cthe hronicle · the american translators association (ata) was established in 1959 as a...

ChronicleVOLUME XXIX • NUMBER 5

MAY 2000

A Publication of the American Translators Association

The

Focus on: Literary TranslationFeatured Language: Spanish

Contemporary German Poetry and English TranslationBy Ingo R. Stoehr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

The twentieth century has been good for poetry written in German;indeed, contemporary German-language poetry is vibrant. Thispoetry is accessible to an American audience, both in the originalGerman and in English translation. The translation of poetry, how-ever, is always a challenge because it is not just interpretation butalso experimentation.

Notes of a Bilingual WriterBy Grady Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Few authors have dared to translate their own works. Even thoseendowed with a good knowledge of other languages have recoiledfrom the task. From the vantage of 12 years of experience writing intwo languages, the author of these notes talks about the perils andadvantages of being one’s own translator.

Translation between Arabic and English: Points of Language and StyleTaysir Nashif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Certain grammatical rules and stylistic practices govern the transla-tion of the verbal noun (al-masdar), prepositions and specification(tamyiz) between English and Arabic, and of the active participle, theprefix “dis-” and “would” from English into Arabic.

Creole: Made in the AmericasBy Alexandra Russell-Bitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

There is more to creole than just cooking.

The Spanish Language Division: Going on Four Years of GrowthBy Alicia S. V. Marshall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

As the new millennium rolls on, the Spanish Language Division con-tinues to grow in number and to thrive in activities and enthusiasm.

Agreeing to DisagreeBy Paul Coltrin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Agreement in number and gender is one of the most fundamentalaspects of Spanish grammar. And it seems such a simple matter.Unfortunately, it not always is.

Spanish Spelling Reforms: AccentsBy Margarita Friedman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

This article describes the two new rules on written accents publishedin the 1999 edition of the Ortografía de la lengua española, Ediciónrevisada por las Academias de la Lengua Española (Real AcademiaEspañola). It will review the old rules in order to provide the readerwith a better understanding of the changes that have taken place.Examples of words with confusing spellings will be provided toillustrate how the new rules apply.

Professing Our Spirit—Three Common Assumptions When Translating English into Spanish: Research into Meaning versus Form

By Marian B. Labrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Three frequently asked questions when translating from Englishinto Spanish have to do with meaning versus form. Poor transla-tions from English into Spanish often reveal that the translatorseems to follow the form of the source language text (English),rather than the meaning and appropriate form of the target lan-guage (Spanish). Consequently, certain translations don’t “sound”right, and the target audience of these translations is frequentlyconfronted with a “third language.”

Volume XXVIX, Number 5May 2000

ChronicleThe

A Publication of the American Translators Association

Monthly ColumnsFrom the Executive Director . . . . . . . . . . 7

From the President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

From the President-Elect . . . . . . . . . . . 11

ATA Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Letters to the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Upcoming Conferences and

Educational Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Of Literary Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55By Jo Anne Engelbert

Dictionary Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Hungarian Treasury of Words

A Dictionary of Synonyms, Idioms,and Antonyms/Magyar SzókincstárRokon értelmã szavak, szólások és ellentétek szótára

Reviewed by Helen M. and John F. SzablyaRandom House Webster’s Dictionary of

the English Language (CD-ROM)Reviewed by Robert France

The Translation Inquirer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Compiled by John Decker

Humor and Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60By Mark Herman

Accreditation Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

New Active and Corresponding Members . . 63

Accreditation Exam Sites . . . . . . . . . . . 63

ATA Chapters and Regional Groups . . . . 64

Classified Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Display Advertising Index . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Focus on: Literary Translation

Featured Language:Spanish

Photo: Old Barn in Spain

Features

4 ATA Chronicle • May 2000

AN EASY REFERENCE TO ATA MEMBER BENEFITS

Your ATA membership has never been more valuable. Take advantage of the dis-counted programs and services available to you as an ATA member. Be sure to tellthese companies you are an ATA member and refer to any codes provided below.

Business Owners InsuranceSeabury & Smith, Inc.(800) 368-5969 ext. [email protected]

Collection Services/Receivables ManagementDun & BradstreetAsk for Ian Erlandsen(800) 333-6497 ext. 6887(610) [email protected]

Conference TravelConventions in AmericaReference Code: 505(800) 929-4242 • (619) 453-3686

e-mail: [email protected]://www.stellaraccess.com

Credit Card Acceptance Program/Professional Services AccountMBNA America/NOVA Information SystemsReference Code: HCDA(888) 545-2207 • (770) 649-5700

MasterCardMBNA AmericaReference Code: IFKV(800) 847-7378 • (302) 457-2165

Medical, Life, and Disability InsuranceMutual of Omaha(800) 223-6927 • (402) 342-7600http://www.atanet.org/mutual.htm

A. H. Wohlers & Co.(800) 323-2106

Overnight Delivery/Express Package ServiceUPSReference Code: C0000700415(800) 325-7000http://www.ups.com

Professional Liability InsuranceSeabury & Smith, Inc.(800) 368-5969 ext. [email protected]

Training and SeminarsDun and BradstreetReference Code: 888TI(212) 692-6600http://www.dnbtraining.com

...And, of course, as an ATA member you receive discounts on the Annual Con-ference registration fees and ATA publications, and you are eligible to join ATADivisions, participate in the online Translation Services Directory, and much more.For more information, contact ATA (703) 683-6100; fax (703) 683-6122; and e-mail: [email protected].

We’ve done everything possible to ensure that your address is correct. But sometimes errors do occur. If you find that the information on the mailing label is inaccurate or out of date, please let us know. Send updates to:The ATA Chronicle • 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590 • Alexandria, VA 22314Fax (703) 683-6122 • [email protected]

ChronicleThe

A Publication of the American Translators Association1999 FIT Best Periodical Award Winner

225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590Alexandria VA 22314Tel: (703) 683-6100; Fax (703) 683-6122E-mail: [email protected]: www.atanet.org

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Design/LayoutEllen Banker/Amy Peloff

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Membership and General InformationMaggie [email protected]: 1-888-990-3ATAWebsite: http://www.atanet.org

The ATA Chronicle (ISSN 1078-6457) is published monthly exceptbi-monthly in November/December by the American TranslatorsAssociation, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314,Phone: (703) 683-6100; Fax: (703) 683-6122; E-mail: (see abovedirectory for appropriate department).

Reprint Permission: Requests for permission to reprint articlesshould be sent to the Chronicle editor at [email protected].

Subscription rate for a member is $43 (included in the dues pay-ment). U.S. subscription rate for a nonmember is $50. Subscribers inCanada and Mexico add $25; all other non-U.S. subscribers add $45.Single copies are available for $5 per issue. Second-class Postagerates paid at Alexandria, Virginia and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Changes of address should be sent to The ATAChronicle, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314.The American Translators Association (ATA) was established in1959 as a not-for-profit professional society to advance the stan-dards of translation and to promote the intellectual and materialinterests of translators and interpreters in the United States. Thestatements made in the ATA Chronicle do not necessarily reflect theopinion or judgment of the ATA, its editor, or its officers or directorsand are strictly those of the authors.

Chronicle Submission Guidelines

The ATA Chronicle enthusiastically encourages members tosubmit articles of interest to the fields of translation and interpreta-tion.1) Articles (see length specifications below) are due the first of

the month, two months prior to the month of publication (i.e.,June 1 for August issue).

2) Articles should not exceed 3,000 words. Articles containingwords or phrases in non-European writing systems (e.g.,Japanese, Arabic) should be submitted by mail and fax.

3) Include your fax, phone, and e-mail on the first page.4) Include a brief abstract (three sentences maximum) empha-

sizing the most salient points of your article. The abstract willbe included in the table of contents.

5) Include a brief biography (three sentences maximum) alongwith a picture (color or B/W). Please be sure to specify if youwould like your photo returned.

6) In addition to a hardcopy version of the article, please submitan electronic version either on disk or through e-mail ([email protected]).

7) Texts should be formatted for Word, Wordperfect 8.0, or Word-perfect 5.1 (DOS version).

8) All articles are subject to editing for grammar, style, punctua-tion, and space limitations.

9) A proof will be sent to you for review prior to publication.Standard Length Letters to the editor: 350 words; Opinion/Editorial: 300-600 words;Feature Articles: 750-3,000 words; Column: 400-1,000 words

MOVING? FOUND AN ERROR WITH YOUR ADDRESS?

ATA Chronicle • May 2000 5

Translating Neologisms in Spanish Technical Texts:New Meanings for Old Words

By Daniel Linder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Spanish technical texts are full of neologisms created by assigningnew meanings to old words. Unlike English, Spanish allows multipleterms to take on a single new meaning. Spanish>English translatorshave to sort through this proliferation of terms and translate them as asingle exact term in English.

The Departamento de Español Urgente of the Agencia EFE: History and Objectives

By Alberto Gómez Font, Translated by Alicia S. V. Marshall . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

The Departamento de Español Urgente was established in 1980 by theSpanish news bureau Agencia EFE. It is the first organization devotedto monitoring the use of the Spanish language, and the only consultingentity that provides advice about the correct usage of Spanish. It wasborn with the purpose of: unifying linguistic criteria between Spainand the Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas, fighting theonslaught of foreign terms bombarding Spanish, adopting guidelinesfor the Spanish transliteration of proper names originating from otherlanguages with non-Latin alphabets, and solving linguistic problemsconfronted in the drafting of news articles. A tangible result of theDepartamento de Español Urgente has been the Manual de EspañolUrgente, a publication already in its 12th edition, which compiles recommendations on the correct usage of Spanish so necessary for themedia. Its purpose is to help avoid linguistic errors, to clarify doubts,and, in these times of great technical inventions that are inevitablycoupled by linguistic innovations, to offer consistent criteria for theuse of neologisms.

Localization, Internationalization, Globalization, and TranslationBy Tim Altanero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Localization, internationalization, and globalization are defined andexamined in an article outlining the history and practice of localiza-tion in the high tech industry.

Regaining MeaningBy Catarina Edinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

By critiquing a translation into Portuguese of a short story by JohnSteinbeck, the article focuses on the translation of apparently simpleconstructions which are in fact loaded with thematic or stylistic impli-cations. It also discusses expressions that differ in Continental andBrazilian Portuguese. Should we have two Portuguese translations,one for each set of readers?

Features Continued

Need a membership form for a colleague?

Want the latest list of exam sites?

Call ATA’s Document onRequest line, available

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Visit our Web site at http://www.atanet.org

Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Membership Brochure . . . . . . . . . .20

Membership Application . . . . . . . . .21

Alternative Routes to Active or

Corresponding Membership . . . . .22

A Guide to ATA Accreditation . . . .30

ATA Accreditation Practice Test

Request Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

ATA Accreditation Examination

Registration Form . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Request for Accreditation Review . .33

List of Publications &

Order Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Editorial Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . .50

Chronicle Advertising Rates . . . . . .51

1994 Chronicle Index . . . . . . . . . . .52

1995 Chronicle Index . . . . . . . . . . .53

1996 Chronicle Index . . . . . . . . . . .54

1997 Chronicle Index . . . . . . . . . . .55

1998 Chronicle Index . . . . . . . . . . .56

ATAware Order Form . . . . . . . . . . .60

Chapters, Affiliated Groups &

Unaffiliated Groups . . . . . . . . . . .70

Proposal for Conference

Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

Model Contract for Translators . . . .90

41st Annual Conference

Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

American Translators Association41st Annual Conference

Wyndham Palace Resort • Orlando, FloridaSeptember 20-23, 2000

About Our Authors...

Tim Altanero, Ph.D., was trained as a linguist at the University ofTexas at Austin and has been active in the localization field forseveral years. His languages are Spanish, German, Dutch, andAfrikaans, and he reports a thriving business in freelanceAfrikaans translations. An avid collector of ethnic art, he has trav-eled widely, most recently to Bali, Guam, and Chile, in pursuit oftantalizing artifacts. He has lived in Germany, Mexico, SouthAfrica, Turkey, and Jordan, and can be reached at [email protected].

Paul Coltrin is freelance English/Spanish translator and inter-preter living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is accredited by theATA (English<>Spanish) and is also a certified federal court inter-preter. He may be reached at [email protected].

Catarina Edinger was born in São Paulo, Brazil and obtained herdegrees from the University of São Paulo. At present she is chairof the English department at William Paterson University in NewJersey. She translated the nineteenth–century Brazilian novel Sen-hora by José de Alencar and, more recently, “The Other Side ofParadise,” a short story by Luiz Fernando Emediato. She can bereached at [email protected].

Margarita Friedman is an ATA-accredited (English to Spanish)freelance translator in Great Neck, New York, specializing in legaland medical translation from English into Spanish. Her majorclients include Access Language Services, Bowne, AT&T, andTransPerfect Translation. She was educated in professional (lawand medicine) translation at the University of Pittsburgh. She canbe reached at [email protected].

Alberto Font Gomez has been a philologist at the Departamento deEspañol Urgente of the Agencia EFE in Madrid, Spain since it wasfounded in 1980. He has been a frequent presenter, coordinator, andorganizer of numerous international seminars and workshopsdevoted to the Spanish language for the press, neologisms, theSpanish language in sports, language and communication, theSpanish language in the new millennium, copyediting and jour-nalism, Spanish and new technologies, Spanish and the media, andother topics. Since 1990, he has taught several courses to the staffof the Ministry of Public Administration on ways for modernizingthe administrative language they use. He has also contributed to theVirtual Center of the Cervantes Institute. He is the author of theVademécum de Español Urgente and co-author of the Manual deEspañol Urgente of the Agencia EFE in Madrid. He has coordinatedand compiled several publications for the Agencia EFE on linguisticmatters, among them el idioma español en las agencias de prensa(1990), el neologismo necesario (1992), and el idioma español enel deporte (1992). He is the founder and moderator of the discussionforum on the use of Spanish “Apuntes” at [email protected] on theInternet. He can be reached at [email protected].

Marian B. Labrum is an associate professor of Spanish andtranslation at Brigham Young University, and the director of theBYU Spanish Translation Program. She is ATA-accredited (Eng-lish into Spanish), and a practicing freelance translator. She can bereached at [email protected].

Daniel Linder is a freelance technical translator.He is ATA-accredited (Spanish>English) and has aDiploma in Translation from the Institute of Lin-guists (London). He has taught specialized transla-tion at the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain,where he is currently doing doctoral research. He

can be reached at [email protected].

Alicia S.V. Marshall is an ATA-accredited (English>Spanish) translator and a native of Argentina. Sheis the supervisor for the Spanish Translation Sec-tion at Rotary International in Evanston, Illinois.She is the administrator of ATA’s Spanish LanguageDivision, a U.S. correspondent for the language

magazine Idiomanía, and served as the editor of The CHICATANews (the publication of the Chicago Area Translators and Inter-preters Association). In 1994, she founded the Translators andInterpreters Practice Lab with her partner Yrma Villarreal for thepurpose of providing training programs for translators and inter-preters to enhance their professional skills through intensivehands-on practice and lab experience. She can be reached at [email protected].

Grady Miller is the author of Un invierno en el infierno and thescreenplay The Strawberry Butterfly. He studied at Columbia Uni-versity and the University of Southern California, where heattended T. Corraghessan Boyle’s writing workshop. He has livedin Mexico for eight years, working as a reporter and translator. Hecan be reached at [email protected].

Taysir Nashif currently serves as chief of theArabic Verbatim Reporting Section at the UnitedNations. From the Hebrew University of Jerusalemhe earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Arabic andpolitical science. In 1974, he earned a Ph.D. degreein political science from SUNY-Binghamton. His

published books and articles, both in Arabic and English, dealwith Arabic and Hebrew translation, disarmament and socio-economic and political change, and intellectual freedom. Histranslation of Yair Evron’s Hebrew book, whose English title isIsrael’s Nuclear Dilemma, into Arabic was published in 1993 bythe Arab Institution for Studies and Publishing, Beirut. He servedas professor of sociology at the University of Oran, Algeria. Hecan be reached at [email protected].

Alexandra Russell-Bitting has been a senior trans-lator/reviser at the Inter-American DevelopmentBank for the past 12 years. She works fromSpanish, French, and Portuguese into English, andhas taught translation at the Université de Paris andGeorgetown University. She can be reached at

[email protected].

Ingo R. Stoehr is currently teaching English and German at KilgoreCollege in Texas. He received his Ph.D. from the University ofTexas at Austin and, since 1994, has been the editor of DIMENSION2. He can be reached at [email protected].


Highlights from the March Board Meeting

Last month, I addressed the new memberbenefits—individual Website develop-ment and new insurance programs—that

were approved by the ATA Board of Directors atits meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, March 4–5.Here are some other highlights from the meeting.

International Exam Sittings. After much dis-cussion and reflection, the Board voted to liftthe ban on international exam sittings. ATAPresident Ann G. Macfarlane discusses thisissue in more detail in her column. Please seepage 8 for more information.

New ATA Chapter. The Board unanimouslyapproved the Northwest Translators and Inter-preters Society’s petition to become an ATAchapter. NOTIS, ATA’s 10th chapter, coversWashington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, andAlaska.

