translations of famous books... See more Every time I decide that I've polished one of my translation jobs and I hit the "send" button to deliver it to the client, a feeling of unease overtakes me: is there something that could have been better put? Have I overlooked some idiotic spelling or grammatical error? Couldn't the whole thing have benefitted from one more print-out and final correction?
After many years as a translator I'm learning that no translation is ever perfect. That explains why translations of famous books (e.g. the short stories of Chekhov) are periodically re-translated. But I still get uneasy every time I think I've perfected a translating job.
Do you know when to stop improving? Is there a point at which further "improvement" would actually be detrimental? ▲ Collapse
| | | | neilmac
Испания
Local time: 09:41
испанский => английский
+ ...
But it can be "just right", which is almost as good. And I agree, sometimes if you look over something for too long, or too many times, it ends up never looking quite right. Basically "don't keep picking at it or it'll never get better"... In fact I mentioned this to my proofreading colleague the other day and she agreed too.
IMHO, being a perfectionist means that sometimes you need someone to snatch the darn thing away from you and send it off to the client before you "polish" it away to ... See more But it can be "just right", which is almost as good. And I agree, sometimes if you look over something for too long, or too many times, it ends up never looking quite right. Basically "don't keep picking at it or it'll never get better"... In fact I mentioned this to my proofreading colleague the other day and she agreed too.
IMHO, being a perfectionist means that sometimes you need someone to snatch the darn thing away from you and send it off to the client before you "polish" it away to a shadow of its former glory...
[Edited at 2014-03-25 10:37 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-03-25 10:38 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney 
Франция
Local time: 09:41
французский => английский
| If you can't get it right make it better | Mar 25, 2014 |
If nobody set a deadline I'd just keep worrying away at it.
My stint as an in-house translator gave me a reasonable guideline as to how many words I ought to do in a day and when I'm busy I generally don't have time to proofread anything to death.
I cringe at the thought of looking at previous translations because that's when some stupid slip will leap out at me. Sometimes I get a pleasant surprise too, rediscovering little gems I had forgotten about.
I t... See more If nobody set a deadline I'd just keep worrying away at it.
My stint as an in-house translator gave me a reasonable guideline as to how many words I ought to do in a day and when I'm busy I generally don't have time to proofread anything to death.
I cringe at the thought of looking at previous translations because that's when some stupid slip will leap out at me. Sometimes I get a pleasant surprise too, rediscovering little gems I had forgotten about.
I take comfort in the fact that the source text wasn't perfect either. ▲ Collapse
| | | | nrichy (X)
Франция
Local time: 09:41
французский => голландский
+ ...
I am afraid ISO standards (proofreading by another person) did much wrong here. Sometimes when I read a newspaper (not a local one, but a big one made by professional journalists) I get the impression that if the article had been a translation, someone would have gone through all of it with a big red pen and changed everything, especially:
- difficult words replaced by "easier" ones, even if this means distortion of the meaning
- foreign words of expressions, put there for the loca... See more I am afraid ISO standards (proofreading by another person) did much wrong here. Sometimes when I read a newspaper (not a local one, but a big one made by professional journalists) I get the impression that if the article had been a translation, someone would have gone through all of it with a big red pen and changed everything, especially:
- difficult words replaced by "easier" ones, even if this means distortion of the meaning
- foreign words of expressions, put there for the local colour, replaced by local text
- synonyms replaced by other synonyms
- original or personal expressions replaced by more common ones
...
leaving a kind of aseptic and depersonalized word soup.
This is an interesting subject. ▲ Collapse
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Carole Wolfe
США
Local time: 02:41
русский => английский
+ ...
| To a degree perfection is relative | Mar 25, 2014 |
I think the answer to your question is "No" because what you might think is perfect may not agree with my definition. We all come from different backgrounds, which influence our word choice, syntax, and even punctuation to some extent.
In addition, a translator many times does not have the luxury of agonizing about crossing t's and dotting i's because usually there are clients or agencies breathing down his/her neck and emailing, "Where's my translation? I gave you two hours to ... See more I think the answer to your question is "No" because what you might think is perfect may not agree with my definition. We all come from different backgrounds, which influence our word choice, syntax, and even punctuation to some extent.
In addition, a translator many times does not have the luxury of agonizing about crossing t's and dotting i's because usually there are clients or agencies breathing down his/her neck and emailing, "Where's my translation? I gave you two hours to translate 5000 words. What's the holdup?"
I myself never accept rush jobs--unless the vocabulary and subject matter are general in nature-- because I feel I can't do them justice. My reputation is riding on the line, and I will not risk ruining it by submitting inferior work. ▲ Collapse
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Tom, I feel the same, I always think if there is something I could have put better.
And I agree with Neilmac
neilmac wrote:
And I agree, sometimes if you look over something for too long, or too many times, it ends up never looking quite right. Basically "don't keep picking at it or it'll never get better"...
But I think it is something good, if it is an incentive to improve and to take always great care over our job, even if we have enough experience and we are sure about the quality of our job.
| | | | Tom in London
Великобритания
Local time: 08:41
Член ProZ.com c 2008
итальянский => английский
Автор темы | Same for others | Mar 25, 2014 |
Giovanna Alessandra Meloni wrote:
Tom, I feel the same, I always think if there is something I could have put better.
