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31st translation contest: "A translator's life" » English to Catalan » Entry by Kaleem Akbar


Source text in English

Translation by Kaleem Akbar (#34838)

[...] 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. [...]
[...] Els traductors simplement no van obtenir reconeixement, no esperaven guanyar-se la vida, només sobrevivien. En realitat, molt poques persones tenien formació com a traductors, però la majoria tenia una sòlida formació universitària i un sòlid coneixement d'idiomes, almenys la seva pròpia llengua. Tenia un amic que entrava exactament en aquesta categoria i el meu cercle d'amics es va ampliar per incloure altres traductors. Vaig trobar que eren molt més interessants com a persones i vaig descobrir que sovint teníem experiències de vida semblants. Mai he tingut problemes per fer amics, però sempre m'he sentit "diferent" i segur que ells també ho van sentir. Quan la meva amiga es va jubilar, em va recomanar com a substitut. Ara vaig entrar a l'àmbit de la Reassegurança, de la qual no sabia res. Jo també era l'únic traductor que hi havia, i no tenia gaire a què recórrer. No obstant això, va ser un altre augment....

En la meva nova feina, vaig començar a mirar els expedients, a fer preguntes i vaig aconseguir que l'empresa em matriculés als cursos d'assegurances. El Col·legi d'Assegurances estava a l'altra banda del carrer i vaig consultar codis d'incendis, pòlisses d'assegurances i catàlegs d'extintors a la seva biblioteca. Estava aprenent el que mai havia tingut el luxe de poder fer: investigar. La primera vegada que vaig haver de traduir una proposta per a l'assegurança d'una central nuclear, vaig rebre una trucada del cap d'aquell departament, que em felicitava per la feina que havia fet. "Compara favorablement amb el que estem acostumats", va dir. Quina part superior! El que va passar va ser que vaig consultar un document als fitxers semblant al que estava abordant per orientació, però quan vaig veure que el meu predecessor havia fet servir la paraula "nucli" en comptes de "nucli", em vaig adonar que els fitxers no em servien per res. . Vaig creuar el carrer cap a la biblioteca i vaig buscar "centrals nuclears". De seguida vaig trobar tota la terminologia que necessitava.

Es necessita molt més que això per ser un bon traductor en aquests dies, és clar. [...]


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