ATA SLD

Slavic Languages Division (American Translators Association)

American Translators Association: The Voice of Interpreters and Translators

Robert Chandler at ATA66: Changing Attitudes to Translating from Russian

Session Review: (067) Changing Attitudes to Translating from Russian, presented by SLD Distinguished Speaker Robert Chandler on Friday, October 24, at ATA66

Review by Trace Dreyer

The art of tact, Robert Chandler argued in his first talk as Distinguished Speaker, is at the heart of translation, not choosing sides in theoretical debates. Drawing on examples from Constance Garnett’s groundbreaking work and the collaborative methods of Samuel Koteliansky, Chandler dismantled the false dichotomies that have long constrained translation theory: literal versus free, foreignization versus domestication, transparency versus opacity. Instead, he proposed that great translators must develop the sensitivity to know when each approach serves the text, negotiating meaning through dialogue rather than dogma. His message, delivered through historical examples and practical wisdom, challenges translators to abandon rigid ideologies in favor of something more demanding: the passionate commitment to bringing literature to life for new readers, whatever tactical choices that requires.

Getting down to brass tacks

Robert Chandler galvanized the room by opening with a poignant rendition of Maria Remizova’s searing poem “The House that Jack Wrecked,” translated powerfully by Dmitri Manin and published in the Smokestack Books anthology of Russian poetry Disbelief: 100 Russian Anti-War Poems (see below). This drove home the approach he would go on to advocate: grounding translation in tact, sensitivity, and communicating meaning.

Shining a light through the window of translation

Chandler brought theory to life by tracing the historical roots of translation philosophy back to the earliest Bible translations, identifying two fundamental approaches that continue to shape the field today. He likened these to the architectural differences between Protestant and Catholic churches: The windows in Protestant churches offer transparency, allowing light to stream through clearly, while the rich colors in Catholic churches’ stained-glass windows nuance the light even as they reduce its intensity. Both approaches have merit; the transparent translation gives readers the sensation of accessing something deep and complex directly, while the more ornate approach may sacrifice some clarity to preserve the distinctive character of the original language. Chandler suggested that the most successful translations transcend this binary.

Honoring Constance Garnett

Chandler began by shedding light on the success of Constance Garnett’s early-twentieth-century translations of Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and others, despite harsh criticism by those who hold fast to dichotomies.

Chandler reminded his audience that this courageous and independent woman accomplished something remarkable: Garnett’s translations successfully enabled English-speaking readers to sense the greatness of those Russian writers for the first time. Her work profoundly influenced Arnold Bennett, D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and other great writers.

What made Garnett’s work successful, Chandler argued, was her tact, that is, her ability to look beyond rigid adherence to structure, grammar, and literal meaning to capture something more essential. In her translation of Chekhov, for instance, she preserved his characteristic indefiniteness, his contradictions, his loose ends. She understood that Chekhov’s genius lay partly in what he left unresolved.

The Collaborative Model: Samuel Koteliansky

Chandler also highlighted Samuel Koteliansky, whose approach was, crucially, collaborative and oral. He would read translations aloud with literary partners, D.H. Lawrence and both Leonard and Virginia Woolf, discussing and negotiating where the meaning was to be found, not just in individual words, but in tone and rhythm. This method of reading aloud and negotiating meaning offers a model for how translators might work: not in isolation, following rigid principles, but in dialogue, seeking the living spirit of the text.

Practical Wisdom

Chandler insightfully recommended that translators examine other translations into English, even translations from languages other than Russian, before beginning their own work, not to copy but to discover good ideas and solutions to common problems. This approach requires humility, a willingness to learn from predecessors rather than simply dismissing them.

He invoked the translators of the King James Bible, who “sought the truth not their own gain” and recognized the importance of not rushing their work or coveting praise. Their example reminds us that translation is ultimately a service to the author, to the text, and to readers in the target language.

Bringing Life to Translation

The session’s through-line was clear: rigid ideologies—whether favoring literal fidelity or creative adaptation, foreignization or domestication, meter or meaning—can interfere with the translator’s essential task. That task is not to demonstrate theoretical consistency or to showcase one’s own linguistic cleverness, but to bring the original text to life in a new language.