Science and Technology Division to be Dises-tablished. The Board unanimously approved,although with mixed emotions, a motion to dis-establish the Science and Technology Divisionat the end of 2000. In his report to the Board,STD Administrator Nicholas Hartmann wrote“…because the newly-created language-specificdivisions of ATA are attracting so much atten-tion and commitment, and because much of theinformation about translation and telecommuni-cations technology—and indeed a great deal ofvaluable technical terminology—formerly pro-vided by the (Sci-Tech) Division and its publi-cations is now available through the Internet,

ATA members may simply no longer need, orhave the time and energy to sustain, an entiredivision dealing exclusively with scientific andtechnical subjects.” The Sci-Tech Division,which was founded in 1983, is one of ATA’soldest divisions.

Science and Technology Information Com-mittee Established. The Board also approvedHartmann’s proposal to create a Science andTechnology Information Committee to providemembers of the association with informationabout science, industry, and technology thatenhances their capabilities as translators andinterpreters, and of facilitating the exchange ofsuch information among members. Plans callfor STIC to work closely with the Translationand Computers and Terminology Committeeson various projects. Macfarlane appointed Hart-mann chair of the committee.

ATA Honorary Membership. The Boardapproved the selection of Jo Thornton and DonGorham as honorary members. Both long-timemembers have done much to promote the ATAand the translating and interpreting profes-sions. (Please see Macfarlane’s April 2000Chronicle column for more information onThornton and Gorham.)

The next Board meeting will be June 10–11in Toronto, Canada. As always, the meetings areopen to the membership. If you would like acopy of the minutes of the Alexandria meeting,please contact ATA Headquarters.

From theExecutiveDirector

Walter Bacak, [email protected]


The Chapters Committee is pleased to announce its latestinitiative, the creation of a mailing list to facilitate com-

munication among the leaders of ATA chapters and regionalgroups. The [email protected] list will serve as aforum for discussing group-related issues in an environmentlimited to the leadership of the chapters and groups. Its purpose is to enable elected group representatives toexchange experiences, to learn from each other's successesand mistakes, and to foster the growth and strength of their organizations.The list will include one (or more) elected representative(s)from each ATA group who wishes to participate. In order to

create a community of peers and maintain the conversationwithin the boundaries of common interests, access will beavailable only to qualified subscribers.An invitation to subscribe to this list has been sent to all thegroups listed in the Chronicle, and a number of requests forsubscription have already been received. The list is a fertileground for ideas, opinions, suggestions, debate. Those whohave subscribed look forward to your group's participation.If your group did not receive the invitation, or if it didreceive the invitation and has not responded, please sendthe name(s) and e-mail address(es) of your representative(s)to Tony Roder ([email protected]), the listmaster.

Mailing List for Chapters and Groups

From thePresidentAnn G. Macfarlane

[email protected]

Experience is Treacherous, Judgment Difficult...

In the fifth century before our era, the Greekphysician Hippocrates made a comment thatcould have been directed at the ATA Board.

“Experience is treacherous, judgment difficult...”The modern subject for this aphorism? Interna-tional accreditation examination sittings.

The Board took substantial chunks of the timeset aside for its retreat and meeting in March todeliberate whether the suspension that had beentemporarily enacted in July of 1999 to study thisissue should be lifted. We relied on our experi-ence, our judgment, and information from ourmembers. Our deliberations were made morechallenging by the fact that the survey conductedto give member views on the issue had yielded a50/50 split. Given the fact that a quarter of themembership took part in the Survey—an extra-ordinarily high percentage—it is a statisticallyvalid statement that our entire membership’sviews are divided. In the end, the Board decidedto lift the suspension.

Because this issue is so important to our mem-bership, I am devoting this month’s column spaceto printing the two messages that were sent out bye-mail in March explaining our decision, so thateveryone may be fully informed. The report onthe Survey may be found on the ATA Website, ormembers may contact Headquarters to request acopy. For background information on the viewsheld by those concerned about this issue, see alsothe August 1999 issue of the Chronicle, whichprinted a number of letters.

As part of these discussions, the Board alsoconfirmed its commitment to helping meet theeconomic challenges of the present timethrough enhanced professional training opportu-nities, and targeted marketing of members’ ser-vices and the ATA. We are working on thesegoals and will advise as progress continues.

Thanks to so many of you who took the time toshare your views with the Board through partici-pating in the Survey, and who have subsequentlysent us messages of concern. Your messages havebeen carefully read and taken into account. Weappreciate members’ involvement and willingnessto keep the Board fully informed.

To: All Members of the American TranslatorsAssociation

From: The Board of DirectorsDate: March 13, 2000 Subject: International Accreditation Survey

and Board Decision

The International Accreditation Survey heldlast month produced an even split of 50/50 onwhether to allow examination sittings to be heldthroughout the world, or within the UnitedStates only. The Board has decided to lift thesuspension that had been enacted last year forthe purpose of studying the issue. Here are thereasons why.

1. SURVEY RESULTSThe Board of Directors is grateful to all ATA

members who took the time to submit theirresponses to the International AccreditationSurvey prepared last month by IndustryInsights, Inc. Industry Insights received a totalof 1,875 completed forms, representing onequarter of the membership. There were threekey findings:

1. What kind of organization do you think theATA should be?National (U.S.): 24%National with an international orientation:57%International: 19%

2. Among its members, to whom should theATA give first priority in terms of protectingand defending interests?U.S. residents: 26%U.S. citizens: 12%All members equally: 62%

3. Where do you think accreditation examina-tion sittings should be held?Throughout the world: 50%Within the U.S. only: 50%

2. BOARD DECISIONThe Board of Directors carefully studied all

the survey results, and the comments submitted,at its retreat and meeting last weekend. Inresponse to the particular question of accredita-


tion examination sittings, the Board passed thefollowing Resolution:

Whereas the ATA membership responses tothe International Accreditation Survey wereevenly divided between allowing examinationsittings in the United States only and allowingthem throughout the world, thus placing theburden of a decision squarely on the Board;and

Whereas all examination sittings other thanthose offered during the Annual Conference areat the initiative of ATA members and do not rep-resent a significant cost to ATA Headquarters;and

Whereas Section 3 of Article III of the ATABylaws states that corresponding and associatemembers have all the rights and privileges ofactive members except the right to vote (forassociate members) and to hold associationoffice and to serve on the Board of Directors orstanding committees, and the Board views theright to organize a local examination for theconvenience and reduced travel costs of mem-bers to be an important right of ATA member-ship; and

Whereas a majority of the responses fromthe ATA membership supported treating all ATAmembers equally in terms of protecting anddefending their interests;

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the sus-pension on scheduling accreditation examina-tions outside the United States be lifted.

3. RELATED ISSUES. The Board of Directors would also like to

bring the following to the attention of ATAmembers:A. The President, with the concurrence of the

Accreditation Committee Chair, has arrangedfor Michael Hamm to conduct a review of theATA Accreditation Program. Mr. Hamm hasyears of experience in assisting certificationorganizations, accrediting bodies, andnational associations in improving their pro-grams. He was the executive director of theNational Organization for Competency Assur-ance for eight years, and also managed theNational Commission for Certifying Agen-cies, the primary national accreditation bodyfor certification organizations and their pro-

grams. This review will look at various policyissues surrounding the Accreditation Programand will provide suggestions for considerationby the Board of Directors at its June meeting.

B. The President has appointed Dr. Jiri Stejskal, anATA member, as a volunteer to supervise anInternational Certification Study. This studywill review information already gathered andcollect new information from national organiza-tions outside the United States about their certi-fication and licensing programs, and explore thepossibilities for reciprocal arrangements.

C. The Report on the International Accredita-tion Survey, showing the percentage answersto each question in detail, will be availableon the ATA Website this coming week. TheBoard will continue to review the additionalcomments submitted and to consider furthersteps which may be warranted on the basis ofthe Survey results.

D. As always, members who wish to proposechanges in the privileges accorded to anygiven class of members of the associationmay do so by proposing an amendment to theBylaws. Article XIV of the Bylaws describesthe procedure for amendment, and may befound in the text of the Bylaws printed in theback of the Membership Directory.

The Board thanks all members who partici-pated in this Survey and provided significantinput for the Board decision.

Letter to ATA MembersMarch 24, 2000

Dear ATA member:The Board of Directors of the American Trans-

lators Association has received some communications about the recent Survey on inter-national accreditation examination sittings, and thesubsequent Board decision on this subject. TheBoard has asked me to pass the following comments and clarifications to our ATA members.

Continued on p. 10


From the President Continued


1) A SURVEY, NOT A VOTE. As wasexplained in the initial e-mail message thatwas sent out on February 14, this survey wasnot a referendum or a vote. The ATA Bylawsdo not provide for the type of vote known asa referendum. Rather, it was an undertakingby the Board to learn the views of a substan-tial portion of the membership, in order tomake a decision on the question of interna-tional examination sittings. For further infor-mation on voting, see Item #7 below.

2) TIMING OF THE SURVEY. The Boardbelieved that it was important to have theSurvey results in time for the March 4-5Board meeting. As you may know, this issuewas first raised a year ago, in March 1999. InJuly 1999 the scheduling of all internationalexamination sittings was suspended in orderto study the issue. Because the Forum held atthe ATA Annual Conference did not producea decisive opinion one way or the other, thesuspension was continued until March. Atthe March 2000 meeting, this issue had been“on the table” for a year, and the Board feltthat a year was sufficient time to reach a finaldecision.

3) DISTRIBUTION OF THE SURVEY. TheATA conferred with Industry Insights, Inc., aprofessional polling firm that had conductedthe Compensation Survey last year, in orderto decide how to do the survey. IndustryInsights advised that since 83 percent of ourmembers had an e-mail address, an e-mailpoll would have the best chance of success.We also arranged to distribute the poll by faxand postal mail to members who had notprovided the ATA with an e-mail address.

4) MISSED MEMBERS. The Board apolo-gizes to any member who did not receive theSurvey. However, a very substantial numberof members did receive the Survey and didfill it out. The Survey was sent to everymember for whom we had an e-mail address(6,299 members). It was faxed to every U.S.resident for whom we had a fax number butno e-mail address (550 members) and it wasmailed to every remaining member (584

members). Over 25 percent of ATA mem-bers—1,875 people—returned their forms,which is an unusually high rate of responsefor any such survey. Industry Insights hasconfirmed that the results are statisticallyvalid. This response rate means that theSurvey does give a fair picture of the associ-ation’s views.

5) DIVIDED OPINIONS. The Survey results(now posted on the ATA Website) confirmthe Board’s anecdotal impression that themembership is divided on this issue. At theForum in November, equal numbers spokeon both sides of the issue. Messages theBoard has received have been passionate onboth sides of the issue. The comments sub-mitted with the Survey were very strong onboth sides of the issue. Late entries also havebeen received on both sides of the issue.There is not a clear consensus on one side orthe other.

6) RIGHTS OF MEMBERSHIP. The only ATAexamination sittings offered by the associa-tion itself are those given at the Annual Con-ference. Under the Bylaws all members—active, associate, or corresponding—havethe right to take accreditation examinations.By prohibiting members from organizingexamination sittings in certain geographiclocations and not in others, we would berestricting the rights of ATA members. TheATA is an association governed by the lawsof the State of New York, and by our ownBylaws. Given this situation, the Board sawno alternative but to lift the temporary sus-pension on international examination sit-tings. In the Board’s view, the clear prefer-ence expressed by the membership that allmembers be treated equally was further rein-forcement for this decision.

7) PROVISIONS FOR CHANGE. Members ofthe ATA who do not agree with the provisionsof Section III of the Bylaws on the rights andprivileges of members have the right, now orat any time, to propose an amendment to

Continued on p. 12


Reviewing the Proposals

The educational sessions are the core ofATA’s Annual Conference. These ses-sions are planned and presented by vol-

unteers. I am always impressed by the breadthand depth of these presentations. This year willbe no different as the sessions begin to takeshape for ATA’s 41st Annual Conference inOrlando, Florida, September 20-23.

As the conference organizer, I am responsi-bile for scheduling the presentations. Theprocess began at last year’s conference in St.Louis, where the call for papers was announced.The deadline for submitting a conference pre-sentation proposal was March 1. I am happy toannounce that we have received over 100 pro-posals and are now in the final stages ofreviewing them.

This year, I enlisted the help of the divisionadministrators and committee chairs to reviewand schedule the proposals related to theirfield. I think it is important to get input fromthese experts/leaders. They have guided me onthe tentative order and grouping of presenta-tions. In addition, I will be working with themto fill any gaps where presenters are neededfor important or “hot” topics that have notbeen proposed.

This is probably as good a place as any toemphasize the fact that the conference presenta-tions are given by volunteers. (The pre-conferencepresenters are paid an honorarium for the extratime and effort required in conducting a three-hour seminar.) We encourage all to share their

knowledge and experience with their colleagues. By sharing information, we are alldoing our part to better the profession.

In addition, each year I hear comments aboutrepeating some sessions from the previous year.This is done for a very good reason. Usually, 40-to 50-percent of the conference attendees arefirst timers or did not attend the previous year.ATA is very fortunate to have a dedicated groupof members who enjoy giving presentations anddo a good job of it.

The tentative schedule will be included in thePreliminary Program, which will be mailed toall members in June. Due to cancellations, addi-tions, and refinements, this schedule will be dif-ferent from the Final Program. Of course, I willtry to limit the changes as much as possible, butpeople do get sick or have work conflicts andare unfortunately unable to attend. Therefore,we continue to accept presentations, eventhough we are way past the deadline, becausewe do get cancellations. (If you are interested insubmitting a proposal, please contact ATAHeadquarters (703) 683-6100 or visit the ATAWebsite at http://www.atanet.org.)

Finally, I would like to thank those who havesubmitted proposals and those who havereviewed them. Your efforts continue to makethe ATA Annual Conference the best profes-sional development opportunity available totranslators and interpreters.

From thePresident-

ElectThomas L. West III

[email protected]

Expresión Internacional will present the 12th Seminarfor Spanish Interpreters in Madrid (Spain) on

July 10-21, 2000. Following an initial diagnostic session,this intensive seminar uses the latest media and mostcurrent content to customize instructional materials.Instructor-led peer discussions will help participantshone their interpretation skills.

Expresión is the European provider of interpretertraining for the United Nations and associated UN

agencies. The European Union’s demand for interpreters invarious language combinations and specialties is placing apremium on university-trained and field-experienced inter-preters. This seminar aims to bridge the gap betweenformal classroom training and real-life practice.

For additional information and reservations, please contactTeresa Filesi at Expresión Internacional at 34-91-657-0182,E-mail: or Antonio Gavilanez at (770)772-9885, E-mail:[email protected]

Expresión Internacional—the 12th Seminar for Spanish Interpreters

those Bylaws. Article XIV of the Bylaws gives the appro-priate procedure. Such an amendment, if proposed accordingto the proper procedure, would be voted on by the member-ship at the Annual Meeting in September. This right, likeother membership rights, will be supported by the ATA in theusual way (publication of information and opinions in theChronicle and inclusion on the ballot for the AnnualMeeting).

8) FUTURE COURSE OF ACTION. The Board of the ATA ismade up of a diverse group of volunteers who serve withoutpay. Board members are translators, interpreters, freelancers,company owners, and educators—the colleagues and peersyou elected to make decisions like this one—who have strug-gled with this issue for a year now. We have taken this issueseriously and have not made our decision lightly. We recog-nize that there are several difficult issues clustered around thequestion of whether to prohibit international accreditationexamination sittings. We continue to study the responses thatwere submitted with the Survey, and to consider the points

that were made very seriously. The decision to commission apolicy review of the Accreditation Program, and the study onInternational Certification that is now being conducted, arepart of the Board’s response to these concerns.

We ask your understanding that these are not easy issues, andpeople of good will can have different views. The Board willcontinue to try to direct the association in ways that best serveall members in their areas of concern, in accord with the pur-poses of our Bylaws.

I hope that this letter has clarified some of the issues per-taining to the Survey and the Board decision. Thank you tothose of you who have taken the time to share your views.

Sincerely yours,Ann G. Macfarlane

President

From the President Continued from p. 10


ATA ACTIVITIES

Accreditation• Exam sittings were held in Boston,

Massachusetts; Kalamazoo, Michigan;San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Seattle,Washington.

Board• The next meeting of the ATA Board of

Directors has been set for Toronto,Canada, June 10-11. The meeting isopen to the public.

Conference• The Preliminary Conference Program

for ATA’s Annual Conference inOrlando, Florida, September 20-23,2000 is being compiled. The Programand registration forms will be mailedin June to all ATA members.

• Continue to market exhibit space forATA’s Annual Conference. (If youwould like more information, pleasecontact ATA Headquarters at (703)683-6100, fax: (703) 683-6122, or e-mail: [email protected]..

Membership• Membership continues to grow (5.2

percent ahead of last year at this time).

Publications• ATA\s Japanese Language Division

publishedAn Introduction to the Pro-fessions of Translation and Interpreta-tion. Copies of this 376-page publica-tion are available from ATA Headquar-ters. For ATA members the discountedrate is $25; for nonmembers the priceis $40. Please contact ATA Head-quarter for more information or toorder a copy.

• The first ATA Specialized TranslationServices Directory: FrenchEnglishTranslation and Interpretation Ser-vices has been published. This publi-cation is a printed version of what isonline at the ATA Website:www.atanet.org. For ATA membersthe discounted rate is $45; for non-members the price is $60.

