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31st translation contest: "A translator's life" » English to Haitian-Creole » Entry by Carline Dominique


Source text in English

Translation by Carline Dominique (#34679)

[...] Translators just didn't get recognition, they didn't expect to make much of a living, just get by. Very few people were actually trained as translators, but most had a solid college education and a solid knowledge of languages, at least their own language. I had a friend who fell exactly into that category and my circle of friends expanded to include other translators. I found them to be much more interesting as people, and discovered that we often had similar life experiences. I never had trouble making friends, but I always felt "different" and I'm sure they felt it too. When my friend retired, she recommended me as her replacement. I now entered the realm of Reinsurance, of which I knew nothing. I was also the only translator there, and didn't have much to fall back on. However, it was another notch up....

On my new job, I started looking through the files, asking questions and got the company to enroll me in Insurance courses. The College of Insurance was across the street, and I consulted fire codes, insurance policies and fire extinguisher catalogs in their library. I was learning what I had never had the luxury of being able to do before: research. The first time I had to translate a proposal for purposes of insurance of a nuclear plant, I got a call from the head man in that department, congratulating me on the job I had done. "Compares favorably with what we are used to," he said. What an upper! What happened was that I consulted a document in the files similar to the one I was tackling for guidance, but when I saw that my predecessor had used the word "nucleus" instead of "core", I realized that the files were useless to me. I went across the street to the library and looked up "nuclear plants." I immediately found all the terminology I needed.

It takes a great deal more than that to be a good translator these days, of course. [...]
Tradiktè yo jis pa t jwenn rekonesans. Yo pa t atann fè anpil kòb pou yo viv, selman ase kòb pou yo viv. Gen kèk moun ki te vreman antrenen kòm tradiktè, men pifò te gen yon edikasyon kolèj ki solid ak yon konesans ki solid nan lang yo, omwen nan pwòp lang yo. Mwen te gen yon zanmi ki te tonbe egzakteman nan kategori sa a ak zanmi m yo ki nan antouraj mwen te elaji pou ka gen lòt tradiktè ladan l. Mwen te jwenn yo pi enteresan antanke moun, e mwen te dekouvri souvan nou te gen menm eksperyans nan lavi a. Mwen pa t janm gen pwoblèm pou m fè zanmi, men mwen te toujou santi m"diferan" e mwen sèten yo te gen menm santiman an tou. Lè zanmi m te pran retrèt li, li te rekòmande m kòm ranplasan l. Kounye a mwen te antre nan domèn Reasirans, kote mwen pa t konnen anyen sou sa. Mwen te sèl tradiktè ki te la, epi mwen pa t gen anpil konesans pou ede m. Sepandan, se te etap ki t ap voye m monte.

Nan nouvo travay mwen an, mwen te kòmanse gade nan dosye yo, poze kesyon epi fè konpayi an enskri m nan kou asirans. Kolèj pou Asirans la te lòtbò lari a, epi mwen te konsilte kòd pou dife, kontra asirans ak katalòg aparèy pou etenn dife nan libreri yo. Mwen t ap aprann sa mwen pa t janm gen liks pou m te kapab fè anvan: fè rechèch. Premye fwa mwen te oblije tradui yon pwopozisyon pou rezon asirans pou yon plant nikleyè. Mwen te resevwa yon apèl nan men chèf depatman an, ki te felisite m pou travay mwen te fè a. "Sa se yon konparezon ki favorab ak sa nou abitye," li te di. Ala yon bèl felisitasyon. Sa ki te rive sèke mwen te konsilte yon dokiman nan dosye yo, menm jan ak sa a mwen t ap itilize pou gide m, men lè mwen wè moun ki te la anvan m lan te itilize mo "nwayo" olye de "repondong", mwen reyalize dosye yo pa t itil mwen. Mwen te ale lòtbò lari a nan libreri a epi mwen gade "plant nikleyè." Imedyatman, mwen jwenn tout tèminoloji mwen te bezwen.

Li pran yon pi gwo efò pou w ka yon bon tradiktè nan jou sa yo, sa se vre.


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