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


Source text in English

Translation by Emmanuel Satongima (#35174)

[...] 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 hawakutambuliwa tu, hawakutarajia kupata riziki nyingi, waendelee tu. Ni watu wachache sana waliofunzwa kuwa watafsiri, lakini wengi wao walikuwa na elimu thabiti ya chuo kikuu na ujuzi thabiti wa lugha, angalau lugha yao wenyewe. Nilikuwa na rafiki ambaye aliangukia katika kategoria hiyo na mnyororo wa marafiki wangu ulipanuka na kujumuisha watafsiri wengine. Niliwaona kuwa wa kufurahisha zaidi kama watu, na kugundua kuwa mara nyingi tulikuwa na uzoefu sawa wa maisha. Sikuwahi kupata shida kupata marafiki, lakini kila wakati nilihisi "tofauti" na nina hakika walihisi pia. Rafiki yangu alipostaafu, alinipendekeza kama mbadala wake. Sasa niliingia kwenye uwanja wa Kutoa bima, ambapo sikujua chochote. Pia nilikuwa mfasiri pekee pale, na sikuwa na mengi ya kurudi nyuma. Walakini, ilikuwa hatua nyingine ....

Kwenye kazi yangu mpya, nilianza kuangalia faili, nikiuliza maswali na nikapata kampuni iniandikishe katika kozi za Bima. Chuo cha Bima kilikuwa pembeni mwa barabara, na nilishauriana na misimbo ya zima moto, sera za bima na katalogi za vizima moto katika maktaba yao. Nilikuwa nikijifunza kile ambacho sikuwahi kuwa na anasa ya kuweza kufanya hapo awali: utafiti. Mara ya kwanza nilipolazimika kutafsiri pendekezo kwa madhumuni ya bima ya kiwanda cha nyuklia, nilipigiwa simu na mkuu wa idara hiyo, akinipongeza kwa kazi niliyofanya. "Inalinganishwa vyema na kile tulichozoea," alisema. Nini cha juu! Kilichotokea ni kwamba nilishauriana na hati kwenye mafaili sawa na ile niliyokuwa nikiishughulikia ili kupata mwongozo, lakini nilipoona kuwa mtangulizi wangu ametumia neno "kiini" badala ya "kokwa", niligundua kuwa faili hazikuwa na maana kwangu. . Nilivuka barabara hadi kwenye maktaba na nikatazama "mimea ya nyuklia." Mara moja nilipata istilahi zote nilizohitaji.

Inachukua kazi kubwa zaidi ya hiyo kuwa mfasiri mzuri siku hizi, bila shaka. [...]


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