Public Relations• ATA will be co-sponsoring a seminar

with SAE InternationalThe Engi-neering Society for AdvancingMobility Land, Sea, Air, and Space.The seminar, SAE Multilingual Docu-mentation for the Automotive IndustryTOPTEC Symposium will be held

October 12-13, 2000 in Dearborn,Michigan. More information on thisevent will be published as it develops.

• ATA was a sponsor of the AmericanUniversitys Intercultural ManagementInstitutes Intercultural Managementfor the New Millennium: A Forum forBusiness, Education, and TrainingProfessionals held in Washington, DC,March 15-17. ATA Past PresidentMuriel Jérôme-O’Keeffe was a pre-senter.

• ATA continues to work with the Amer-ican Foundation for Translation andInterpretation, the Fédération Interna-tionale des Traducteurs, the ASTMTranslation User Standards Project,and the Localisation Industry Stan-dards Association.

Mark Your Calendars!

ATA’s 41st

Annual Conference is September 20-23, 2000

See page 69 for more information.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Awareness Raising: Unraveling theCoat of Invisibility Around Translators and Interpreters

One thing that is undeniable in thetranslation and interpreting profession isthat our field is changing very quickly.Still, the public’s awareness of this pro-fession is not keeping pace with thetimes, and translators and interpreterscontinue to maintain a low profile withlittle visibility in society. It is up to us todo something in order to raise thepublic’s awareness of the important rolethat our profession has always played insociety, especially in the globalizedworld of today.

In fact, over the years translators andinterpreters have been content to remainanonymous, unseen, invisible, as thoughsurrounded by a “coat of invisibility.”Books of literature are translated intoother languages, resulting in an incred-ible work of creativity and genius, yetthe name of the translator barely getsmentioned or noticed. Simultaneousinterpreters do their magic in confer-ences and courtrooms, however, manypeople have little knowledge of the cre-ative genius that it takes to accomplishthis kind of job.

All this results in an utter “unawareness”on the part of the public as to what transla-tion and interpreting are or entail. Theaverage user of translation products is not adiscriminating consumer. Remember whencoffee was coffee, period? You would go toa coffee shop and ask for coffee—black,regular, light—and that was it. This is nolonger the case. Now coffee drinkers havebecome “aware,” and this awareness of theproduct has made them discriminating con-sumers. They want to know which countrythe coffee comes from, what kind of flavorit has, what kind of aroma, how striking thetaste is, and so forth. They can now choosefrom a variety of ways to prepare coffee,and are willing to pay “a lot more” for whatthey demand.

What about the products of our profes-sion? Do consumers know as much aboutthem as coffee drinkers know about coffee?That is questionable at best. Consumers ofour products usually think of the translatoror interpreter in a monolithic kind of way.It goes something like this: “Well, they’lljust have to translate exactly what the orig-

inal says. That’s all. What’s the big deal?What’s so difficult about taking the wordsin English and putting them in another lan-guage? They speak both languages, don’tthey? After all, aren’t researchers devisingmachines that can translate? It seems to bea pretty straightforward kind of thing....”And so the story goes—we have all heardit again and again.

These are the kinds of misconceptionsthat professionals of the translation andinterpreting field need to do away with.And when this kind of misconceptioncomes from high places, like the office ofthe President of the United States, thenthe members of our profession need to beparticularly alert.

By now we have all been made awareof President Clinton’s comments duringhis State of the Union Address on January27, 2000. As a result, a letter was pro-duced at the grass-roots level as aresponse to it.

You can read the response letter on theWorld Wide Web at http://www.translat2000.com/action/responses/Ad-HocCmtee.htm. Please follow linksthere to see the impressive roll ofendorsers. If you wish to show your support for this awareness initiative,please write to [email protected]. Please include your name andone identifier (which can be your e-mailaddress or the URL of your Website).

What is the Awareness Initiative? This,again, is a grass-roots initiative by mem-bers of our profession all over the world.Their goal is to organize a World Transla-tion Awareness Week, toward the end of2000, in order to promote the translationand interpreting profession in various typesof media. The most prominent issues willbe to emphasize the creative aspects oftranslation and interpreting and the impor-tance of quality in what we do.

The community that has been mostinvolved in organizing this initiative isTranslat2000, a Web community for edu-cators, trainers, and practitioners in thetranslation and interpreting profession.The community can be found athttp://www. translat2000.com (follow thelink to Awareness Week).

World Translation Awareness can be adream for the new millennium, and withgood effort and solid collaborative action,

we can take long strides in making thatdream come true.

Paul Perry List Administrator,

[email protected], California

[email protected]

Ad-Hoc World Committee for Translation AwarenessOpen Letter to President ClintonFebruary 20, 2000

William Jefferson Clinton, PresidentThe United States of AmericaWhite HouseWashington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,We, the Ad-Hoc World Committee for

Translation Awareness, are professionaltranslators, interpreters, researchers, man-agers, and users of machine translation. Inyour State of the Union Address on January27, 2000, you said, “Soon researchers willbring us devices that can translate foreignlanguages as fast as you can talk.”

We respectfully point out to you, Mr.President, that your assertion is bothmisleading and harmful. It is possiblethat people, upon hearing what youhave said, will be under the mistakenimpression that translators and inter-preters will soon become obsolete. Ifthat happens, this will cause harm to theprofessional standing of countless hard-working people all over the world whoearn a living as translators and interpreters.

The potential harm in your statementcomes less from what is said than fromwhat is omitted. Omitted here is the factthat, regardless of how “smart” machinesmay become, there is a creative aspect oflanguage that will always remain beyondthe capabilities of machines. Humanspeech can become accessible tomachines only if language is constrained,tamed, and stripped of much of its cre-ative power of expression.

Totally absent, also, is the issue ofquality. Machines can provide only a cer-tain level of interpretation and translation,mostly through word and phrase replace-

Continued on p. 14


TRADOS WorkshopsTRADOS Corporation offers one-day training workshops each

month for Translator’s Workbench, MultiTerm, and WinAlign at itssite at 803 Prince Street, Alexandria, Virginia. Attendance is limited.For more information, contact: Tracy Calvert at Tel: (703) 683-6900;Fax: (703) 683-9457; E-mail: [email protected] or www.trados.com.

Multimedia 2000—Translation and Multimedia:From the Monitor to the Big ScreenJune 6-8, 2000Capomulini (Sicily, Italy)

The keynote speakers will be Yves Gambier, Daniel Gouadec,and Ida Mori.

During the first morning session, Gambier, who has been con-ducting research in translation for the screen at the internationallevel since 1990 and is head of the Center for Translators and Inter-preters at the University of Turku in Finland, will discuss the skillsneeded in multimedia translation. In the second session, Gouadec(University of Rennes), who is director of the Research Center onLinguistic, Multimedia, and Documentary Engineering and has aresearch interest in the application of information technology totranslation, will examine the implications of multimedia translationfor training. In the third session, Mori, translation manager forBerlitz Dublin, will discuss localization. Four roundtable discus-sions have also been planned for the afternoon sessions.

For more information, please e-mail [email protected] visit www.mix.it/aiti.

Rennes 2000 International Symposium on Specialist Transla-tion Teaching/Training Methods and Practices, ProfessionalPracticeUniversité de Rennes 2September 22-23, 2000Rennes, France

Open to members of professional associations, students, trans-lator trainers, employers. The event is designed: to provide anoverview of the best professional practices; to identify proposals,initiatives, and models for specialist translator training along truly

professional lines; to discuss the aims and the implementation ofcourses designed to train specialist translators and translationmanagers—specialization being understood to imply domain,product type (software localization), technical constraints (subti-tling), or the type of translation tools (computer-assisted transla-tion and automatic translation software); and to describe coursecontent requirements in light of identifiable and model-based pro-fessional practices.

Submissions for workshops or papers should be half a typescriptpage in length. Please enclose a short C.V./resume of the author(half a page), along with the author’s e-mail address or Website.Submissions should be forwarded to the organizing committee nolater than June 20, 2000. Please send them to: D. Gouadec, 6avenue Gaston Berger, F35043 Rennes Cedex, (tel/fax: +33 02 9933 13 37). All persons submitting papers or registering for the Sym-posium will automatically be added to an e-mail list and keptupdated with the latest developments.

For more information, including registration, please contact Nathalie Collin at [email protected]; Tel:+33 02 99 14 16 06; Fax: +33 02 99 14 16 06. Please also visithttp://www.uhb.fr/langues/craie.

Critical Link 3: Interpreters in the Community May 22-26, 2001 Montreal, Canada

Critical Link 3: Interpreters in the Community will be held in Mon-treal, Canada from May 22-26, 2001. The specific theme for this con-ference is "Interpreting in the Community: The Complexity of the Pro-fession." As in the previous two Critical Link conferences, participantswill come from the five continents to discuss interpretation in the com-munity (health services, social services, courts, schools). The event willprovide interpreters, users of interpreter services, administrators, andresearchers with an opportunity to share experiences, explore the com-plexity of the community interpreter profession, and learn about suc-cessful strategies and models in this rapidly evolving field. The call forpapers and further information can be found at: http://www.rrsss06.gouv.qc.ca/english/colloque/index2.html.

Upcoming Conferences and Educational Programs

ment with a grammar check. But what translators and inter-preters do is much more than that. The human creative capacityfor sensitive nuance, intricacy of context, delicacy of mood, andlimitless variety of expression is hopelessly beyond the grasp ofartificial emulation. It takes the innate ability of translators andinterpreters to say whether a particular series of words canrender the originally expressed thought with grace,elegance,and accuracy.

Translation problems—such as how to convey just the propertone when addressing an authority figure in Korea; what strate-gies to use in Arabic when addressing women so that men willnot feel excluded; how to select appropriate terms that bestenhance a product’s image in a translation for a marketing cam-paign; how to find just the right words to translate the precisemeaning of speech acts; how to distinguish between inclusiveand noninclusive “we” in languages that make such distinctions–

such are problems that translators confront on a daily basis.Solutions to those problems will not be found in translation machines. Just as a dictionary can be a useful tool butcannot dictate which words to use in a given context, translationmachines can be a useful tool but can never replace the talent,experience, and perceptive insight of a translation professional.

Translators and interpreters develop their skills throughyears of hard work, and they need talent, ingenuity, creativity,and sheer grit to succeed in this difficult and highly competitiveprofession. As a comparison, consider the work that it takes toput together a State of the Union Address: I can only imaginethat every item is carefully examined, not just for accuracy, butalso for appropriate and effective expression. If that Addresswere to be translated into a foreign language, the same kind of

Letters to the Editor Continued from p. 13

Continued on p. 54


Contemporary German Poetry and English Translation

By Ingo R. Stoehr

Contemporary German Poetry...

As I look over the more than 20 entries on German-lan-guage poets I prepared for the forthcoming RoutledgeWho’s Who in Twentieth-Century World Poetry, I

again realize that the twentieth century has been good forpoetry written in German—especially since the limited spacein an encyclopedic work makes us painfully aware of the greatnumber of authors who should also have been included.

Of course, the number of German poets who have beenembraced by world literature to the extent that Kafka has beenfor prose still remains very small. It might even be argued thatfor the twentieth century, this has been the case only for RainerMaria Rilke and Paul Celan. Other major poets have primarilybeen appreciated for other achievements, for example, Inge-borg Bachmann for her prose and Bertolt Brecht for his plays.Still other major writers have been recognized mainly for theirimportance in the context of the cultural community in theGerman-speaking countries, including the poets StefanGeorge, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gottfried Benn, and HansMagnus Enzensberger.

This short list of German-language poets also points toanother trend that is characteristic for deciding who is “impor-tant” and who is not: the predominance of older or more estab-lished authors. In the list above, Enzensberger is the only con-temporary German poet. At the opposite extreme, Hof-mannsthal wrote most of his lyrical poems before 1900. Inspite of this trend, it needs to be acknowledged that contempo-rary German-language poetry is more than simply alive andwell: It is vibrant.

Yet German poetry has not been equally vibrant at all times.While the 1960s and 1970s saw a few important poetic works,poetry took a backseat to prose and theater. The 1960s were atime of political impetus and of a turn toward expressingeveryday events in writing, which was evident in poems byJohannes Bobrowski, Günter Kunert, Sarah Kirsch, and WolfBiermann in East Germany, and by Enzensberger and ErichFried in the West. In the wake of challenging the politicalsystem, there was also a challenge to the literary system. Con-crete poetry, though originating in the 1950s, peaked in popu-larity during the 1960s, and “texts” by writers such as JürgenBecker and Helmut Heissenbüttel sought to overcome theboundaries between traditional literary genres.

Practioners of more traditional and personal poetry, such asRose Ausländer and Karl Krolow, still had a presence duringthe 1960s (with that decade’s emphasis on political writings) aswell as during the 1970s (which were influenced by a new sub-jectivity). After a general disillusionment with the politicalagenda of the 1960s, the literature of the 1970s focused on sub-jective experience without losing sight of the political quality ofthe subjective. In West German poetry, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann

exemplified such a focus by writing onthe simplicity and dangers of everydaylife. A similar disillusionment with thefeasibility of political utopias was evi-dent in East German poetry, rangingfrom Erich Arendt and Peter Huchel toKunert and Kirsch.

The lyric achievements of the 1980slaid the foundation for the revival ofpoetry during the 1990s. In contrast tothe two previous decades with theirdistinct preferences in poetic innova-tion, the 1980s did not seem to have astrong preference. As a result, poetryran the entire gamut from being sub-jective to being political or hermetic.While poetry still reflected human vul-nerabilities and uncertainties, it alsodisplayed a renewed trust in the powerof poetic form, including traditionaldevices such as rhyme and traditionalpatterns such as the sonnet, and in thepower of poetic experimentation. Inaddition to the established poets, a newgeneration of poets, born between1950 and the early 1960s, made itselfheard, for example, Thomas Kling inWest Germany and Uwe Kolbe andDurs Grünbein in East Germany.

In 1989 and 1990, things changed.The Berlin Wall fell, Germany wasreunited, and since then politics hasbeen trying to deal with a redefinedpost-Cold War reality, representingboth an ideological upheaval and acontinuation of the post-industriallifestyles of the information age thathad defined the Western marketeconomies. With all these changes,

...While poetry still reflected human vulnerabilities and uncertainties, it alsodisplayed a renewed trust in thepower of poetic form...

Continued on p. 16


poetry experienced a tremendous surgein popularity during the 1990s. Majornewspapers started to print poems on aregular basis, and poetry reached out topopular culture in the form of poetryslams and Hip-Hop. It is possible tospeculate that the success of Germanpoetry in the 1990s was due to threefactors. First, the broad practice ofpoetic forms during the 1980s led to anincreased assuredness of how to handlelanguage. Second, the new generationof poets that began emerging duringthe 1980s was characterized by a largenumber of outstanding poets. Conse-quently (and third), when the politicallandscape changed, many poets had apoetic language at their disposal withwhich they could do what poetry doesbest—invite their audience to sharewith them significant life experiencesin their new reality. The audience inthe U.S. has also been invited to sharethese experiences.

On the one hand, the contemporarypoetic spectrum includes Hip-Hoppoetry, which comes across as a per-fectly tuned sound machine that gener-ates alliterating and homophonic stringsof words, combined in the staccatorhythm of an easy syntactic flow. Thesubject matter is everyday life, oftenpresented with an ironic twist. Poetrymeets performance art. In the best Hip-Hop tradition, the individual poem isintegrated with music into a “number.”An outstanding German Hip-Hop poetis Bastian Böttcher, who was on tourthroughout Canada and the U.S. in Feb-ruary and March of this year.

A lighter, more playful and poig-nant tone has been more widely used inGerman poetry of the 1990s, even inindividual poems by authors such asKolbe and Enzensberger, whose workis usually defined by a more serioustone. These writers use the supplenessof existing language to approach newrealities. For example, continuing hisown tone of radical subjectivity, Kolbe

combines his interest in poetic traditions with a more prosaictone, as can be seen in the following haiku: “Civilization / isvaried. Only the brute / yearns for the One thing.” In additionto longtime practitioners of epigrammatic poetry, such as PeterRühmkorf and Robert Gernhardt, young authors participate inthe cheerfulness and boldness of such poetry. They often do sowith touches of black humor, as can be seen in works by AlbertOstermeier, Dagmar Leupold, and Franz Hodjak (an author ofthe middle generation).

On the other hand, the contemporary poetic spectrum islargely defined by poetry that is based on a sense of being partof an artificial world from which the poet distances himself orherself. However, there is a wide range of individual styles, andthis distance can be expressed in a variety of ways, such as indif-ference or sorrow. These poems assess new realities while alsotesting language and, if necessary, developing new language.

For example, elements of life in the fast-paced world oftechnology have entered poetry to the extent that technologicaland artificial worlds have replaced nature as a reservoir ofimagery. However, nature still plays an important role inGerman-language poetry, but it no longer functions as anabsolute. Nature has evolved into an image of sorrow, uncer-tainty, and endangerment in poems by Sarah Kirsch, Helga M.Novak, and Ulla Hahn. The following poets exemplify the twoextremes that have been taken in approaching nature. MichaelDonhauser’s poems in the collection Von den Dingen (AboutThings, 1993) attempt to put nature back into the center of lin-guistic examination, but they are the exception in recentGerman poetry. The other extreme position is held by FranzJosef Czernin’s natur-gedichte (1996), which assumes natureto be a projection of the human mind.

