| Luke Boardman |
translation
In addition to translating for private individuals, my practical experience thus far has come from work in extruded plastics manufacturing, the health insurance industry, and the public policy sector. Every new translation job requires research into that industry's specialized vocabulary, both in English and in German. Research and the efficient utilization of print and online resources are skills I honed at the university and continue to rely heavily upon to this day.
Accurate and reliable translation is difficult for computers because language is a uniquely human endeavor. Language is messy and ambiguous and subtle and context-dependent; half science and half artistic enterprise. These same qualities also pose problems for human translators, however. Assumptions are made during the translation process. Meanings are approximated and guessed at. Without the original author by their side, some of these guesses that the translator makes will inevitably be wrong.
It's not without reason that works of literature such as the Bible, War and Peace, or beloved poems have not merely one English translation, but several, sometimes even hundreds. Professor Douglas Hofstadter has translated Clément Marot's short poem, Le ton beau de Marot, into more than 80 different versions. The task was made all the more challenging by the fact that Clément Marot has been dead for over 450 years.
The key to accurate translation is working as closely as possible with the original author. "Working closely" here means two things. Firstly, it means open communication with the author or someone who can speak on behalf of the author's intentions. Secondly, it means developing a long-term relationship between the translator and the company or individual having the translation done. I try to work as closely as possible with my clients when translating for them. For especially sensitive/critical translations, I even recommend doing the translation on location, working side-by-side with the author or someone who can represent the author's intent.
Accurate and reliable translation is difficult for computers because language is a uniquely human endeavor. Language is messy and ambiguous and subtle and context-dependent; half science and half artistic enterprise. These same qualities also pose problems for human translators, however. Assumptions are made during the translation process. Meanings are approximated and guessed at. Without the original author by their side, some of these guesses that the translator makes will inevitably be wrong.
It's not without reason that works of literature such as the Bible, War and Peace, or beloved poems have not merely one English translation, but several, sometimes even hundreds. Professor Douglas Hofstadter has translated Clément Marot's short poem, Le ton beau de Marot, into more than 80 different versions. The task was made all the more challenging by the fact that Clément Marot has been dead for over 450 years.
The key to accurate translation is working as closely as possible with the original author. "Working closely" here means two things. Firstly, it means open communication with the author or someone who can speak on behalf of the author's intentions. Secondly, it means developing a long-term relationship between the translator and the company or individual having the translation done. I try to work as closely as possible with my clients when translating for them. For especially sensitive/critical translations, I even recommend doing the translation on location, working side-by-side with the author or someone who can represent the author's intent.