For translators of Russian literature, especially those working in today’s complex cultural and political landscape, Chandler’s message is challenging and liberating as well. Let’s develop our tact: the sensitivity to know when transparency serves the text and when a touch of strangeness is needed, when to preserve ambiguity and when to clarify, when to follow the letter and when to pursue the spirit.

Translation is not about following rules. It is about negotiation, sacrifice, and above all, the passionate commitment to bringing the text to life for those who are unable to read the original. As Constance Garnett demonstrated over a century ago, when done with tact and dedication, translation can change literary history itself.

Robert Chandler is a distinguished translator of Russian literature, whose translations include works by Pushkin, Akhmatova, and Vasily Grossman, among others.

Tracy Philip Dreyer is a professional translator and interpreter with over 25 years of experience with international agencies, government entities, and non-governmental organizations working in human rights, environment, development, and others. He is highly proficient in translation, as well as simultaneous and consecutive interpreting, and has proven familiarity with the institutional languages of UNDP, FAO, ILO, the World Bank, and other multilateral agencies. L1 English, L1 Spanish, L2 French, L3 Portuguese. Since 2020, he has been the Translation Coordinator with Signify Translation in El Salvador, Central America, where he lives and works.

The House that Jack Wrecked

Maria Remizova

This is the house

that Jack wrecked.

And these are the tenants who went to hide

In the dark basement and so survived

In the house

that Jack wrecked.

 

This is the merry titmouse

That flies no longer about the house,

The house

that Jack wrecked.

This is the cat

That cowers and whimpers and doesn’t get

What’s going on with the bombs and all that

In the house

That Jack wrecked.

 

This is the tailless dog,

Toothless, gutless, beheaded, declawed.

Maybe up in heaven it will meet God

In the house

That Jack wrecked.

 

This is the cow with the crumpled horn,

Mooing, its udder tattered and torn,

Dripping blood and milk in the morn

On the road to the house

That Jack wrecked.

 

This is the old woman, sad and forlorn,

That can’t see the cow with the crumpled horn,

Can’t see the dead dog without tail and all that,

Can’t see the mewling, hysterical cat,

Can’t see the silent and motionless titmouse,

Can’t see the mess in the basement of the house,

The house

That Jack wrecked.

She clings to the steps in an odd embrace,

A meat fly crawling across her face.

translated by Dmitri Manin

 

Original:

Дом, который разрушил Джек

Мария Ремизова

 

Вот дом,

Который разрушил Джек.

А это те из жильцов, что остались,

Которые в темном подвале спасались

В доме,

Который разрушил Джек.

А это веселая птица-синица,

Которая больше не веселится.

В доме,

Который разрушил Джек.

Вот кот,

Который пугается взрывов и плачет,

И не понимает, что все это значит,

В доме,

Который разрушил Джек.

Вот пес без хвоста,

Без глаз, головы, живота и хребта.

Возможно, в раю он увидит Христа

В доме,

Который разрушил Джек.

А это корова безрогая,

Мычит и мычит, горемыка убогая.

И каплями кровь с молоком на дорогу

К дому,

Который разрушил Джек.

А это старушка, седая и строгая,

Старушка не видит корову безрогую,

Не видит убитого пса без хвоста,

Не видит орущего дико кота,

Не видит умолкшую птицу синицу,

Не видит того, что в подвале творится

В доме,

Который разрушил Джек.

Она как-то криво припала к крыльцу.

И муха ползет у нее по лицу.

ATA65 Review: On Interpreting for Russian-Speaking LGBTQ+ Individuals

A review of On Interpreting for Russian-Speaking LGBTQ+ Individuals, presented by Olga Bogatova at ATA65

Review by Julia LaVilla-Nossova

Finding a session that was not related to AI in translation or interpreting at the ATA Conference was a nice change of pace.  It was therefore refreshing to come across the session titled “Interpreting for Russian-Speaking LGBTQ+ Individuals” by Ms. Olga Bogatova among the offerings of the 65th ATA Conference in Portland, Oregon. What can be better than learning about something new and practical and, most importantly, related to the development of languages – the love of our lives!