Barbara Köhler’s poems show a displacement of nature infavor of technology or man-made objects. In her programmaticpoem Blue Box, language fragments record (in a correspond-ingly fragmentary process) a relationship—perhaps suggestingthat, like actors in front of a blue screen, various contexts canbe added to the poem’s fragmented recording (like a black box).Thus, the new language of a technological world is a blue box.

One way of evoking a new language consists of writingexperimental poetry along the lines of works by FriederickeMayröcker or Oskar Pastior. Thomas Kling is one of the majorpoets in this tradition to emerge during the 1990s. At the surfacelevel, his poems are (except for his most recent collection) char-acterized by the destruction of linguistic forms (for examples ofunorthodox spellings and hyphenation, please see below); how-ever, while this suggests our disparate experiences of our ownworld, intelligible images emerge under the surface. Anotherway of suggesting the world’s complexity is through the use ofmarginal notes or an appended annotation that interacts with the“main” text of the poem. This technique has been used by

Contemporary German Poetry and English Translation Continued


what constitutes a “good” (or ade-quate) translation varies with its placein history.

It is my belief that at the core of theliterary project lies the creation ofimaginary worlds. Simply put, thisimplies that the reader of the originaltext and the reader of the translationshould “see” the same imaginaryworld. So what was it that I saw in thecontext of Voltenschläger? It could bea proper name; however, another ver-sion of the poem suggests the under-standing of the word as a descriptiveterm because that poem’s title isLustiger Veränderer. This view sup-ports the reading of the phrase “eineVolte schlagen” as referring to a sleightof hand. But Piontek went one step fur-ther. By using a compound noun, heobjectified a category, i.e., a certainkind of man. This man’s presence isfelt as a threat to others in power strug-gles. He knows all the tricks; hence, heis a “Voltenschläger,” or a sleight-of-hand man.

The term “imaginary world” ismetaphoric because it need not beunderstood in a straightforward way

Dieter M. Gräf and Raoul Schrott in their own ways. Just lastyear, both authors visited the U.S.: Gräf as a writer-in-residenceat the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades, California, and Schrott(together with Joachim Sartorius and Gerhard Falkner) for areading at the Goethe-Institut in Chicago, Illinois.

Now there is another, very recent, opportunity to “meet” thepoets. A worldwide audience can sample the production of agrowing number of German poets on the Internet. Adminis-tered by Heiko Strunk, the Website www.lyrikline.org offersbiographical and bibliographical information as well as a shortselection of poems by each author. The selected poems canalso be heard via audio files, a feature that is facilitated by thegrowing popularity of audio books in Germany.

... and English TranslationWhile it is still difficult to find American publishers for

translations of German books, German-language poetry is alsoavailable in print in English translation. Several publicationsinclude translations from the German, such as the ATA’s ownannual collection, Beacons. The 100-volume German Library,published by Continuum Press in New York, offers several vol-umes of poems in addition to volumes on individual authors(such as Rilke and Benn) that also include poetry. Mostrecently, a book of German poetry, edited by Charlotte AnnMelin and published in 1999, and a special issue of the literarymagazine Poetry (October-November 1998) have alsoreflected the current revival of German poetry and the resultingincreased interest in this genre. DIMENSION2, the literary maga-zine that I edit, has always printed poems (in the usual bilin-gual format), and I am currently looking for funding for anissue devoted in its entirety to German-language poetry.

When it comes to translation, however, the question ofwhich texts are available is not the only one to be asked. Ofequal importance is the inquiry into the translation processitself because so much seems to be lost in translation. In fact,Elias Canetti once remarked that the only thing interestingabout translation is what is lost. It is my opinion that the processin which things get lost is even more interesting because it tellsus something about human imagination and communication.The individual areas that need to be studied include word refer-ence, the poem’s texture, and cultural reference.

I have been keenly aware of the problematic nature of trans-lation ever since I translated my first poems for publicationmore than 20 years ago. The poems were by Heinz Piontek,and one was titled Voltenschläger. I experienced first-handwhat sounds self-evident in theory: Translation is always inter-pretation. Yet as a translator, I was also in the middle positionbetween author and reader, since a translator’s job can be seenas re-writing and pre-reading. The processes of re-writing andpre-reading are culturally determined because the notion of

Continued on p. 18

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during the 1990s, is of specific interest here. Many writers of var-ious national and ethnic backgrounds have been writing inGerman in an attempt to establish a distinct identity that is mul-ticultural, in the sense that it represents neither the author’s orig-inal nationality nor a German identity, as well as in the sense thatit transcends both.

Zehra Çirak, a Turkish-born writer who lives in Germanyand writes in German, is a good example of the mediationprocess between two cultures. One option for asserting heridentity lies in the use of lexical choices that are highly idio-syncratic. The problems are evident, for instance, in her poemsselected for a collection edited by Irmgard Ackermann andpublished by Inter Nationes in 1999. Since I was involved withthe English edition of the book, Foreign ViewPoints—Mulitcul-tural Literature in Germany, I spent some time with Çirak’spoem Duden Ichden. A pun at various levels, the title refers tothe standard German dictionary, the Duden. Since the first syl-lable of Duden is identical to “du,” the pronoun for informal“you,” the poet coined a neologism, “Ichden,” referring to hervery own vocabulary: “I supply the wrong words / properlypronounced without error.” The title’s pun can only be approx-imated in English, but serendipitously that option existsbecause of one of the standard American dictionaries:Webster’s.

The English title Webster’s Youbster’s is problematic forseveral reasons. There is the change to plural, and the use offirst person is aligned with the standard dictionary. On theother hand, it is also a great working solution that allows thetranslation to capture some of the original poem’s force. Afterall, translation is not just interpretation but also experimenta-tion to the extent that the original text is experimental. This isthe aspect in which prose and poetry translations usually differ.In the tight space a poem occupies on the page, it is difficult tosteer around problems and find compromises that are not mis-taken for translation errors. But therein also lies the challenge:to keep what is lost in translation as minimal as possible.

that a literary work must refer to areality. Even though literature oftendoes refer to a “reality” outside the text,an important imaginary world is the lin-guistic text itself. The texture andrhythm of a poem create—together withthe poem’s sheer physical presence onthe page—that poem’s primary world,which needs to be adequately expressedin the translation. I am currentlyworking with some poems by ThomasKling from his 1996 collection morsch.These experimental poems react towhat I have described above as newrealities, and use a language that hasbeen reshaped accordingly and thatworks on two levels. The first level con-sists of what might be called “eyedialect”: spellings that look unusual, butsimply follow a different orthographywithout changing the pronunciation.Similar to the English spelling of “sez”for “says,” Kling spells “di” for thearticle “die” and “leism” for “leisem” aswell as “nachz” for “nachts.” Thesecond level, however, is an imaginativeplay with language such as the ono-matopoetic spelling “abstrrzz” (crrssh)for “Absturz” (crash).

Another problem lies in translatingreferences to elements that are specificto one culture. Translation is increas-ingly seen not as a simple movementfrom one language to another, but ratheras a complex interaction between twocultural systems. Multicultural litera-ture, which flourished in Germany

Contemporary German Poetry and English Translation Continued


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The Scene of the Crime

Most authors are wary about rereading their own pub-lished work. Hemingway considered such work a“dead lion” already hunted and done with. On the

other hand, Walt Whitman returned to Leaves of Grass yearafter year, adding poems and sometimes blunting the effects ofearlier versions. With nothing else to read on a train in EasternEurope, Garcia Marquez, who claims never to read his pub-lished books, picked up Cien años de soledad. At first he wasimpressed, but then was overcome with growing dismay atwhat he read. “I couldn’t believe all the things I saw that couldhave been done better” (Ref. 1).

Recently, I had the opportunity to reread and revise my firstnovel, Un invierno en el infierno, for a second edition. I foundthis to be both a painful pleasure and a pleasing torment, goingover the printed pages with a surer footing in Spanish afterhaving lived in Mexico, and with seven years of translationexperience under my belt.

First published in 1988, Un invierno en el infierno was atrompe l’oeil translation, right down to the footnotes stating“untranslatable pun.” At one point, the character Eric cries out,“The language of Shakespeare and utilitarian philosophers cannotcontain my anguish” (Ref. 2). I thought this was a good strategy,since then people could blame any mistakes on a bad translation.

Some things were uncannily, if accidentally, on target: “Lacogió en la ducha” (he seized her in the shower). Anyone with apassing knowledge of Mexican street Spanish knows that cogermeans more that to merely grab. I was ignorant of this at the time,but the obscene convergence gave the text a nice jolt. (More onthe topic of bad words later.) On the other hand, naranjales luju-riosos (lusty orange groves) exemplifies English interference(Ref. 3). Luxuriant orange groves were what I had in mind.

When I wrote Un invierno en el infierno in 1987, I was livingin a nondescript California suburb, a collection of flimsyhouses, shopping centers, and trailer parks called Freedom. Itwas within driving distance of Big Sur, endowed with awesomenatural beauty and snobbish resorts like Carmel and PebbleBeach—all of which figure largely in the novel. In hindsight, itis altogether fitting that Freedom be the cradle for a book thathas the quest for freedom at its core. Un invierno en el infiernowas meant as a warning from the so-called First World aboutthe perils of having a McDonald’s on every street corner and thedark side of the American dream. Writing the novel in Spanishwould help it cross many borders and find many readers.

Since the book was written in its entirety in California, I wasat the mercy of dictionaries (musty Spanish-English dictionariesfrom the local library) to hammer out the expressions. These dic-tionaries contained the Spanish of Spain, and they led me astrayon a number of points: offering the word palique for chit-chat,una pajarota for farse, caramba for wow—aberrations never to

be seen or heard again, at least until theadvent of a new edition. These Spanish-isms had to be weeded out, one by one.The worst offender was a little greenSpanish-English pocket dictionary froma Mexican press: the meaning forwaive, for instance, appeared assaludar.

Translating?Henry James once remarked to

Joseph Conrad when he saw Conrad’sfirst language creeping into his writing,“That’s not English, that’s Polish.”

Besides knowing Polish, Conradhad a total command of French, themost continental language, yet henever translated a word of his worksinto French. Indeed, there is an inbornresistance in authors, even when totallyfluent in other languages, to translatethemselves. Why is this? Here’s anillustration from my own experience. Afriend in New York translated a fewpages of my first book. Their beautyand penetration I could never hope tomatch, so adept was his translation. Ionly wish he’d finished the job. Thiscould be why polyglot writers prefer toleave the drudgery to other hands andwitness the miraculous birth from afarrather than be a midwife. Taking thesame work, a gifted translator canmake it even better.

Indeed, when talking about Borges’Seven Nights, Eliot Weinberger did nothesitate to tell me, “my translation isbetter that the original.” When trans-

Notes of a Bilingual Writer

By Grady Miller

...This could be why polyglot writers prefer to leave the drudgery to other hands....Taking the same work, a gifted translator can make it even better...

Continued on p. 20



Going to HavanaWhen sitting down to recreate my story The Havana Broth-

erhood, written in English, it was a tall order indeed.The Nicaraguan Rubén Darío said that an essential part of

the poet’s task was “to take the advantages of one language andconvert them into another.” If this is the case, then writing inone’s own language is to crowd all possible advantages in oneplace. If The Havana Brotherhood was well written, it waswell nigh untranslatable. Unique constructions like “all-Amer-ican” and “on-again off-again girlfriend” become “como untipo americano,” and “su novia a ratos,” thus losing all itsoriginal flavor. The challenge was to recast it in another lan-guage without losing too much.

Cultural-specific elements, especially those having to dowith American popular culture, had to go, of course. There isreally no Spanish equivalent of “Dragnet.” Another phrasewhich would mystify Spanish readers, described the customsarea of the Houston airport: “a cavernous hall like a computer-age Ellis Island.” That, too, was jettisoned.

The Havana Brotherhood concerns a fledgling New Yorkstock broker vacationing in Mexico. He belongs to the league ofAmerican smokers for whom a Havana cigar isn’t everything, it’sthe only thing. These coveted cigars can be acquired in Mexico,which Harry does, going to extraordinary lengths to conceal themon his person and smuggle them into the United States.

Ask yourself what aspects come into play in this passage:

The key to a well-enacted crime was to behave as normallyas possible, stick to regular habits, yes sir. He had learnedthat from a hundred episodes of Dragnet. But what all thetelevised crimes left out was the sweaty, nauseous, tinglingfeeling, the awfulness that seized the body and pit of thestomach (Ref. 6).

La clave de un crimen bien realizado era comportarse lomás normal posible. Lo había aprendido de la televisión. Loque todos los crímenes televisivos omiten, Harry se diocuenta ahora, es la sudorosa y cosquillosa sensación, la hor-rible zozobra nauseabunda que agarraba el cuerpo y la bocadel estómago (Ref. 7).

In a nutshell the theme is: What happens when an ordinaryperson, an innocent, gets enmeshed in the talons of crime, andwhat indescribable trials does the person suffer? Quite theopposite of the workaday indignance of a professional hit manwho was once overheard in a lawyer’s office saying: “The lawhas me down for killing fifteen people, and it’s only been thir-teen. Lawyer, set the record straight.”

There’s a scene with a Cuban woman who comes close tocatching Harry with the box in his pants, asking “Do you have

lating a book of lectures given in the1970s, Weinberger had to do much fac-tual research and separate deliberateBorgesian bluffs from the lapses of anelderly writer’s memory.

This brings up an ethical question:Is it ethical to make something better?It’s like the case of the child living withadopted parents who, in the long run,may be better suited for the child thanthe biological parents. And when theprize at stake is the elusive essence ofpoetry, the vibration of literature, thereader is grateful at the end of the day.

The author who perhaps most closelyresembles my own case is SamuelBeckett, the Irish playwright. He lived inFrance and wrote many works, first inFrench and then in English, stubbornlyclaiming that he never translated anyone of his works. Instead, he insistedthat it was a labor of literary recreation.As a result, two virtually different writ-ings were created. Rather than stigma-tizing translation, I think Beckett’s over-stating the case comes from an excess ofpoetic sensibility. He was not able to seethe forest from the word-trees.

One scholar defines a successfultranslation as “one that, as far as pos-sible, presents the same information asthe original, interpreted and addressedto the reader in that same way, whileadopting different strategies wherenecessary to meet the audiences’needs” (Ref. 4). Under the heading ofstrategies, many different aspects comeinto play: cultural, linguistic aspects,as well as register, naturalness of dia-logue, formality or informality, toneand tempo, paragraphing, and sentencelength. Finally, there is the plasticmaterial of language itself, andbetween one language and anotherthere will be different choices ofphrase and object. The skeleton mayremain the same, but the skin, the epi-dermis, will differ and wear differentcolors. Add all this up, and you’re inthe ballpark of literary recreation.

Notes of a Bilingual Writer Continued


a bomb and are you going to blow up the plane?” Instead ofreporting him, she has sympathy for his real dilemma. In doingthe Spanish dialogue I unconsciously avoided Cuban accenteddialect, because what she was saying was more important thanhow she said it.

Es riesgoso porque si los cachan vendiendo puros en el mer-cado negro, podrían pasar quince años en la cárcel.

It’s awful what people do to survive in Cuba. My brotherworks at one of the cigar factories and pays off the guard sothey can carry boxes out in their clothes. Or they have some-body keeping watch, and from an upstairs window they throwthe box to someone below. It’s a risky business because if theyget caught selling cigars on the black market, they could go tojail for fifteen years (Ref. 1).

Si los cachan eventually became si los descubren. A mexi-canismo has to be changed for a more direct term. In fact, itwas pointed out at the St. Louis ATA Annual Conference thatthis is an americanismo deriving from the verb “to catch.”Allthis linguistic mestizaje suggests an important phenomenon.

The U.S. has witnessed the closest thing to Bolivar’sdream of a united America come true-every country’s bor-ders dissolved into one great pan-American nation. TheU.S.’s economic and political magnet has drawn Spanish-speaking people from diverse lands, from Cuba, Puerto Rico,Chile, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico (more coun-tries than Theodore Roosevelt could shake his big stick at),all rubbing shoulders in major cities, mixing language, andblending and bending it. You will find South Americanspicking up mexicanismos, thanks to the unubiquitousness ofMexican telenovelas.

Yet, I have been warned off Mexican Spanish by many infavor of a more universal Spanish, especially where basicunderstanding is hindered. This came vividly home whengoing over a text with a Salvadorian, he didn’t know the wordbanqueta meant sidewalk. They say acera. These are theeffects of linguistic globalization.

Here is a personal peeve of mine. A number of Americannovelists get translated into Spanish from Spain. When theydo, the result is often linguistic oppression from across theseas. For example, the word jilipollas, which sound about asthreatening as your grandmother’s aunt, is used for cabrón.

Dirty WordsDirty words have been the bane of many a translator,

demonstrating ignorance and prudery.You will remember The Treasure of the Sierra Madre even if

you don’t remember its author, B. Traven, a mystery man.

