Fabulous friend, founder of Amazing Women Rock and life coach Susan Macaulay, had been contacted by a feminist organization in Mexico. In an effort to collaborate across the Atlantic, she asked if I would translate some content they wanted to share on her Amazing Women Rock website from Spanish to English. I immediately agreed as I had never done anything like it before and really how difficult could it be?
That’s what I thought until I found myself staring at my computer screen trying to figure out if the author meant to use the word “predio” for property, estate, building or farm. The definition is ALL of these. Since unfortunately, I was translating a story about a 17 year student which had been brutally murdered and “predio” was being used to describe the location of the crime scene, it was certainly an important detail. This was my first stumble but there was more. I came across more complex details which when translated verbatim to English would have sounded ridiculous or totally inappropriate. And that’s when I found myself just retelling the story in English in my own words. The key here being in my own words manipulating, deleting and adding. Keeping to the story as much as possible just in English . . . in my own words English :)
And so I leave you to wonder, the next time you pick up a book by Brazilian author (Portuguese speaking) Paulo Coelho in English or any other language (67 languages to be exact) how much of it is it really his words and not those of his translator?
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