In her lively and well-illustrated presentation, Ms. Bogatova examined various LGBTQ+ reference terms (such as queer, transgender, questioning, ally, pansexual, etc.) and their newness. In addition, she guided the audience in understanding the language barriers that LGBTQ+ asylum seekers encounter when they initiate asylum claims and the process that leads to obtaining legal status in the United States.  Ms. Bogatova mentioned the well-founded fear LGBTQ+ persons have of being persecuted for belonging to a certain social group and how that impacts what words should be used to characterize their situations. She also described the asylum interview structure and provided information about general and special questions one needs to answer during an interview.  Her presentation (which is available on the SLD website) included a table with a fascinating comparison between the LGBTQ+ situations in Ukraine and Russia. While this complex and sensitive topic is of great interest even of itself outside of making asylum applications, using appropriate terminology and forms of expression can be determinative in deciding the outcome of any particular case; therefore, especially in this context, Ms. Bogatova emphasized that one needs to be very careful in choosing precise English and Russian equivalents for the phrases used in connection with LGBTQ+ individuals.

This made me think about a different, albeit related, subject – translating Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the Department of State prepares and publishes every year.  The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, also known as the Human Rights Reports, cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements, including sections on LGBTQ+ rights. Acts of Congress mandate the annual submission of the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices to Congress. These important reports serve as guidance to help craft U.S. foreign policy that bolsters respect for human rights around the globe (additional information about the Human Rights reports, Trafficking in Persons Reports, and Religious Freedom Reports may be found on the official site of the Department of State). These reports are translated into several dozen foreign languages to make them available to people in various countries around the globe.  They are presented to Congress on an annual basis for its committees to pass decisions regarding granting countries most favored nation status or, on the contrary, putting countries on sanctions lists due to poor human rights environments. Information about the most recent of these reports can be viewed here.

One of the most important emphases of Ms. Bogatova’s presentation is the idea that language is a dynamic entity. These changes are often driven by societal evolution – therefore, for translators to be relevant, they must always pay special attention to this societal evolution in order to establish correct equivalences for the languages they translate.  And this makes the research conducted by Ms. Bogatova in the LGBTQ+ milieu and her sharing of it especially valuable.

Julia LaVilla-Nossova received her M.A. at Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia, and has been working as a freelance interpreter and translator in the United States for more than thirty years. She has been a staff translator at the Department of State Language Services since 2011.

 

ATA65 Review: I Can’t Place the Accent

A Review of: I Can’t Place the Accent: Identifying the Characteristics Traits of Computer Translation, presented by Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya, CT and John Riedl, CT on Friday, November 1 at ATA65

Review by Christine Pawlowski; slides from the presentation available in the Slavic Languages Presentation Archive

I do not feel threatened by AI,  and this is not because I think my language skills are superior to the machine. Perhaps it is mostly that my monthly social security check allows me to lighten my workload to a manageable volume. And maybe it is also that I am technologically challenged (being provided with a modem to do my work for FBIS in the 90’s was a huge step).

In my very limited experience with AI projects, I have enjoyed “beating” the machine, as when the AI translation of the word “wygodny” in Polish, which may be translated variously as “convenient” or “comfortable,” resulted in an English version of an apartment advertisement that sported a comfortable bedroom armoire—perhaps a magician’s prop?

Well before the October/November ATA65 Conference, we received a survey from Eugenia and John in which we were asked to select the best translation of several Russian texts, but we were not told who (or what) did the translation. When we arrived at the session, we learned that the translations had been done by Deepl, an NMT (Neural Machine Translation) service launched in 2017; ChatGPT 3.5, an LLM (Large Language Model) service launched in 2022; and a few different humans.

Given its timeliness, it is not surprising that generative AI figured prominently in many of the conference sessions. John and Eugenia’s session dovetailed beautifully with the subject of Holly Mikkelson’s Wednesday training for ATA graders: Prescriptive and Descriptive Language. In a nutshell, we investigated how we really speak.

In both Holly’s presentation and that of our Slavists, we looked for the “tell”—a clue or indication that reveals information or suggests a hidden truth. All translators—human or generative AI–have these tells. To find them, we looked to cohesion, fluency, syntax and terminology.

From the survey results and our on-site bantering about some of the linguistic conundrums, we learned that:

  • ChatGPT’s renditions will be grammatical and flow deceptively well but may not be accurate.
  • DeepL is easier to peg as a computer translation.
  • Human translators take liberties, which can be a blessing or a curse (hence the dangers of prescriptivism and the difficulties encountered in evaluating translation).