Living half a century of exile inMexico, his seclusion protected byferocious guard dogs, Traven eschewedphotographs and claimed to be Amer-ican born, and yet when his Americanpublishers received his manuscripts,they were riddled by clumsy Teutonicoaths: “hell and demons alive,” “Iunleash a thousand devils on you.” Allof which had to be remedied (Ref. 5).

In this respect, The Havana Broth-erhood gave me some dirty work.

In English:Harry was the kind of man whowouldn’t jaywalk or park in a hand-icapped space. Yet, here he was withcontraband on his ass.

In Spanish:Harry era el tipo de persona que nocruzaría la calle donde no hubieralíneas pintadas ni se estacionaría enun lugar para menusválidos niregresaría tarde sus libros a la bib-lioteca. Sin embargo, aquí estabacon contrabando en el culo.

Finding a translation equivalent for“ass” was a thorny problem, since Iwanted to duplicate the coarse yet off-hand nature of American slang. It turnsout that only the people in Spain willknow what was intended. I recentlylearned that for some in Mexico culorefers to a divergent part of theanatomy, and yet another part for Cen-tral Americans. The true meaning waslost. Finally, I opted for the milder andless ambiguous trasero, sacrificing thealliteration of culo y contrabando.

In Traven’s case, two out of threesentences betrayed a Germanic struc-ture. When translating The HavanaBrotherhood from English to Spanish,there were changes in word order,flip-flops in subject and verb, and thesentence’s length in English. The

Continued on p. 22


most notorious sentence-structureproblem arose in translating The LastWords of Einstein, written first inSpanish and then into English. Thelong opening sentence capitalizes onall the advantages of Spanish, with sub-ordinate clauses seamlessly flowinginto the whole.

Apoya en la cabecera de la cama ladespeinada cabeza con cabellerablanca de un conductor de orquestaque ha interpretado las notas másignotas de la partitura del cosmos.

A literal translation: “Resting on theheadboard was the head with the longhair of an orchestra conductor whohad interpreted the universe’s mostarcane notes.” This was a great chal-lenge that required downright re-cre-ation. The sentence acquired the floraof new adjectives to get its messageacross. It became: “On the pillow liesthe wrinkled head wreathed in theflowing white hair of an orchestraconductor who has coaxed the uni-verse’s most unfathomable notes.”

PlaytimeWhen a work gets translated in the

presence of its author, it not only getsre-created, but sometimes created.Cabrera Infante joined forces with histranslator for Pavana para una infantadifunta, and the boisterous wordplayextended 30 more pages that the orig-inal. Considering that English isrenowned for running shorter than theSpanish, this speaks of the magnitude oftheir feat. Also, when Borges and ayoung American collaborated on trans-lating his later stories in the early 1970s,they created memorable lines that donot exist in the original Spanish version.

En el duro suburbio, un hombre nodecía, ni se decía, que una mujerpudiera importarle más allá deldeseo y la posesión... (Ref. 6)

It’s a far cry from:

Only a fairy would admit to thinking so much about awoman (Ref. 7).

ConclusionThe author as translator has the freedom to add and subtract,

to reshape, amplify, and destroy. Slight, or gaping, variations maybe noted in my translations. For example, in The Last Words ofEinstein I threw out a clumsy headboard and replaced with anethereal pillow. With this act of re-creation, the story benefits; itis one more chance to go over it, clean it up, and make improve-ments. With The Havana Brotherhood, I truly had the experienceof English into Spanish and back again. In the process even thetitle changed, from Operation Castro to La cofradía de LaHabana, and finally to The Havana Brotherhood.

I am now engaged in translating the short novel, Losrehenes de Veracruz, a tale of psychological horror that con-cerns sinister organ trafficking in the Mexican port of Veracruz(psychological being defined as: you imagine the blood, youdon’t have to see it). When English readers discover Losrehenes de Veracruz, it will be called Outsourcing, and therewill be cuts in some places and new additions sprout in others.

As the effort progresses, I am reminded time and again ofBorges’ dictum: “The original was not faithful to the transla-tion.” It is, in fact, the bilingual writer’s right and privilege toglory in unfaithfulness.

References1. Poniatowska, Elena. Todo México: entrevistas. Mexico

City: Editorial Era, 1988.

2. Miller, Grady. Un inverno en el infierno. Guadalajara,Mexico: Ediciones Suárez y Muñoz, 1988, p. 56.

3. Bermel, Neil. “Discourse in English Translation of KarelCapek’s Tales from Two Pockets.” Translation Review,num. 55. Dallas: University of Dallas Press, 1998, p. 10.

4. Baumann, Michael L. B.Traven (una introducción). MexicoCity: FCE/SEP Cultura, 1978, pp. 67-68.

5. Ibid.

6. Borges, Jorge Luis, El informe de Brodie. Bueno Aires: Edi-torial Emecé, 1982.

7. Borges, Jorge Luis, Doctor Brodie’s Report. translated byNorman Thomas di Giovanni, New York: Dutton, 1971.

Notes of a Bilingual Writer Continued

not, as sometimes erroneously used,

Use of PrepositionsSometimes prepositions are not

properly used in translation. A different preposition or a clause iserroneously used for the prepositionwhich should be used. For example,the sentence: “To generate sufficient

resources to ensure construction,”should be translated

, and not is the proper

preposition which should follow ,which is an active participle derivedfrom a transitive verb , and as suchit should be an indirect object, namely

A frequent error is the translation of“for” by the preposition in casessuch as the following: “For manyyears”: . This letter doesnot express the meaning of “for.” It isnot a time adverb. The correct transla-tion should be or

or just .

Some languages, like English, permitconsecutive verbs and nouns to be fol-lowed by different prepositions. Forinstance: “He expressed his approval ofand support for the resolution.

In Arabic, it is erroneous to place ina consecutive manner two differentnouns or verbs, where one is followedby a preposition and the other, being atransitive verb or a noun derived from

This article seeks to elucidate a number of linguistic andstylistic points encountered when a text is translatedbetween Arabic and English, with a rather expanded

treatment of the ways the Arabic verbal noun (al-masdar) istranslated into English.

Translation Using the Arabic Verbal Noun (Al-Masdar)When the Arabic verbal noun, al-masdar, is used to express

a general meaning it is, according to the dominant practice,preceded by the definite article . The corresponding verbalnoun in English comes, again according to the dominant prac-tice, without the definite article. Thus, is translated as“life”: : Life is difficult; means punishment.

: Punishment is necessary. When the Arabic verbal noun is meant to express a partic-

ular being or thing, it comes without the definite article, and inthis case its English equivalent is introduced with the indefinitearticle “a”: : a fighting; : a martyrdom.

English continuous tense, which denotes a state or anaction, is usually translated into a verbal noun with the definitearticle. For instance:

Upon arriving to the train station:.

Upon concluding the conference: . (Inthis case, the verbal noun is not introduced with the definitearticle because of the idafa construct). In learning there: . After coming to the house: .

These practices and rules, however, are not alwaysobserved. There is no consistency in their application.

It is preferable to start with a suitable indefinite verbalnoun, , when translating English sentences whichstart with an indefinite verbal noun. For instance, in the fol-lowing sentence: “A just peace will bring prosperity to theregion,” it is preferable to say:

, rather thansaying .

Some nouns in English express the meaning of the verbalnoun and of the group or totality of members sharing the con-tent of that noun. For example, membership, leadership, andfollowing should be translated, respectively, as

and , with allowance of insertingbefore these nouns in the plural form:

and so on.

Word Redundancy In some translations, there is word redundancy. For

example, the translation of “We have taken ten weeks to gethere” should be , and

Translation between Arabic and English: Points of Language and Style

By Taysir Nashif

...This article seeks to elucidate anumber of linguistic and stylistic pointsencountered when a text is translatedbetween Arabic and English...

Continued on p. 24


a transitive verb, does not need to befollowed by a preposition. Forexample, the following structure iserroneous: : Hewelcomed and received the guest, as

must be followed by the preposi-tion . For the same reason, it is erro-neous to say: :He received and welcomed the guest.

The way out of this difficultywould be to mention the firstverb/noun and then to mention thesecond verb/noun with the introduc-tion of the needed changes. Thus, wecan say: : Hewelcomed and received the guest,

: Wel-coming and reception of the guest,

: He welcomedand received the guest,

: Reception and wel-coming of the guest.

One more example. We should say:

: In the protection, keeping anddefence of the republic, and not:

However, there is another way todeal with this matter. In cases wherenouns or verbs are followed, beingregarded as transitive, by the sameprepositions, or which, being regardedas transitive verbs, are not followed by a preposition, one can choose either the option of regarding bothverbs or their derivatives as transitiveor as intransitive. Thus, we can say:

:Acknowledged and accepted it,acknowledgement and acceptance ofit, or, with the same meaning and wayof translation,

: He acknowledged and acceptedit, acknowledgement and acceptanceof it.

One more example of verbs andtheir derivatives, which is both transi-tive and intransitive, is and

(emphasized).

Active Participle and Placing of WordsRelated to the indirect object of an active participle is the

placing of words in a sentence. For the sake of clarity, it isadvisable to place words in texts where, because of the fact thatactive participles derived from transitive verbs receive indirectobjects, such placing makes a difference in terms of meaning.For example, in the phrase “The previous sessions of theworking group,” it is preferable to use the following mode oftranslation: instead of

, as the latter translation means “Thesessions which preceded the working group,” which is notwhat this phrase is intended to express.

One more example is . As is atransitive verb, then its active participle, , received anindirect object of . In this case, the phrase wouldmean an election which frightens the presidency, thoughconventionally it is translated as meaning “a startling elec-tion to the presidency.”

By the same token, the sentence should be translated as “a method which disturbs work,”though the intended meaning is “a disturbing method of work.”

As the active participle of a transitive verb receives an indi-rect object, it would be erroneous to insert beforethe indirect object. In the following sentence,

, the phrase is not needed. Whatshould be said would be , the lastphrase, , being the indirect object of the active par-ticiple .

Translation of “Dis-”In many cases, the prefix “dis-” conveys the opposite. It is,

therefore, erroneous to translate words which start with “dis-”with this meaning into or , as both these words havea neutral meaning. Thus, distrust should be translated as

or and not as , disrespect andnot , dishonesty and not

, and dishonor and not .

Use of and It is an error which occurs in a considerable portion of

Arabic writings to translate “to” as in sentences such as: Itis time to call on the next speaker:

. The correct translation is: or....

Translation of “Would”There are several ways to translate “would,” depending on

its meaning. When “would” expresses conditionality, it is

Continued on p. 53


Translation Between Arabic and English Continued

order for speakers of many languagesto communicate with each other,hybrid languages evolved from non-standard contributions by the differentlanguage groups.

“Haitian Creole,” for instance, is thecreolized French spoken by the greatmajority of the inhabitants of Haiti. Thecreolized English spoken in Melasia isknown as “pidgin,” which—believe it ornot—means “business.” Papiamento,derived from Spanish and Portuguese,

is the lingua franca in the Caribbeanislands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao.The Creole State

Louisiana boasts particularly richcultural roots. France and Spain tookturns colonizing it before it became partof the United States. Native American,Anglo-American, and African Amer-ican cultures have mingled to producesuch distinctly American cultural trea-sures as jazz, zydeco, and Cajun music,to name a few. This would certainly bea fitting venue for a meeting of theAmerican Translators Association.

For more information on Louisiana,surf to:http://www.artsci.lsu.edu/poli/newla.htmlhttp://www.crt.state.la.us/crt/cse/cse.htm

Haitian Creole:http://babel.uoregon.edu/romance/rl407/creole/haitian.html

Note: This article was originally published in the March 2000issue of Chasqui, the newsletter of the Inter-American Devel-opment Bank.

As visitors to this year’s annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank in New Orleans strolledthrough the historic French quarter of the city, they

may have marveled at the creole architecture, savored somecreole cuisine, and noticed the distinctive Louisiana creolespeech. What is this exotic “creole” we’re talking about? Theterm has a number of different meanings, which all ultimatelyrefer to the colonization of the Americas and the various ethnicgroups that took part in it.

The English term “creole” was borrowed from the Frenchcréole, itself derived from the Spanish criollo. The Spanish, inturn, was based on the Portuguese crioulo, which originallymeant a slave born in his master’s house. English, French, Por-tuguese, and Spanish dictionaries all agree that “creole”/créole/criollo/crioulo can mean a black person born in thecolonies (as opposed to Africa), a white person born in thecolonies (as opposed to Europe), or any person or thing nativeto the Americas.

Local FlavorIn the southern U.S., especially in the Gulf states, a Creole

(note the capital “C” when referring to a person) could be awhite person descended from early French or sometimesSpanish settlers. This group, a crowd with ties to money and theOld Country, was focused mainly in New Orleans and preserveda characteristic form of French speech called Louisiana Creole.

Creole cuisine originally referred to more traditional Frenchcooking, but is now associated with highly seasoned food, suchas “shrinp creole,” typically prepared with rice, okra (anAfrican vegetable known for its thickening properties, which isdefnitely not used in France), tomatoes, and peppers (I wouldrecommend a nice, dry Chardonnay with that…).

Louisiana Creole should not be confused with “Cajun.” TheCajuns are the descendents of a different set of Frenchspeakers, originally from the Acadia region of Nova Scotia.After the English victory in Canada in the late 18th century, theAcadians came down the Mississippi and settled in ruralLouisiana. In a linguistic mutation, their name evolved fromacadien to “Cajun.” The Cajuns have their own dialect ofFrench and a distinctively spicy cuisine.

Lingua Franca“Creole” can also refer to a number of so-called “creolized”

languages. Creoles developed in places like ports where, in

Creole: Made in the Americas

By Alexandra Russell-Bitting

...Creoles developed in places likeports where, in order for speakers ofmany languages to communicate witheach other, hybrid languages evolvedfrom non-standard contributions bythe different language groups...


As the new millennium rolls on,the Spanish Language Divi-sion continues to grow in

number and to thrive in activities andenthusiasm. The SPD, the largest divi-sion in the ATA family, celebrates withpride as it enters its fourth year of exis-tence, with over 1,459 members in itsranks. However, numbers alone do notcount. It is our activities and the enthu-siasm shown by all our members thatmake our division such a great one.

The SPD has taken some unprece-dented steps and grown in leaps andbounds in recent times. We continuethe momentum that was started afterthe division’s inconspicuous birth inNovember of 1996 at the close of theATA’s 37th Annual Conference in Col-orado Springs, when six intrepid andenthusiastic Spanish translators daredall challenges and secured authoriza-tion from the ATA Board to launch theSPD. The May issue of the Chronicle,in which the Spanish language is fea-tured, gives me the opportunity toreport on some of our great achieve-ments during our short three and a halfyears of life in the ATA.

Intercambios, our most excellentnewsletter, was first published in thesummer of 1997, and was the first ser-vice provided to the SPD membershipin its early days of existence. It was inMay of that year when, as actingadministrator, I called for volunteers totake on the editorial responsibility ofthe newsletter that was being planned.Only one person responded to the call:Pilar Saslow, who rose to the occasionand accepted the challenge. And whata great job she has done since those

early days, and how thankful we must all be to her. By the endof 1997, the first two issues of the newsletter had been pub-lished. At the SPD Annual Meeting during the ATA’s 38thAnnual Conference in San Francisco in 1997, participantsselected Intercambios from among a slate of names suggestedby SPD members as the name for the division newsletter. Sincethen, Intercambios has continued to provide its timely service,growing in quality and editorial excellence, as well as in mem-bership participation. And as time and the new millenniumrequire changes, we are ready for the next step. To face thischallenge, we will begin to distribute Intercambios electroni-cally (unless members do not have e-mail or have requested toreceive it by snail mail in the “old-fashioned” paper form). Ourdeepest gratitude to Pilar Saslow and to the great team of con-tributors, proofreaders, correspondents, and volunteers she hasgathered to produce our showcase publication. And to thosewho have not yet begun to participate, don’t wait any longer.Start to contribute so that you may also enjoy the pleasures ofbeing part of our great newsletter.

And then came Espalista! It was over a year later, duringthe fall of 1998 that, as administrator of the SPD, I proposedthe idea of a division listserve to the ATA leadership. It wouldtake many months of discussions and lengthy negotiations tomake it a reality. Once more, the division was lucky to be ableto secure the best volunteers for the job of list moderators. AsPilar Saslow had done over a year before when she stepped upto take on Intercambios, first Xose Castro and, soon after,Cristina Márquez accepted the challenge and rose to the occa-sion to become the co-moderators of the yet-to-be-bornSpanish Language Division listserve. Lengthy negotiationscontinued, the guidelines came into being, and the listserveacquired a name: Espalista. But even if Espalista had beenconceived and had a name and guidelines of its own, it stillneeded time to be born. During the SPD Annual Meeting inHilton Head, plans for Espalista were disclosed to members,with the expectation that it would soon be operational. Littledid we know that it would take exactly nine months for it to beborn. It was on July 18,1999 that it came into being. Even if itsbirth was not an easy one, it certainly caught on. Just ask anyone of those 250 fanatic and die-hard Espalisteros and theywill tell you. It was certainly an idea whose time had come,and another one of the great services offered by the SPD. So,if you have not tried it yet, join Espalista and begin to savor thepleasures of a true cyberspace community of professionaltranslators who profusely enjoy their vocation and their fel-lowship every hour of the day (and night), every day of theweek, every month of the year, through long threads and never-ending electronic discussions.

