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31st translation contest: "A translator's life" » English to Swahili » Entry by Ismael Nkainah


Source text in English

Translation by Ismael Nkainah (#34768)

[...] 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. [...]
[...] Watafsiri hawakupata kutambuliwa tu, hawakutarajia kufanya mengi katika maisha, bali kuishi tu. Watu wachache sana walifundishwa kama watafsiri, lakini wengi walikuwa na elimu thabiti ya chuo na ujuzi thabiti wa lugha, angalau lugha yao wenyewe. Nilikuwa na rafiki ambaye aliangukia hasa katika kundi hilo na mduara wangu wa marafiki ulipanuka ukijumuisha watafsiri wengine. Niling'amua kuwa ni watu wa kuvutia zaidi, na nikagundua mara kwa mara kuwa tulikuwa na uzoefu sawa wa maisha. Sijawahi kuwa na shida kupata marafiki, lakini daima nilihisi "tofauti" na nina uhakika walihisi hivyo pia. Rafiki yangu alipostaafu, alinipendekeza niwe mbadala wake. Sasa niliingia katika ulimwengu wa bima, ambao sikujua lolote juu yake. Mimi pia nilikuwa mtafsiri pekee pale, na sikuwa na msaada mwingine. Hata hivyo, hii ilikuwa ni hatua nyingine....

Katika kazi yangu mpya, nilianza kupitia faili, kuuliza maswali na nikapata kampuni ya kunisajili katika kozi za Bima. Chuo cha Bima kilikuwa mtaa wa ng'ambo, na nilitaka shauri katika katalogi za misimbo ya moto, sera za bima na vizima moto katika maktaba yao. Nilikuwa nikijifunza kile ambacho sijawahi kupata urahisi wa kufanya kabla: utafiti. Mara ya kwanza nililazimika kutafsiri pendekezo kwa madhumuni ya bima ya kinu cha nyuklia, nilipigiwa simu na mkuu wa idara hiyo, akinipongeza kwa kazi niliyokuwa nimefanya. “Hii ni bora kuliko zile tulizozoea,” alisema. Ni ya hali ya juu! Kilichotokea ni kwamba nilitaka shauri katika nyaraka kwenye faili sawa na ile niliyokuwa nikishughulikia kwa ajili ya mwongozo, lakini nilipoona kwamba mtangulizi wangu alikuwa ametumia neno "kiini" badala ya "msingi", niligundua kwamba faili hazikuwa na maana kwangu. Nilivuka barabara kwenda kwenye maktaba na kutaka kujua juu ya "vinu vya nyuklia." Mara moja nilipata istilahi zote nilizohitaji.

Inachukua mengi zaidi ya hayo kuwa mtafsiri mzuri siku hizi, bila shaka. [...]


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