The good news disseminated by Eugenia and John is that humans can achieve higher quality by:

  • recasting or rewriting clauses
  • splitting or combining sentences
  • choosing subject-appropriate terms
  • substituting phrases for words and vice versa

This list suggests that skills in manipulating syntax are critical. The bad news is that humans also misspell words, misuse collocations and struggle with job fatigue.

Comparatively speaking, for the three passages we studied in the session, in every case ChatGPT came out on top of DeepL, which sticks very close to the original syntax, even to the point of unreadability. In two of the three examples, the human translation won.

Discussions of AI are ubiquitous—on Linkedin, in journals and magazines. An opinion piece in the latest edition of the journal First Things offers the suggestion that society can resist the techno-tyranny trend, which is making us miserable, by demanding human-to-human businesses because “People…will pay for happiness.”  There is some nostalgia for the way things were before the modem and the ease of searching the web for the contextually right word—but not much, in my opinion.

Christine Pawlowski is a freelance Polish and Russian translator with an M.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Indiana University, Bloomington. She is retired from teaching elementary-school music and delights in being Busia to her 17 grandchildren and in directing and accompanying her church choir. She is ATA-certified for Polish-into-English and an ATA Certification grader for that language pair. She may be contacted at pawlow@verizon.net.

The 65th ATA Conference – on matter, antimatter and the translation business

by Stephen Rifkind

 Originally published on Stephen’s blog, Tip of the Tongue. Reposted with permission.

I had the pleasure of attending the American Translators Association conference in Portland, Oregon and have even recovered from the jet lag (more or less). As with all packed events, it takes some time to absorb all the impressions and information, especially when more than 1500 people attend and share their perspectives. Looking back, the conference was remarkable for the matters people discussed and no less for what they did not discuss, producing great food for thought on the future of the profession.

This large national conference featured, as always, a great variety of lectures, amazing networking opportunities and a national, if not global, view of the profession. The presentations, with a choice of 9 different topics in each time slot over 3 days, varied widely, with topics ranging from approaches to technological matters and specific markets to directed advice for experienced and new translators alike. The two most striking features were the quantity of presentations for interpreters, which indicates the vivacity of this field, and the emphasis on specific markets and issues for translators. I confess that while I gave two presentations (project-based quotes and how to make a presentation), I failed to attend a lecture not because I was not interested but because the conversations in the hallways were far more tempting,  relevant and important. I had learned from my previous ATA conference 5 years ago (BC – before Corona) in Palm Springs that it is impossible to talk to each to each and every person at a conference with more than 1,000 people. Therefore, this time I strived to have longer and more impactful conversations with fewer people. This approach was less stressful and more effective in building contacts, the most important purpose of an industry conference. From these conversations, I gained a feel for the spectrum of the language specialist industry, the business trends, and the hopes and fears of translators and interpreters in all fields. This conference provided much information on the state of the industry.

Of no less importance were the topics and statements I did not hear. First, nobody expressed the thought that AI was the death of the industry. As in all technological innovations, some language specialists were more enthusiastic about ChatGPT than others. However, I did not hear any extreme forecast of the imminent disappearance of AI or it replacing human translators. In the same vein, I did not hear about people wishing to leave the industry due to the changes in the market and translation technology, only the search for how to adapt to and effectively adopt them. Finally, I did not hear complaints about low rates. To clarify, people mentioned irrelevant and/or ridiculous rates proposed by certain agencies. However, the translators stated them as facts that are a part but not the whole of the industry. In short, I heard no prognosis of the impending death of the human translation industry.

Between the said and unsaid, I understand, perhaps incorrectly, that the future of the translation industry depends on adapting to the everchanging landscape of technology and markets and providing support to new translators to help them navigate it. AI, just as machine and neural translation, is changing the manner in which translation providers and buyers operate. This process began decades ago with the major difference today being the pace of development. This rapid evolution creates a “future shock” syndrome even for younger professionals. Yet, each person has the freedom to leverage technology depending on their individual niche, willingness and skill. It is not an all or nothing matter but a much more subtle evolution. Concurrently, markets are changing. Some 20 years ago, local or national agencies dominated the industry, handling all types of texts. Today, multinational agencies rely on volume, causing freelancers to specialize and reach out directly to customers in order to achieve rates that allow them to earn a living. Moreover, customers no longer need to pay a human translator to handle a simple text for personal use as ChatGPT or even Google Translate handles them quite satisfactorily. As in many industries, translators must specialize, such as in the fields of medicine, law and marketing. Finally, while it was never easy, new translators find establishing a translation business quite complicated and confusing. The relevance of national translator organizations has thus only increased as they can and do provide vital information that allow newcomers to quickly find and establish themselves in this complex market. The road alone is more difficult than ever. The world of translation and interpreting is not disappearing but constantly evolving, requiring language providers to adapt accordingly.