Then comes the ATA Annual Conference, which affordsSPD members an opportunity to enjoy good fellowship during

The Spanish Language Division: Going on Four Years of Growth

By Alicia S. V. Marshall

...The SPD has taken some unprecedented steps and grown inleaps and bounds in recent times...


its annual social event, as well as an excellent program for pro-fessional growth and development with first-rate presentationsand workshops. So, make plans for Orlando and don’t miss oursocial event and the many educational sessions that will beoffered. This year, the SPD is planning a special surprise for allattendees. Be sure to be there so you can be a winner.

Since the Annual Conference in San Francisco, the SPDhas sponsored an official guest who has shared with the mem-bers his knowledge and expertise in the field of translation andthe Spanish language. First, it was Ricardo Naidich, the then-president of the Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudadde Buenos Aires, who spoke to us on the defense of theSpanish language during the San Francisco ATA Annual Con-ference. In Hilton Head, our guest was Miguel Wald, editor ofIdiomania and movie translator. Last year, we had the honorof welcoming Alberto Gómez Font, philologist from theAgencia EFE in Spain, who is now contributing a column toIntercambios. This year Raúl Ávila, from the Colegio deMexico, has accepted our invitation to come to Orlando. Letus all show our appreciation by participating in his workshopand attending his session.

And to those who cannot attend the ATA Annual Confer-ence, the SPD offers them an opportunity to enjoy some of thegood sessions presented in the course of this yearly profes-sional event. Last year, the SPD compiled and published aselection of papers related to Spanish from the Hilton Headconference. In view of its success, this year the division hasagain compiled and published a selection of papers related toSpanish from the St. Louis conference. Both books are avail-able from ATA Headquarters. Place your order right away. At$15, this year’s compilation, a 200-page book with 20 presen-tations, is an excellent buy. And if you wish, you can still pur-chase the selection from the Hilton Head presentations foronly $10.

There is still more the Spanish Language Division is tryingto offer its members. Our Technology Committee is stillworking hard to create our Web page. The Electronic GlossaryCommittee continues to work to develop the proposal for aSPD electronic glossary. And then there is the survey to mea-sure the interest of the membership in holding a future divisionmini conference in 2001, to which I urge you to respond. So ifyou have not yet become an enthusiastic SPD member, I hopethat, as you read this article, you will decide to join your otherfellow translators. Contribute to Intercambios, become aEspalistero, celebrate with your colleagues at the SPD socialevent and attend the SPD Annual Meeting during the ATAAnnual Conference, respond to the survey regarding our pos-sible mini conference, and be a part of this great division of theATA. See you all in the Spanish Language Division!

To find out what your ATA membership

can do for you, turn to page 4.

MEMBERSHIP HASITS PRIVILEGES!



For those of us who translate intoSpanish, certain grammaticalrules can seem so basic, so

obvious, that they hardly merit atten-tion. Such is the case with agree-ment—whether between subject andverb, noun and adjective, or pronounand antecedent. After all, everyoneknows that we say el pato bonito, butlas patas bonitas. Everyone agrees;everyone is happy.

But in practice we frequently runinto cases where the issue of agreementis less than obvious. This article offers asmattering of these cases and surveysthe opinions of various authorities onthe language, especially when (gasp!)they don’t agree among themselves.

The Case of the Traveling Band:Collective Nouns

One of the most frequently encoun-tered issues of difficulty in agreementinvolves collective nouns. Consider thefollowing examples:

El 37 por ciento de las empresas con-sultadas no… ¿ha o han?… tomadolas medidas necesarias.

La mayoría de los militares envi-ados a Timor Oriental… ¿es austri-aliana o son australianos?

Both of these sentences feature asingular collective noun as the subject(37 por ciento, mayoría) followed by aprepositional phrase with a pluralobject (empresas, militares). Do westick to our guns and insist on using a

singular verb that agrees with the subject? Or may we let theverb be plural, as is widely done in both spoken and writtenlanguage? Let’s refer this question to the “experts.”

The highly respected Libro de Estilo of the Spanish news-paper El País orders the verb to agree in the singular, except “incertain cases.” Thus, we would use a singular verb to say Ungrupo de personas se reunió ayer…, or El 60 por ciento de losencuestados opina… However, if we blindly follow this rule tothe letter, we might end up with such absurdities as the fol-lowing:

El 5 por ciento de las mujeres quedó embarazado. (Huh?)

Un millón de personas desfiló por las calles. (Yuck)

In cases such as these, according to El País, it is permissibleto break the otherwise unbreakable agreement between subjectand verb. The proper choices here would be quedaronembarazadas and desfilaron. Similarly, I would consider thesecond of the first two examples above to call for agreement inthe plural, although this is perhaps debatable: La mayoría delos militares son australianos. (Or, we could just rephrase thesentence: Los militares son en su mayoría australianos.)

What does the Manual de Español Urgente (MEU) have tosay about this? While recognizing that even the most illus-trious writers use a plural verb, it recommends using the sin-gular, siempre y cuando no se produzca un resultado querepugne el sentido lingüístico (heaven forbid). In essence, thisis the same opinion as that of El País.

But before we smugly pack away our books, let’s see what pre-eminent linguist Manuel Seco has to say: Es más fácil la concor-dancia en plural cuando el colectivo lleva un complemento espec-ificativo en plural: Infinidad de personas ignoran esto; La mitadde los habitantes han emigrado. Leave it to Seco to defy thewisdom of El País and the MEU. (Or was it the other way around?)

Mexican author Sandro Cohen offers us the most user-friendly option: En esta clase de construcciones el redactor eslibre de elegir el número en que habrá de conjugarse el verbo,según dicte la lógica. Therefore, says Cohen, we may useeither the singular or the plural:

Un gran número de personas salieron a aplaudir al candidato.Or: Un gran número de personas salió a aplaudir al candidato.

Un sinnúmero de alimañas devoraron lo que el tigre dejó.Or: Un sinnúmero de alimañas devoró lo que el tigre dejó.

In summary, the authorities don’t agree on agreement. Howappropriate.

Perhaps the most frustrating moment in our quest for

Agreeing to Disagree

By Paul Coltrin

...This article offers a smattering ofthese cases and surveys the opinions of

various authorities on the language,especially when (gasp!) they don’t

agree among themselves...

answers to questions of grammar and usage comes with therealization that even the most vaunted authorities contradictone another. This can be especially disconcerting to those whothought they had long ago learned the one and only rule,etched in stone from here till kingdom come. Similarly disap-pointed are those of us who crave the comfort of knowing thatours is the only correct way to say it, and that others are wrongwhen they say it differently.

But as desirable as it may be to rely on a single immutable rule,and as much as we may favor one reference work’s opinion overanother’s, we would be remiss—even arrogant—to discount thediversity of opinions. In cases such as these, we have little choicebut to accept that there is more than one “correct” solution.

The Case of the Missing Perpetrator: Passive and Impersonal se

It is common to hesitate when writing sentences such as thefollowing:

Aquí… ¿se vende or se venden?… dulces.

Con esa maravillosa dieta… ¿se pierde o se pierden?… loskilos sin esfuerzo alguno.

Para mañana se… ¿espera o esperan?… chubascos.

Seco offers an excellent explanation. In some cases, hesays, the word se is used with no reflexive effect, and indicatesthe passive nature of the verb. This passive construction onlyoccurs in the third person (singular or plural), and refers onlyto things (as opposed to people). The verb agrees with the nounreceiving the action of the verb. This noun actually serves asthe subject of the sentence, even though it does not perform theaction expressed in the verb:

Aquí se reparan televisores.Aquí se venden dulces.Se esperan chubascos.

On the other hand, as Seco explains, se can also be used togive the sentence an impersonal quality. This construction onlyoccurs in the third person singular, has no grammatical subject,and may take a person as its direct object. Here are some exam-ples of impersonal se:

Se respeta (not se respetan) a los ancianos.Aquí se vive feliz.Se debe castigar a quienes no cumplan con sus obligaciones.

The Case of the Multi-HeadedMonster:Compound Subjects

Should the verb be singular orplural in the following sentence?

¿ Provocó o provocaron?…hilaridad el payaso, el gato yla malabarista.

Here, we have a verb preceding acompound subject, which consists of aseries of singular nouns joined by theconjunction y. Cohen says that eitherthe singular or plural verb would beacceptable in this case. Seco also rec-ognizes that the verb frequently agreesonly with the subject noun closest to it,especially in spoken language. As anexample he cites an author no lessweighty than Cervantes:

A todo esto se opone mi honestidady los consejos continuos que mispadres me daban.

But, continues Seco, those payingcareful attention to style strive toestablish “normal” agreement. Also,note that if the same sentence werewritten with the verb following thecompound subject, the verb wouldhave to be plural:

El payaso, el gato y la malabaristaprovocaron hilaridad.

Nevertheless, there are cases inwhich the items joined by y should beconsidered a single unit, and the verbshould be singular:

Es constante su ir y venir.El flujo y reflujo de ideas estimulael debate.A los políticos les fascina el estira yafloja de las negociaciones.

But what happens if the elements of

Continued on p. 30



Agreeing to Disagree Continued

the compound subject are joined by theconjunction o rather than y? If all ofthese elements are singular, then wemay use either a singular or plural verb.A singular verb is usually the more log-ical choice: El médico o un enfermeroatenderá al paciente. But usage doesallow for use of the plural: Le llamaronla atención su belleza o su simpatía.

And as if this weren’t complicatedenough, there’s a twist if one of theelements joined by o is plural. Notonly should we use a plural verb, butwe should arrange the sentence so thatthe plural noun is as close as possibleto the verb:

El piloto o los tripulatnes pediránayuda.Or: Pedirán ayuda los tripulantes oel piloto.

The Case of the Promiscuous Adjective

Confusion often results when anadjective modifies more than onenoun. Should the adjective be singularor plural? Masculine or feminine?Let’s look at the following phrases, inwhich the adjective follows the nounsit modifies:

coherencia y claridad extraordinari__

talento y habilidad extremad__ciudades y pueblos destruid__

According to Seco, we may use a sin-gular adjective to modify two singularnouns if the nouns can be considered asingle unit. Thus, it would be possible tosay coherencia y claridad extraordi-naria. If the nouns are not of the samegender, continues Seco, the adjectivewould agree in gender with the nounclosest to it: talento y habilidadextremada. Or, for clarity’s sake, wemay resort to the plural masculine adjec-tive: talento y habilidad extremados.

In the case of plural nouns of dif-

ferent gender, Seco says that the adjective may be either mas-culine or—if the last noun is feminine—feminine. Thus, thefollowing three phrases would be equivalent:

ciudades y pueblos destruidospueblos y ciudades destruidaspueblos y ciudades destruidos

However, the third option is clearly superior, as it leaves nodoubt as to the writer’s intent. If the adjective precedes the nounsit modifies, then it should agree with the noun closest to it:

su extremada hermosura y talentosu amable sonrisa y consejossu enorme sabiduría y suerte

If, as writers, we wish to have the adjective modify only the firstnoun in the above cases, then we must place an article or posses-sive adjective before successive nouns. This makes it clear that weare “segregating” the other nouns from the descriptive adjective:

su amable sonrisa y sus consejos (Here, the advice is notnecessarily friendly.)su enorme sabiduría y la suerte (His/her/their luck mightnot be so huge.)

The Case of the Matchmaking VerbLet’s look at the following sentences:

Los violadores… ¿es o son?… gente enferma.Todo lo que él dice… ¿es o son?… puras mentiras.

Both of these sentences are looking to use a conjugatedform of the verb ser as a linking verb (verbo copulativo),which forms an equal sign between the subject and the predi-cate noun. Once again, “normal” agreement calls for the sub-ject and verb to agree:

Los violadores son gente enferma.Sus ojos son la belleza misma.

But, as Cohen explains, there are cases where the predicatenoun exerts so much influence on the verb, that it forces theverb to agree with it instead of the subject:

Cuando bajó del vagón, se dio cuenta de que lo que habíavisto eran pequeños animales de color gris oscuro.Mi vida eres tú.El pato feo de la familia soy yo.

In fact, it could be argued in such cases that normal sentencestructure is reversed, i.e., the verb is preceded by the predicatenoun and followed by the subject.


Once again, there are times when the verb may be eithersingular or plural:

Lo que él necesita es (o son) ganas de triunfar.Todo aquello fueron (o fue) cuestiones de simple criterio.

As always, our good linguistic sense must prevail in decidingwhether to use the singular or the plural. It’s worthwhile toobserve that English does not allow for this option. I amreminded here of the hook line of a popular song: You are every-thing, and everything is you. By merely switching the subjectand predicate noun, the verb was forced to change accordingly.Could this subtle wordplay be emulated in Spanish?

The Case of the Cross-Dressing KingThis last example is rarely encountered in the real world.

But, entertainment value aside (could he be called a dragking?), it speaks eloquently of the need to place common sensebefore strict grammatical rules. Assume that in the followingsentence Su Alteza refers to male royalty:

Su Alteza está sumamente… ¿disgustada o disgustado?…ante la sublevación de los plebeyos.

In this case, there is a discrepancy between the king’s actualgender and the grammatical gender of his honorific. Theauthorities agree that titles such as merced, señoría, excelencia,and majestad should agree with the gender of the personreferred to. Therefore, we should say:

Su Alteza está sumamente disgustado…Su Excelencia será recibido por el Presidente (if su Exce-lencia is a male).

SummaryTo summarize this study of agreement, it could be said that

there are more exceptions than rules. Even worse, at times thereseem to be as many different opinions as there are linguisticauthorities. But one thing is certain: At times it is possible,preferable, or even necessary to break the normal rules of gram-matical agreement. In the end, we should rely on our own well-informed sense of linguistic logic, rather than mechanicallyobeying rigid norms or, at the other extreme, mimicking theway we’ve always heard it said.

ReferencesAgencia EFE, Manual de Español Urgente.El País, Libro de Estilo.Manuel Seco, Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de la lenguaespañola.Sandro Cohen, Redacción sin dolor.


In July of 1999, the Ortografía de lalengua española, Edición revisadapor las Academias de la Lengua

Española was published by the RealAcademia Española (RAE). Althoughit reached bookstore shelves in Mexicoin September, I could not get a copy inthe U.S. until October, which was justin time for my ATA conference presen-tation on the modifications to accentrules that appear in this edition. Thesechanges were made to satisfy therequests of several American acade-mies. The new rules for accents will

standardize the use of the tilde inverbal forms when it appears with anon-accented pronoun in the sameword, for example, darme, verlo,mírame. The rules will also stan-dardize the placement of the graphicaccent in hiatuses and diphthongs,including au, eu, ou, in the final posi-tion. From now on, the writer has thefreedom to follow the general rules anddisregard the logical differences inpronunciation which occur in theSpanish language.

The purpose of this article is to presentthe new and old rules in a way that is easierto understand and remember. Althoughthere are very few changes, a review of therules that remain unchanged will proveuseful. For those who have a solid knowl-edge of grammar, just skimming over therules will be more than enough. I will alsoprovide a review of pairs of words (homographs) that differ by the accent,words that are stressed in different sylla-bles, and words of foreign origin.

Capital LettersCapital letters always have a written accent. The Academias de

la Lengua Española has never ruled to the contrary on this rule. Inthe past, it was sometimes technically impossible to accentuate thecapital vowels, because neither typesetters nor typewriters had thenecessary typefaces. However, today everything is done withcomputers, so capital letters must be accentuated. If they are not,the reader may not understand the correct prosody of the words.

Oxitones (oxitonas o agudas)These are words with more than one syllable that have the

stress or acute accent on the last syllable. (Monosyllables willbe discussed later.)

Oxitones have a written accent when:A) The last letter is an -n, -s, or a vowel. For example, café,

recibió, Tomás, afán.B) The stress is in a weak or closed vowel (i-u) that comes

after a strong or open vowel (a-e-o). They may or may notend in any consonant. For example, maíz, laúd, país,baúl, and Raúl.

Oxitones do not have a written accent when:A) The last letter is a consonant, with the exception of -n or

-s. For example, comer, reloj, farol, and alfil.B) The last letter is an -s that comes after another consonant.

For example, Llorens, Orleans, tictacs, and robots.C) The last letter is a y. In this case the y is considered a con-

sonant. For example, carey, Uruguay, convoy, virrey, andmaguey.

Paroxytones (graves o llanas)These are words that have the stress on the next to the last

syllable.

Paroxytones have a written accent when:A) The last letter is a consonant, with the exception of -n or -s.

For example, difícil, lápiz, carácter, álbum, and Héctor.B) The last letter is a y. In this case the y is considered a con-

sonant. For example, póney and yóquey.C) They end in any consonant followed by -n, o, or -s. For

example, fórceps, bíceps, and tríceps.

Proparoxytones (esdrújulas) Proparoxytones are words that have the stress on the ante-

penultimate syllable. All proparoxytones have a written accent.For example, teléfono, indígena, súbito, and recórcholis.