And I agree with Neilmac
neilmac wrote:
And I agree, sometimes if you look over something for too long, or too many times, it ends up never looking quite right. Basically "don't keep picking at it or it'll never get better"...
But I think it is something good, if it is an incentive to improve and to take always great care over our job, even if we have enough experience and we are sure about the quality of our job.
I suppose it's the same for an artist. When is a painting really finished? I know an artist who has been working on the same painting for 40 years !
| | | | Giles Watson
Италия
Local time: 09:41
итальянский => английский
Памяти | Arts and crafts | Mar 25, 2014 |
Tom in London wrote:
I suppose it's the same for an artist. When is a painting really finished? I know an artist who has been working on the same painting for 40 years!
Excellent point.
Your friend has independent means, presumably. If you need to keep the wolf from the door, it's probably more helpful to consider translation as a craft, which in a sense is just art with a deadline 
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Michal Fabian
Канада
Local time: 03:41
голландский => словацкий
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Perfection is never my goal (and would not be even if someone told me what "perfection" actually is).
Accuracy and appropriateness are (in their dictionary definitions).
It also helps to realize that source texts are seldom "perfect," too.
| | | | Jack Doughty
Великобритания
Local time: 08:41
русский => английский
+ ...
Памяти | Difficult even to eliminate typos | Mar 25, 2014 |
I translated a book of about 140,000 words a few years ago. Of course I checked each chapter before I sent it off, the author's agent checked them and found a few more, but every time I read the book after that I found something that I'd missed. I must have been through it about six times, and if I read it again now, I think I'd probably still find one or two lurking in there somewhere.
| | | | | 40-year translation | Mar 25, 2014 |
Maybe your painter friend has hit on the best solution: work is work and passion is passion, even if they happen to make use of the same medium. (I am assuming your friend isn't named Frenhofer and that he has, in fact, finished a lot of other paintings in the course of those forty years.)
Why not translate a great short story or collection of poems or novel or historical primary source in our spare time?
If perfection were possible, I don't think it would have any plac... See more Maybe your painter friend has hit on the best solution: work is work and passion is passion, even if they happen to make use of the same medium. (I am assuming your friend isn't named Frenhofer and that he has, in fact, finished a lot of other paintings in the course of those forty years.)
Why not translate a great short story or collection of poems or novel or historical primary source in our spare time?
If perfection were possible, I don't think it would have any place in the reality of our working lives. Our clients want and need consistently good work done in a timely manner. Work is not about perfection.
I would guess that consistency is probably what suffers the most from an excessive perfectionism. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
Франция
Local time: 09:41
французский => английский
| "only Allah is perfect" | Mar 25, 2014 |
Let me share a little anecdote.
I was once standing outside an utterly wondrous mosque (listed as world heritage). A local heard me speaking in French with my partner and introduced himself. He spoke wonderful French himself, and offered to give us a quick guided tour of the mosque. He pointed to two pillars on each side of the entrance. One was ornately decorated, the other plain. The guide book explained that one was produced by the master and the other by his student, but our lo... See more Let me share a little anecdote.
I was once standing outside an utterly wondrous mosque (listed as world heritage). A local heard me speaking in French with my partner and introduced himself. He spoke wonderful French himself, and offered to give us a quick guided tour of the mosque. He pointed to two pillars on each side of the entrance. One was ornately decorated, the other plain. The guide book explained that one was produced by the master and the other by his student, but our local Muslim guide told a different story: he said that the architect had deliberately introduced this lack of symmetry, because otherwise he would have achieved perfection, and this would show lack of respect, because only Allah is perfect.
I can't help but think that given that his brief was to introduce an element of imperfection, the architect had fulfilled his task to the letter, and therefore had indeed achieved perfection!
(the mosque in question did make the Taj Mahal look banal by the way) ▲ Collapse
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Andy Watkinson
Испания
Local time: 09:41
Член ProZ.com
каталанский (каталонский) => английский
+ ...
Reminds me of good "ole" Oscar.
"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma.
In the afternoon I put it back again."
Oscar Wilde
| | | | Tom in London
Великобритания
Local time: 08:41
Член ProZ.com c 2008
итальянский => английский
Автор темы | only Allah is perfect | Mar 25, 2014 |
for us perhaps the only comfort is to be derived from Salvador Dalì: "Do not strive for perfection. You will never attain it".
| | | | LEXpert
США
Local time: 02:41
Член ProZ.com c 2008
хорватский => английский
+ ...
| A question of marginal returns | Mar 25, 2014 |
Tom in London wrote:
Do you know when to stop improving? Is there a point at which further "improvement" would actually be detrimental?
Yes, but not typically detrimental to the translation - rather to your business. The problem is that repeated checking inevitably reaches a point of diminishing marginal returns. After all, in a text of any size, it takes more or less the same amount of time to uncover and fix 10 typos, a single typo, or to confirm that that there are no typos. Therefore, you are certain to reach a point where additional checks bring no discernible benefit for the time invested. If you start second-guessing yourself and changing your perfectly good translation choices, the marginal returns could even be negative!
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