One of the purposes of national conferences is to provide a wide-angle picture of the industry, similar to the image produced by the multiple eyes of a fly. ATA65 presented an industry in transition but healthy and vibrant, not to mention ambivalent about the changes that are occurring but facing them at the same time. Attending it was an intense but rewarding experience for me personally. I strongly recommend any translator or interpreter, whether experienced or new to the profession, to attend such events and join your national or regional organization. To paraphrase John Donne, no translator must or should be an island. Each is part of a larger and inspiring industry as I rediscovered this month. Translators, interpreters and conferences do matter.

Headshot of Stephen Rifkind Stephen Rifkind has been a translator for 20 years (Hebrew, Russian, and French into English) and an English lecturer for some 30 years. He specializes in legal and financial translation as well as official documents.

Winter 2024 SlavFile – Out Now!

SlavFile Header

The latest (and likely last) SlavFile, Winter 2024, is out now! Check it out in the SlavFile archive.

This issue provides a very readable, entertaining, and educational look back at ATA64 in Miami, a well-informed cover piece on AI and translation, and, in the final article, a history of SlavFile and tribute to its long-time editor Lydia Razran Stone.
John Riedl       
Artificial Intelligence and Translation: The ATA Conference Notes of a Relapsing Computer Engineer
Steven McGrath
Notes from the Administrative Underground
Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the SLD
CONFERENCE SESSION REVIEWS
Chris Pawlowski and Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya
Carol Apollonio’s “They Have No Idea: Translation Insiders and Outsiders”
Clare Urbanski
First-Timer Review: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
Sarah McDowell
First-Timer Review: Musing on a Magnificent Meeting of the Minds in Miami
Steven McGrath
Katarzyna Diehl’s “Handling Foreign Names, Dialects, and Archaic Language in Complex Jobs”
Marisa Irwin
Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya’s “Making Coherent English out of a Pile of Russian Nouns”
Shelley Fairweather-Vega
Natalia Postrigan and Steven McGrath’s “Two Language Pairs in Time of War: How Two Russian Translators Started Working with Ukrainian”
Larry Bogoslaw
Vladimir Reznikov, Margarita Sotnikova, and Steven McGrath’s “Invasion: The Story of a Book Risen from the Ashes”
Nora Seligman Favorov
Farewell to SlavFile?
end of SlavFile reprint

2021 Winter SlavFile: Looking back at ATA61

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The latest issue of SlavFile is out! This winter issue of our Division Newsletter is chock-full of ATA61conference session reviews as well as regular features that our readers know and enjoy.

ATA61 SESSION REVIEWS

  • Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya on Ellen Elias-Bursac’s Greiss Lecture: “Working in a Tug of War”
  • Lucy Gunderson on Veronika Demichelis’s “Corporate Social What? Introduction to Corporate Social Responsibility and How It’s Usually (Mis)interpreted in Post-Soviet States”
  • Evgeny Terekhin on Shelley Fairweather-Vega’s “Getting Edited & Getting Ahead in Literary Translation”
  • Liv Bliss on Nora Favorov’s “Balancing Act: Sneaking Historical Context into a Literary Translation from Russian”
  • Maria Guzenko on Evgeny Terekhin’s “How to Become a Literary Translator”

AS WELL AS

  • Marisa Irwin: “Newcomer Report: Conferencing from My Couch”
  • Lydia Razran Stone: “Confusing Idiomatic Usages in US Political News Reporting”

REGULAR FEATURES

  • Steven McGrath: “From the Administrative Underground”
  • Lydia Razran Stone: “SlavFile Lite: Not by Word Count Alone”
  • Nora Seligman Favorov: “Web Watch: Russian Literature Week 2020”