Superproparoxytones (sobresdrújulas) Superproparoxytones are words that have more than four

Spanish Spelling Reforms: Accents

By Margarita Friedman

...From now on, the writer has thefreedom to follow the general rules

and disregard the logical differencesin pronunciation which occur in the

Spanish language...


syllables and the stress is in the fourth syllable from the end.All superproparoxytones have a written accent. For example,dígamelo, cómetelo, and lléveselo.

So far, all the rules have been clear and easy. However,things get a little more complicated when we have words withtwo or more vowels next to each other. To understand the rules,let’s review diphthongs, triphthongs, and hiatuses.

Diphthongs Diphthongs are complex vowel sounds that begin with one

vowel and end with another within the same syllable. Since the“h” is a mute consonant, when it is between two vowels, it doesnot stop the diphthong from forming. For example, ahu-mar,ahi-jado, and prohi-bimos. There are two types of diphthongs.Those formed by:

A) A stressed open vowel (a, e, o) next to a non-stressedclosed vowel (i, u) in any order. The possible combina-tions are: ai/ia, au/ua, ei/ie, eu/ue, oi/io/, ou/uo, such as inaire, biaxial, causa, agua, peine, ciego, Eudosia, huevo,and cuota.

B) Two different closed vowels (iu/ui). For example, ruido,diurético, ciudadela, fuimos, and Luis.

Sometimes these vowel sounds are pronounced as hiatuses(gaps in the pronunciation between two successive vowels inadjacent words or syllables), either due to a speaker’s careless-ness or because of their social or geographic origin. Neverthe-less, for the purpose of graphic accents, they are always con-sidered diphthongs and should follow the general rules.

When sounds are formed by a stressed open vowel (á, é, ó) followed or preceded by a closed vowel (i, u), the written accentwill be placed on the stressed vowel (ái/iá, áu/uá, éi/ié, éu/ué,ói/ió/óu/uó). If the diphthong is formed by two closed vowels (i, u), thenthe accent is placed on the second vowel (uí, iú).

Oxytones: With a written accent: bonsái, recién, después, fragüéWithout a written accent: aguamiel, fraguar, Uruguay,maguey

Paroxytones: With a written accent: huéspedWithout a written accent: ahuehuete, lingüista, cuerdas,vienen

Proparoxytones: All have written accents: murciélago,casuística, muégano

The previous examples demonstrate how the general rules areapplied. Aguamiel has no written accent because it ends in a con-sonant that is not n or s. Uruguay does not have a written accentbecause, as we said before, the y here is considered a consonant.

Therefore, there is no diphthong in theword maguey.

TriphthongA triphthong is the compound

vowel sound resulting from threevowels pronounced in one syllable.They are formed when a stressed ornon-stressed open vowel (a, o, o) islocated between two closed vowels (i,u). The written accent in a triphthong isplaced according to the general rules,and always on the stressed open vowel.For example, despreciáis, averigüáis,and amortiguáis.

HiatusIn Latin, hiatus means “to open”

or “a crack.” In linguistics, a hiatus is the slight pause that occurs whentwo immediately adjacent vowelsbelonging to different syllables arepronounced. There is a tendency inSpanish to change hiatuses into falsediphthongs (diptongos impropios),such as in the words Joaquín, Leandro,roedor, and ahorcar, which are mispro-nounced as Joa-quín, roe-dor, andahor-car instead of Jo-a-quín, ro-e-dor, and a-hor-car. Sometimes twoconsecutive words are joined, creatinga synaloepha such as pediempleo,laimagen, lagua, lehice for pedíempleo, la imagen, la agua, and lehice. There are three types of hiatuses.Those formed by:

A) Two identical vowels, either openor closed (aa, ee, ii, oo, uu). Forexample, chiita and oogonio.

B) Two different open vowels (oa,oe, eo, ae). For example, teatro,coartada, enmohecido, Coahuila,and rubéola.

C) A non-stressed open vowel (a, e, o)followed or preceded by a stressed

Continued on p. 34


closed vowel (í, ú). For example,caímos, día, reúnen, roído, río,prohíbo grúa, and prohibía.

The first two types of hiatuses willhave a written accent according to thegeneral rules. Oóspora and zoólogohave a written accent because they areproparoxytones, but oolito, oosfera,aldea, and Coatzacoalcos do not have awritten accent because they are paroxy-tones that end in a vowel or an -n or -s.

The monosyllables and polysyllablesthat have the third type of hiatus—theone formed by a non-stressed openvowel and a stressed closed vowel—will always have a written accent on thestressed vowel no matter what the otherrules say. The h in between these vowelsdoes not stop the hiatus from beingformed, nor does having a writtenaccent. Thus, we have: país, vahído,reír, vehículo, oír, prohíbo, baúl,ahúman, tahúr, reí, sonríe, búho,rehúso, and comprendíais. The lastword is an interesting example of ahiatus (ía) and a diphthong (ai): com-prendí-ais.

Monosyllables Monosyllables are words with only

one syllable. They can have a diphthongor triphthong, but cannot have a hiatus,for example, ruin, vio, ion, Luis, andbuey. As regards to diphthongs, the RAEis still condescending, to the happinessof some and distress of others. On page46 we read: “Es admisible el acento grá-fico…si quien escribe percibe nítida-mente el hiato y, en consecuencia con-sidera bisílabas palabras como…fié, huí,guión, Sión, etc.”1

This means that anyone can arguethat he/she distinctly hears a hiatus, sothat word should have a written accent!Fortunately, one can argue that,according to this new edition, the gen-eral rules can also be followed. The onlyexceptions to this flexible rule are themonosyllables with diacritic accents.

Diacritic Accent A Diacritic accent is used to distinguish words which are

homographs (have the same spelling), but belong to differentgrammatical categories. The following list is well-known andrequires no further explanation:

verb/preposition: dé/depronoun/name: mí/mi, te/tépronoun/possessive: tú/tupronoun/verb: se/séconjunction/number: ó/0 1 ó 2, 102

The pairs aún/aun and sólo/solo are more difficult. Aún hasa diacritic accent when it can be substituted by todavía. It doesnot have an accent when its meaning in the sentence is aunque,hasta, siquiera, or inclusive. Sólo has an accent when it can bereplaced by únicamente or solamente. It does not have anaccent when it means that it is unique, alone, not accompaniedby something or someone else, or simple or not mixed (like acafé solo without sugar and milk).

The next grouping of words that may have diacritic accentsare the demostrativos: este, ese, aquel, and their feminine andplural forms. They do not have accents when they mean tem-poral or spatial distance, or refer to the proximity of the namethey modify in relation to the person who talks or listens. Forexample, Aquella libreta describes a notebook that is as far fromthe speaker as it is from the listener. Esta libreta means it is closeto the speaker. Note that the RAE clearly says that it is not nec-essary to write these words with accents when they substitute aname that has been previously mentioned in the text or is knownto the listener. For example, Necesito este y esta. Amontonaestos junto con los otros.

The RAE says that they need a written accent only whenthere is a risk of confusion, such as in the following sentences:

Quiero que esta mañana sea notificada. Quiero que ésta mañana sea notificada.

In the first sentence, esta, without an accent, refers to theperiod of time when the notification will take place: today,before noon. In the second sentence, ésta, with an accent, refersto the person who will be notified tomorrow. In other words,unless there is a true risk of misinterpreting the sentence, theaccent is not required. This confusion can also be avoided byrewording the sentence: Quiero que esta sea notificada mañana.In this case, esta does not need an accent. The neutral forms esto,eso, and aquello will never have a written accent.

Spanish Spelling Reforms: Accents Continued

Direct and Indirect Interrogatory and Exclamatory SentencesThe words adónde, cómo, cuán, cuándo, cuánto, dónde,

qué, and quién have a written accent when they introduce adirect or indirect question or exclamation. Let us examine thefollowing sentences:

Me dijo que le preguntaron qué estaba haciendo.¿Te dijo que no sabe qué tipo de sangre tiene?¿Que quiere saber cuándo llegaste? Ya te dije cuáles son las cartas que hay que mandar.¡Mira hasta dónde vino a dejar sus calzoncillos!

When these words are within an exclamation, they have awritten accent. In the indirect questions, one must first decideif the subordinate sentence is the original question. If so, thenthey have a diacritic accent. In these examples, the true or orig-inal questions are: ¿qué estaba haciendo?; ¿qué tipo desangre?; ¿cuándo llegaste?; and ¿cuáles son las cartas quehay que mandar? These are questions that make sense.

In ¿Te dijo que no sabe qué tipo de sangre tiene? the firstque does not have an accent because ¿que no sabe? is not aquestion. The same thing happens with ¿Que quiere? in thefollowing sentence.

Compound WordsCompound words are considered a single word and follow

the normal rules. For example, musculoesquelético, clinicopa-tológico, hipofisoadrenales, asimismo, tiovivo, and buscapiés.

Compound Words with a HyphenEach word follows the normal rules independently. For

example, médico-enfermos, concentración-tiempo, equilibrioácido-base, and histórico-crítico-bibliográfico.

Adverbs that End with menteAdverbs only have a written accent when the adjective,

which is the basis for the adverb, has an accent according to thenormal rules. Rápidamente and plácidamente have an accentbecause plácida and rápida have a written accent. Fielmenteand buenamente do not have accent because neither fiel norbuena have a written accent.

Verbal Forms with Enclitic PronounsThe rule concerning enclitic accents has been changed. Now

words with enclitic accents will follow the normal rules. Thewords dímelo, habiéndonos, and gánatelo have an accentbecause they are proparoxytones or superproparoxytones.Words such as deme and estate will not have a written accentbecause they are paroxytones that end in a vowel.

The rule concerning compound words made with a verb

that does not function as such has also changed; from now on they willfollow the general rules. For example,metomentodo, acabose, sabelotodo,picaflor.

Words from Latin and Other Languages

When a word has been adapted orincorporated into the language, it willfollow the normal rules, for example,búnker, escáner, ítem, memorándum,alma máter, currículum vitae, andchucrú. The proper names, and thosewords that have not yet been adopted,will be written in italics or within quotes.Such words will not have an accent ifone did not exist in the original spelling.For example, Washington, Weizsäker,soirée, software, kitsch, college, andprêt-à-porter. The Libro de estilo de ElPaís adds the following rules:

The names that have been transcribedfrom the Russian, Hebrew, Arabic,and Greek alphabets will follow thegeneral rules, for example: Pésaj,ayatolá, Januká, Rosh Hashaná,muharram, safar, ramadán, Rossiys-kie Vesti, Kazajstán.

The toponyms that have been incor-porated will also follow the generalrules, for example: Aviñón, Afgan-istán, Achmán, Bután, Camerún,Honolulú, Indianápolis, Jerusalén,Misisipí, Múnich, Oregón, Suráfrica,Taiwan, Ulán-Bator, Zúrich.

The next group of words are diffi-cult because, depending on theirmeaning, they may or may not have awritten accent, and can be written asone or two words.

Dónde, Donde, Adónde, Adonde,Adonde

dónde or donde refers to the place

Continued on p. 36


where someone or something is. Ithas a written accent only when it isa question or exclamation. Forexample, ¡Hasta dónde habrá queaguantar! ¿Dónde estás? Estoydonde quiero.

adónde or adonde is one wordwhen the place where someone orsomething is has already beenmentioned, or when it refers to apoint of arrival, either as a ques-tion, exclamation, or doubt. It willnot have a written accent when itrefers to the place itself which hasbeen previously mentioned in thetext. For example, La casa adondeasustan. Vamos al banco adondetengo la cuenta, el cementerioadonde enterraron a Frost. In theexample, the house, bank, andcemetery are the places whichadonde refers to and have beenpreviously mentioned. It will havea written accent when it meanstraveling or moving from one placeto another, for example, ¿Adóndeme llevas? ¿Adónde vas? ¡Hastaadónde vino a parar!

a donde are two words that do nothave a written accent when theyrefer to a place that has not beenmentioned before, or refer to beingin a certain place. For example,A donde nadie me encuentre.Pasamos por a donde enterraron aFrost. In these sentences, the placesare not mentioned; they could be acave, a cemetery, or a garden.

Porqué, Porque Por Qué, Por Que porqué is one word that has awritten accent when it refers to amotif or cause, for example, Elporqué de su malestar.

porque is one word and has nowritten accent when it can be sub-stituted by ya que or puesto que

without changing the meaning. For example, Porque comiódemasiado, ya que comió demasiado.

por qué are two words and have a written accent when theyrefer to the cause or motif, or when they refer to a question.For example, ¿Por qué vino? No sé por qué (cause) no hasllamado.

por que are two words without a written accent when theycan be substituted by el cual, la cual, los cuales, and lascuales. For example, Las fotos por que fue chantajeado. Lasfotos por las cuales fue chantajeado.

And to conclude, here is a list of words that have a doubleprosody. The RAE prefers the first word of each pair:

acné/acneafrodisíaco/afrodisiacoalcohólisis/alcoholisisalergeno/alérgenoaloe/áloealveolo/alvéoloambrosía/ambrosiaamoniaco/amoníacoanémona/anemonaatmósfera/atmosferaaureola/auréolaaustriaco/austríacobalaustre/balaústreberéber/bereberbimano/bímanobronquiolo/bronquíolocardiaco/cardíaco2

celtíbero/celtiberocentimano/centímanochófer/chofercíclope/ciclopecónclave/conclavedemoníaco/demoniacodinamo/dínamoégida/egidaElectrólisis/electrolisiselixir/elíxiretíope/etiopefútbol/futbolgladiolo/gladíolohemiplejía/hemiplejiaibero/íbero

Spanish Spelling Reforms: Accents Continued

Continued on p. 40


Have you ever read a text that “sounded” weird because,although it was written in your native language, it justdidn’t read correctly? I am not talking about some lit-

erary text in which the author was trying to be experimentalwith the language. I am talking about a plain informative textthat just does not “sound” right. You probably had the fol-lowing reaction: Who wrote this?!!! You probably becamequite frustrated and gave up reading, or you were somewhatoffended that someone had dared to corrupt your language tothis extent and still had their work published. However, if yoususpected that the text you were reading was a translationfrom another language, your reaction may have been quitedifferent. You might have shrugged your shoulders and mud-dled through it because you are accustomed to reading weirdtexts that are the result of poor translations.

Does it need to be that way? Do translations need to neces-sarily “sound” weird because the original text was written inanother language? What is translation, and what is the purposeof a source text that requires translation into another target lan-guage? Why are we tolerant of texts that “sound” weird in ourown language just because we recognize it to be a translation?Are we really tolerant?

How do you feel about reading this text? This is a realexample of a translation that was actually published by themanufacturer of the pasta product. It was later reprinted in theATA Chronicle many years ago for the benefit of translators. Iuse it in my classes to illustrate what garbage sometimespasses as “translation”:

IMPORTANT: Albadoro Canneloni do not ought to boil.1. Bring in Canneloni as they are, a stuffing maked with beef,

eggs, cheese, parmigiano, pepper and spices, as you like.

2. Besmear a backing-pan, previously buttered with a goodtomato sauce and after, dispose Canneloni, lightly dis-tanced between them, in only couch.

3. At last, for the safe success of cooking, shed the remnantsauce, possibly diluted with broth, as far as to cover the sur-face of Canneloni.

4. Add puffs of butter and grated cheese, cover the backing-pan, and put her into the oven, previously warmed to180/200 centigrade degrees above zero.

5. Cook for about an half of hour at the same temperaturewithout to uncover the backing pan and after, to help at table.

Although these translated instructions may be categorizedas extreme, it does illustrate the point. One can easily formu-

late several observational rules fromthis example:

1. Translators should not attempt totranslate into a language other thantheir native language.

2. Bilingual dictionaries do not, and cannot, solve all translation problems.

3. People must understand that havingattended a few classes in a foreignlanguage does not qualify them astranslators.

4. Translation is not substitutingwords in one language for words inanother language. That is whymodern machine language (com-puter) translations are very oftenpoor translations, if they work at all.

Having said that, let’s get to somereal issues in translation.

Definition on TerminologyIn this article, I am going to use sev-

eral terms that need to be defined here:

Hybrid language: A mixture of two ormore languages, the result ofallowing the characteristics andwords of one language embedthemselves in another language.

Third language: A term used to referto a language created by the mixtureof language characteristics andwords from two or more languages(Ref.1).

Professing Our SpiritThree Common Assumptions When Translating English into Spanish:

Research into Meaning versus Form

By Marian B. Labrum

...Why are we tolerant of texts that“sound” weird in our own languagejust because we recognize it to be a

translation?...

Continued on p. 38



Professing Our Spirit Continued

Form: A term used to refer to thestructural part of language which isactually seen in print or heard inspeech (Ref. 2).

Three Common Issues When Trans-lating English into Spanish

Let’s assume that the translator isaware that translation is the transfer ofthe meaning of the source language intothe target language using the appro-priate form of that target language.

Let us further assume that the trans-lator knows that he or she should onlytranslate from the foreign languageinto their native language. Let us alsoassume that the translator is well edu-cated in both languages, and that he orshe clearly understands that a goodtranslation requires expertise in thesubject matter of the text. With thesepreliminary translation prerequisitesestablished, I am going to zero in onthree issues that need further discus-sion. The three issues are:

I. The English gerund form in aheading translated into Spanishusing an appropriate form inSpanish.

II. Words that, in English, look likewords that should be used in thesame manner in Spanish

III. Target language text forms that aregrammatically correct, but do not

convey the same meaning as the original source languagetext form.