Do you translate or interpret in the legal field? SlavFile editors are soliciting contributions relating to legal translation and court interpreting by March 15 for the next issue. Please contact SlavFile Managing Editor Nora Favorov if you would like to share your expertise.

end of SlavFile reprint

ATA59 Review: Strategies for Avoiding Language Interference and Coping with Opinionated Clients

Photo by Romain Vignes on Unsplash

Review by Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya

Topic: Dutch, Independent Contractors, Translation

Speaker: Joy Burrough-Boenisch

Haven’t we all, at some point or another, had to deal with a client best described as “opinionated”? Or noticed that our language skills needed a bit of brushing up? So it should come as no surprise that Joy Burrough-Boenisch’s unambiguously titled session was packed, including by plenty of people who didn’t know Dutch.

Joy, a British expat permanently residing in the Netherlands, set the stage with some important context: the Dutch have some of the highest English proficiency levels in the world among non-native speakers. Translators working in this environment find themselves constantly having to justify their translation choices—or discovering after the fact that their translations were subjected to “disimprovement” without their knowledge by clients overconfident in their own English skills.

Based on her own experiences and reactions she’s seen from her colleagues, Joy offered a few suggestions for reacting to disimprovement (whether suggested or already irreversible):

  • At the far timid end of the spectrum, you can follow the “client is always right” mantra and let it go, especially if your name is not explicitly associated with the translation.
  • At the other extreme, if a client is being particularly intransigent, drop them! One of Joy’s colleagues blacklisted an entire Dutch government ministry as a client for some particularly egregious edits and accompanying disrespectful treatment.
  • There is, of course, a middle ground, mostly centered around tactfully voicing your objections, whether during the editing process or after the fact, respected authorities in hand to justify your objections. View the time spent justifying your version as an investment in your professional reputation.
  • Speaking of professionalism, take a moment to step back and ask yourself if maybe the client is actually right. Do your research and be willing to admit it if you were wrong.
  • Reiterate your advice against the changes in every communication, and if changes are made without your knowledge or against your advice, get it in writing that it was not your responsibility. In matters of law, it becomes particularly important to request a written statement that unauthorized changes were made.

When it came to resources to cite, Joy came out as a strong proponent of corpora, such as COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English). In addition to researching the frequency of certain collocations across the language as a whole, they can be used to determine the register of a particular word or phrase.

Corpora also featured prominently in the first section of the talk, which covered language attrition, a particularly salient problem for expats like Joy, who work in a country where they are surrounded by a foreign language (and often by a lot of foreign-inflected English). Over time, this exposure begins to interfere with their native-speaker intuition for how English should sound. The first signs of trouble will show up in mixed-up prepositions and false friends, but language interference is at its most insidious where it affects style and rhetoric. Different languages prefer sentences of different lengths and different argumentation styles (do you state your conclusion first, then support it, or do you lead the reader gradually to your main point?), and these standards are so ingrained that we can barely articulate them, let alone notice when they start to slip.

Joy’s recommended treatment for language attrition is reading up on contrastive grammar and—you guessed it—making good use of corpora to check yourself on prepositions, word frequencies, and appropriateness for the specific text type. I would add that these approaches are also worthwhile for those of us not living abroad: if I spend long enough staring at a Russian source text, or worse, editing non-native translations from Russian, eventually I notice language interference rearing its ugly head as well. Listening to Joy’s engaging talk inspired me and gave me the tools to fight off language interference and remain professional in the face of client feedback.

Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya is an ATA-certified Russian to English translator specializing in legal and financial texts. She has a Master’s in Translation from Kent State (2016) and has been working freelance since graduating. She can be found at eugenia@sokolskayatranslations.com and www.sokolskayatranslations.com.

ATA59 Review: Publishing Literature in Translation

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Review by Evgeny Terekhin

Topic: Literary, T&I Industry

Speaker: Gabriella Page-Fort

 

As a literary translator, I couldn’t help but gravitate towards literary sessions. When I read the title of this one, “Publishing Literature in Translation: How Translators Help AmazonCrossing Bring Stories to New Readers by Page-Fort Gabriella,” I scratched by head – what is AmazonCrossing? I didn’t bother to look it up but went straight to the room.

It took me a while to start making sense of Gabriella’s multiple references to book sales statistics, but after a while I got the hang of it. AmazonCrossing is actively searching for great international reads for a global English-speaking audience.

Basically, if you know of a book in a language other than English and feel it would really appeal to the English-speaking world, you go to the AmazonCrossing website, https://translation.amazon.com/submissions, and propose it. They are constantly looking for interesting titles, and their list of translated books is very diverse.

Gabriella shared several intriguing stories of how they hunted for books to translate, including an example of how they got connected with an elderly Uzbek author who wrote a wonderful story but couldn’t even use email. She emphasized that as an editorial director she can never tell which story will grab her attention. They are looking for stories regardless of the source language and genre – the main idea is for it to be appealing.

Turns out AmazonCrossing is the biggest producer of translated literature in the US market. Gabriella’s talk was very inspiring, so I immediately had several titles pop up in my head, and I proposed one. We’ll see.

I didn’t realize you could actually go to their website and register as a literary translator. You could also upload your resume, and if they have a matching job, they will contact you. If you are interested in the field, it’s a great opportunity to get your foot in the door.

Much of the session was devoted to the discussion of what makes for a good story. One may find a story fascinating, but when it’s published it doesn’t necessarily get traction. In Gabriella’s words, you don’t really know. You pick a book based on your gut instinct, but who knows if the readers’ gut will have the same instinct? Though it’s often hit and miss, the success of the endeavor is obvious, with 62 new titles translated just in 2017.

Even though, according to Gabriella, Americans don’t read translations very much – for whatever reason – AmazonCrossing stands out from among the other 13 imprints of Amazon Publishing, translating into English from a wide variety of languages: Danish, Hebrew, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, French, Chinese, Spanish, and German.

After the session, I had lots of questions for Gabriella, but, unfortunately, there was a line of people vying for her attention. The main question I had was: what are some of the characteristics of the kind of literature that would be equally appealing across cultures? For instance, “The Karamazov Brothers” is appealing to all cultures, but I know other great Russian titles which do not have the same international appeal.

It would be an engaging project in itself to analyze what kind of books have found their way into the hearts of the global community while retaining features of their home culture. Obviously, the Lord of the Rings is a distinctly British book, but it captivates audiences all around the world. Why? Having those essential characteristics down would greatly facilitate the process of finding potential “winners.”

Well, maybe I will ask my question next year. As it is, Gabriella focuses on “a good story” over a specific category, like “fantasy,” or “romance.” They are looking for the stories that make people feel more similar than different. “Things that make it so you can connect and see directly into the eyes of whatever today’s ‘other’ looks like.”

So, do you know a title that you think would be interesting for the English readership? Let Gabriella know.

 

Evgeny Terekhin is an En-Ru and Ru-En translator with a master’s degree in English and German. Born and raised in Omsk, Russia, he and his family moved to the US in 2016. In the course of his 25-year career, he’s translated and edited over 150 books, brochures and tracts across a wide range of subjects like children’s literature, marketing, psychology, spirituality, health-care, business, and legal. He lives in Friendswood, TX and can be reached at terekhin11@gmail.com Website: www.russiantranslators.org

ATA59 Review: Patent Translation for Liberal Arts Majors

Complex computer parts and circuitry

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Review by Karen Yesowich Schmucker

Topic: Science and Technology

Presented in English with Chinese examples

Speakers: Evelyn Garland and Aaron Hebenstreit

I wanted to review this session because I have a liberal arts background and have translated a few patents myself.  While I have some knowledge of engineering and manufacturing terminology from previous work, I found patent translation daunting and I hoped to come away from this presentation with a few helpful resources.

The presentation was based on the premise that liberal arts majors, while not a natural fit for translation of scientific work, can still become good patent translators. The speakers discussed their experiences working with translators educated in liberal arts and how they helped them to deliver high quality patent translations. They also pointed out that sometimes a translator’s lack of scientific training actually helped because it meant they did not have preconceived notions about the subject matter and were able to look at the matter objectively.  Since patents are produced for new ideas, someone without hardened ideas about subjects can be a valuable asset.

In addition, the speakers stressed that translators with a liberal arts background were well-suited to paying close attention to the language used in patents and to clearly telling what they called the “story” of the patent. They encouraged new translators unfamiliar with the idiosyncracies of patent language to look at other patents in the same field and the same jurisdiction to gain an understanding of how particular terms and turns of phrase are used and get a sense of what is considered normal in patent style.

The examples given in the session were in Chinese, but I did come away from the session with a few resources that would be useful for anyone interested in translating patents. Since the speakers had worked for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the resources they mentioned were related to WIPO:

 If you want to learn more about translating patents, the speakers suggested starting with the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

Finally, because patents must be translated, they are a good source of work for translators. One of the speakers mentioned that Russian was one of the languages where there was always a need for linguists.

Karen Yesowich Schmucker is a certified Russian into English Translator in Bellevue, WA. Karen holds both an MA in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Toronto and a BFA in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. You can reach her at karen@kysdesigns.com (www.kysdesigns.com).

ATA58 Review: Working with Direct Clients. For Real. (IC-8)

Image showing graffiti of a sunflower captioned "always room to grow"

Review by Ekaterina Howard

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

At ATA conferences I make attending Chris Durban’s sessions a priority (even SLD’s Ru>En slam could not tear me away), and to me they invariably become one of the highlights of any conference.

This year’s session tied in nicely with the session on blind spots at ATA57, which effectively became the primary source of my business development plan for 2017 (as easy as that!).

In the “Working with Direct Clients. For Real.” Session Chris Durban addressed the most common constraints that prevent translators from moving out of the mass-market segment (although some direct clients can be mass-market, too) into the premium segment (which is where recognition, satisfaction and high rates come together).

The main constraints are:

  • Good writing and/or good quality are a given, not a differentiator, as are native-level quality and consistent terminology.
  • Instead of generic statements that do not add up to anything distinctive, you have to provide specific examples of value that you bring to the table.
  • Quality may be (and frequently is) affected by any or all of the following factors:
    • Time pressure
    • Blind spots
    • Cynicism
    • Overselling (and under delivering).

To start working with direct clients:

  • The factors that go into producing a product that is not likely to be MT-replicated or replaceable are: Time + Brain + Talent. Plan accordingly
  • Understand priorities of direct clients in your segment (likely not price-driven). Know what is mission-critical or sensitive
  • Find a partner (reviser)
  • Create a client-friendly system: be generous, be efficient, do not make clients jump through multiple hoops to work with you
  • Be friendly and enthusiastic. Do not snark. Do not blabber
  • Be honest on your experience and on whether or not you subcontract. Specialization goes deep, not wide (to eliminate blind spots)
  • Research and stalk (professionally, of course) potential clients
  • Be mindful of scalability vs quality restraints
  • Sign your work
  • Offer solutions instead of words on a page.

If you are considering working with direct clients, for real or hypothetically, you might want to look up The Prosperous Translator — Advice from Fire Ant & Worker Bee at https://prosperoustranslator.com/, follow Chris Durban’s blog at https://chrisdurbanblog.com/author/christinedurban/, or read a review of the first Business Acceleration Masterclass for Translators and Interpreters by Jayne Fox: https://foxdocs.biz/BetweenTranslations/business-tips-translators-chris-durbans-masterclass/.

Even if you feel that you are not quite ready yet, it is not too early to start getting ready to move towards working in the direct client segment. I believe that one of the most important things you could do is not learn how to market yourself (although this won’t hurt), but continuously work on your translation and writing skills.

If you are an SLD member, you can join the SLD Certification Exam Prep Group to exchange translations with other participants and discuss the challenges on a monthly basis. If you would like to up the ante, consider participating in SLD translation slams, either by submitting a slam proposal for the next ATA conference, or by volunteering to join a virtual slam. Those are all great starting points for working on your translation skills, and I hope that someday there will be an event similar to “Translate in…” (in 2017 it was in Quebec City – https://www.ontraduitaquebec.com/en/about/) for Slavic languages.

On that note, I invite you to share your collaboration experiences, your stories of growing as a translator, and your tips on working with “dream” direct clients.

Ekaterina Howard is an English to Russian and German to Russian translator working with marketing materials. She is the current Administrator of the Slavic Languages Divisions. You can follow her blog at https://pinwheeltrans.com/blog, stay in touch on Twitter (@katya_howard), or connect with her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterinahoward). If you would like to become SLD’s next translation slammer, you can reach her at ekaterina@atasld.org.

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