See Table 1 for an example of each one of these three trans-lation issues in English, and how they are often incorrectly ren-dered in Spanish translations. Example A involves the use ofan English gerund in a heading. A gerund is a grammaticalform that also exists in the Spanish language. However, Eng-lish construction form and Spanish construction form are notusually parallel or equivalent. The correct way to translate anEnglish gerund form is not by using a Spanish gerund form atall, but by using a different construction form that conveys thesame meaning. Spanish conveys the meaning by using Cómo +the infinitive of the verb form, rather than by using a gerund.Learning to Do the Swing at Home becomes Cómo aprenderen casa a bailar el swing. Both meaning and form have beenrendered correctly. Aprendiendo en casa a bailar el swing, onthe other hand, creates a hybrid form of Spanish that hasbecome commonplace by some translators working from Eng-lish into Spanish. The more a translator indulges one’s self inthe use of hybrid forms, the more insensitive he or shebecomes to identifying the root of the problem and correctingit.

Example B, Abortion—A Very Controversial Subject,illustrates what Marina Orellana calls “contaminación lingüís-tica.” She states in her book La traducción del inglés al caste-llano that:

“Varias palabras del idioma inglés han entrado en el castel-lano por la puerta trasera. Se las encuentra en diversosniveles y en relación con toda clase de temas (Ref.3).”

Controversial, in English, is frequently translated as con-troversial in Spanish. Controversial seems to have become thepreferred translation for the English word controversial. Yet,Spanish uses controvertido, which is the correct choice torender the English controversial into Spanish. Therefore,

English Text Spanish Incorrect Translation

A) Learning to Do the Swing at Home Aprendiendo en casa a bailar el swing

B) Abortion—A Very Controversial Subject El aborto—un tema muy controversial

C) “I’ve made up my mind; I am going —Me he decidido; voy a invitar a Julieto ask Julie on a date.” a una cita.

Table 1


Abortion—A Very Controversial Subject in English becomesEl aborto—un tema muy controvertido. It is not a case ofusing “false cognates.” Surely, good translators know that“embarrassed” in English doesn’t always become“embarazado” in Spanish, or that “to attend a university” inEnglish, does not become “atender” a la universidad inSpanish, according to the meaning of the form of the sourcelanguage text. I am speaking about words like “sophisticated,”“efficiency,” or “comfortable,” which are often rendered as“sofisticado,” “eficiencia,” and “comfortable” in Spanishinstead of “complejo,” “eficacia,” and “cómodo.”

Example C involves cases in which the translator is verycapable of avoiding the problems discussed in examples A andB. In fact, there are translators that are very aware that the formof the target language generally does not mimic the form of thesource language. Their translations read as if they were writtenoriginally in Spanish because the form is flawless.

The writer Jorge Luis Borges was one such translator. Histranslation of Faulkner’s The Wild Palms into Spanish (stillpublished by Editorial Sudamericana) reads beautifully. Infact, some literary critics call it a masterpiece (Ref. 4). How-ever, a careful study of the source language text (whether it isthe British version of the text from which Borges translated, orthe original American English text written by Faulkner) revealsthat using the correct form alone does not a translation make.Borges’ translation of The Wild Palms reads flawlessly. How-ever, it frequently has little or nothing to do with the originalsource text (Ref. 5).

Mildred Larson states in her book Meaning-based Translation:

“...translation consists of transferring the meaning of thesource language into the receptor language. This is done bygoing from the form of the first language to the form of thesecond language by way of semantic structure. It ismeaning which is being transferred and must be held con-stant. Only the form changes (Ref. 6).”

Example C illustrates an issue in translation that is very oftenneglected. Translators must be experts not only on the semanticform and meaning of both source and target languages, but alsoon the cultural connotations that may be explicit or implicit in thesource text as a result of when and where the source text waswritten. I made up my mind; I’m going to ask Julie on a datemeans, in English, that someone wants to go out socially withJulie. Me he decidido, voy a invitar a Julie a una cita, on theother hand, means quite a different thing to many Spanishreaders. The Spanish form, Me he decidido; voy a invitar aJulie..., is appropriate. It avoids a form that may imitate English,and it avoids an idiomatic expression mistake. However, it doesnot convey the English meaning of I am going to ask Julie on a

date. Voy a invitar a Julie a una citaimplies that the reader will understandthat invitar a una cita in Spanish carriesthe same connotation that it had in theEnglish text. Yet, for many Spanishreaders, invitar a una cita carries theconnotation of an illicit encounter with asexual purpose conducted in a red-lightdistrict atmosphere. Is that what I’mgoing to ask Julie on a date means inEnglish? It may be argued that it could,but it may also be argued that it probablydoes not. However, the Spanish form inthe incorrect translation example doesclearly assert a meaning that is notclearly indicated or implied in the orig-inal English text. A date, in this case,refers to a cultural custom among Eng-lish speakers that is regarded, in the con-text of the example, as a male and afemale going out on some activity that isconducive to socially getting to knoweach other. In Spanish, however, unacita carries the connotation of appoint-ment to see a professional, or, as statedbefore, a sexual meeting conducted in ared-light district atmosphere in whichthe participants know clearly what thepurpose of the meeting is. The transla-tion may be different if the time period,location, and circumstances underwhich the source text was written weredifferent (for example, London, 1876,the red-light district).

ConclusionThe answer to the question of

whether a translation needs to neces-sarily “sound” weird because the original text was written in another lan-guage is, therefore, a resounding NO.English and Spanish are separate lan-guages. A dictionary does not automati-cally resolve the issues placed before atranslator, and knowledge of two ormore languages does not make a trans-lator. Many translations from Englishinto Spanish “sound” weird because of

Continued on p. 40

Manual del Español Urgente, Agencia Efe. Madrid: Cátedra,1998.

Manuel Seco, Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de la lenguaespañola. Madrid: Espasa, 1997.

Manual de Estilo Publicaciones Biomedicas. Madrid:Mosby/Doyma, 1995.

Fernando Corripio. Diccionario de dudas e incorrecciones delidioma. Mexico: Larousse, 1988.

Alcaraz Varo E. y Martinez L. Ma Antonia. Diccionario de lin-guistica moderna. Barcelona: Ariel, 1997.

Esbozo de una nueva gramática de la lengua española.Madrid: Espasa, 1998.

Notes1 Ortografía Lengua Española. p.46.2 Manual de Estilo recommends the second option.

linguistic and cultural contaminationsthat are perpetuated by careless and/oruntrained, uneducated translators. Trans-lators working from English into Spanishsometimes create “hybrid”language forms that affect the Spanish-language translation. It happens whentranslators become oblivious to the influ-ence that the source language text isexerting in the target language. Thistarget language contamination may comefrom either the form in the original text,or from hidden cultural nuances impliedby when/where the text was written.

Translators are, per nature, constantlybombarded with the dilemma of how topreserve the correctness of form andmeaning of the languages they workwith. What is needed is constant vigi-lance and effort to avoid contamination.Awareness of this problem and an aware-ness of how easy it is to become insensi-tive to these contaminations should beone of the priorities of every translator.

References1. Duff, Alan. The Third Language: Recurrent Problems of

Translation into English. Great Britain: Pergamon Instituteof English, 1981.

2. Larson, Mildred L. Meaning-based Translation: A Guide toCross-Language Equivalence. University Press of America,1984, p. 3.

3. Orellana, Marina. La traducción del inglés al castellano.Santiago de Chile, 1986, p. 141.

4. Day, Douglas. “Borges, Faulkner, and The Wild Palms,” Vir-ginia Quarterly Review, 1956, pp. 109-118.

5. Labrum, Marian B. “Las palmeras salvages en traducciónde Jorge Luis Borges: Crítica y evaluación,” LIVIUS:Revista de estudios de traducción—Universidad de León,1998, pp. 85-93.

6. Larson, Mildred L. Meaning-based Translation: A Guide toCross-Language Equivalence. University Press of America,1984, p. 3.

médula/medulamicroscopía/microscopiaolimpiada/olimpíadaomóplato/omoplatoósmosis/osmosispabilo/pábilopentagrama/pentágramaperíodo/periodopolígloto/poliglotopulmoníaco/pulmoniacoraíl/railreuma/reúmaróbalo/robalosánscrito/sanscritotortícolis/torticolisvarice/váricevariz/várizzodiaco/zodíaco

References Ortografia de la Lengua Española.

RAE: Spain, 1999.

Spanish Spelling Reforms: Accents Continued from p. 36

Professing Our Spirit Continued


English is increasingly thought of as the single language oftechnical communication throughout the world.Although English is the native language of about eight

percent of the world’s population and a second or foreign language for at least 15 percent, it has been estimated that 70 percent of the world’s scientists read English, about 80 percent ofthe content on the World Wide Web is in English, and 90 percentof the data in electronic retrieval systems is written in English(Crystal, 1987 and 1995). Also, the two major professional associations for computer scientists are the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers and the Association for ComputingMachinery, both of which use English as their official language.Furthermore, the majority of high prestige international scientificmagazines, such as Nature and Science, are published in English.Although the statistics about English can never claim to be exact,the fact that English is the language of science and technology isnow conventional wisdom. In addition, language myths about theworldliness of English further support the idea that English is theonly language dynamic and efficient enough to assume the roleof international vehicle for technological communication.

It is true that other languages are struggling for a voice in thisEnglish-dominated environment. However, it is not true thatother languages, for example Spanish, lack the dynamic aspectsto be efficient vehicles for technical communication. In thisarticle, I will consider neologism formation by giving old wordsnew meanings, which is a process that is extraordinarily frequentin Spanish technical texts. I will take examples primarily fromwithin the field of network computing to show how Spanishmakes this process especially dynamic by giving more than oneword the same new meaning, and not by limiting this process toa single word, as English does. I will show examples of cases ofthis proliferation of synonyms in Spanish where several neolo-gisms will be translated into English as a single term.

New Words for New MeaningsSpanish technical texts abound with neologisms. Neolo-

gisms may be created through three basic processes: 1) bycoining entirely new words, 2) by combining a word and anaffix, or combining two words, or 3) by assigning new mean-ings to old words (Newmark, 1988). Coining new words israre, but in technical texts it is not uncommon, especially whentranslating from English. The English language, since it domi-nates the language used in technological fields, also dominatesthe coining of new words for new technological devices, man-ufacturing processes, and patents. The process of word cre-ation takes place almost exclusively in English first, and thentrickles down to other languages.

These newly-coined neologisms may follow three differentpaths when they trickle down into other languages. They may beborrowed, naturalized, or there may be a tendency to use both the

borrowed and naturalized term concur-rently. Technologists tend to wait and seewhat endurance the technology behindthese newly-coined terms representbefore they address the long-term lan-guage needs of their technological fields.Therefore, in order to increase commu-nicative efficiency, technologists will firstadopt the English terms as they are, andonly later look for a long-standing natu-ralized term.

Sometimes by the time this happens,

technologists have no choice in deter-mining what language is best for them,because either the borrowed term or anaturalized one has settled into commonusage. Think of how inconvenient theterm localizar is in Spanish. Localizarmeans to locate, not to translate softwareprograms into local languages, but itseems that it is too late to do much aboutit now. Another example is on-line,which was mostly used as a borrowedterm at the inception of Internet tech-nology, but now the tide seems to beturning toward en línea, when en redmight be a more useful and communica-tive term. Since this article will focus onSpanish into English translation, whichordinarily contain no neologisms of thistype, and I have dealt with neologisms inSpanish by word combination in a pre-vious Chronicle article (Linder, 1999), Iwill go on to discuss the formation ofneologisms by giving new meanings toexisting words.

Translating Neologisms in Spanish Technical Texts: New Meanings for Old Words

By Daniel Linder

...in order to increase communicativeefficiency, technologists will firstadopt the English terms as they are,and only later look for a long-standingnaturalized term...

Continued on p. 42


New Meanings for Old WordsLanguages work dynamically in

many ways. They create new grammat-ical, syntactical, and morphologicalstructures over time and allow others tosink away into obscurity. Consider theword load. When computers werestand-alone devices, a new meaningwas assigned to the word load indi-cating the installation of new computersoftware or the insertion of a computerfloppy disk into the disk drive. Whencomputers were connected in intranetsand through the Internet, new wordswere needed to express new meanings.For example, terms were needed todescribe the two possible directions ofcomputer software or data transmis-sion in a computer’s architecture, andso download and upload were created.

Spanish also assigns new meaningsto words in a similar way, but it tendsto favor assigning new meanings to oldwords, even in cases where, in English,the word is a neologism by combina-tion. For example, descargar andbajar, both of which are pre-existingwords to which new meanings havebeen assigned, are the Spanish transla-tions of download. Furthermore,Spanish takes a different approach thanEnglish, as can be seen in the exampleabove, by allowing a single newmeaning to be assigned to several dif-ferent pre-existing words. This is evenclearer with cargar, colgar, montar, orsubir for upload. Consider also themost basic of all Windows operationsand the proliferation of words for clickand double-click: pinchar (dosveces)/picar (dos veces)/hacer (doble)clic, oprimir (dos veces).

I consider this process of neologismcreation by assigning new meanings toa multitude of old words as evidencethat the Spanish language is alive andwell as a vehicle for technical commu-nication. There are linguists who wouldsay that these terms are at some inter-mediate stage of acquisition and that

eventually one form will prevail. There are also terminologistswho would promote the standardization of a single term in orderto facilitate specialized communication. But this is denying thehorizontal and vertical diversity of geography and usage that thislanguage already has. Spanish is spoken in more than 20 coun-tries in Latin America and is widely learned as a foreign lan-guage (Crystal, 1987). Spanish is the unofficial second languageof the U.S., where enormous areas of the country are practicallybilingual. Spanish is an official language of the European Union,and widely used in European policy-making, European cooper-ative projects, and European terminological undertakings. At theheart of the issue lies the Atlantic, which divides the Americanvarieties of Spanish from the European varieties. Perhaps themost significant example of this division is the term “computer”in the field of of network computing, being called computadoraon the American side of the Atlantic and ordenador on this side.Reconciliation seems impossible, but comprehension is mutual,and the translation into English is the same in both cases, com-puter.

Given this profound barrier between its major varieties,Spanish is a language which prefers to harmonize rather thanstandardize. English tends to favor the process of standardiza-tion, where one universal term is used for one particularmeaning. Spanish allows for more than one term to indicateone particular meaning, and all terms acquire a wide recogni-tion while not jeopardizing intelligibility and efficiency ofcommunication, thus indicating a process of harmonization.The implications for translation into English are clear. Special-ized terms in English have a certain ring to them, like buzz-words, whereas specialized terms in Spanish do not have asimilar ring to them. Translators have to grasp the idea exactlyand hit the nail on the head with the exact term in English.

What follows are various examples from the field of net-work computing. There is an extraordinary proliferation ofterms for newsgroups. Even in English you can find otherterms such as Usenet (User’s Network) groups and Usenetnews, but nothing like the array of terms you can find inSpanish. For example:

newsgroups (also, simply los news)grupos de noticiasgrupos de debategrupos de discusióngrupos de interésforos de debate (also, simply foros)

Notice also how the meanings of these terms start out as acalque and end up in an almost naturalized term. Also the terms

Continued on p. 66

Translating Neologisms in Spanish Technical Texts Continued


(Note: This article is a translation of excerpts from the paperpublished in the Proceedings of the ATA Annual Conference inSt. Louis, Missouri on November 3-6, 1999.)

The Agencia EFE is a Spanish international news agencysimilar to the French France Presse (AFP) or the Amer-ican Associated Press (AP). Its primary function is to

obtain and distribute national and international news in Spain andto the rest of the world. The information received is sent on adaily basis to subscribers, primarily the media, including news-papers, magazines, television channels, and radio stations.

The Agencia EFE was created in 1939 on the foundation ofthe Fabra news agency, which had been part of the Spanishpress since 1870. Currently, with over 2,000 media members in140 cities in 76 countries, the Agencia EFE is one of the fourlargest agencies in the world, and ranks first for Spanish-lan-guage agencies, for the volume of information handled and thenumber of its subscribers.

In 1980, under the leadership of President Luis MaríaAnsón, the Agencia EFE established the Departamento deEspañol Urgente (DEU), the first watchdog institution to mon-itor the use of Spanish, and the only public consulting serviceon the proper usage of our language. The purpose of the DEUwas: to standardize the linguistic criteria between Spain andLatin America; to fight against the onslaught of foreign terms;to adopt criteria to transcribe names from languages with non-Latin alphabets into Spanish; and to resolve any type of lan-guage problem encountered by the Agency in news writing.Ansón wanted the journalists from the Agencia EFE to writewith “elegance, using a dynamic and concise style.” It was hisgoal to turn the Agency’s news services, distributed to all of theSpanish-speaking countries, into a catalyst that would helpstandardize the Spanish used in the press. That was preciselythe message he conveyed in the foreword of one of the first edi-tions of the Agencia EFE’s Manual de Estilo:

“To achieve a neutralized style–not to be confused with a‘neutral’ style that is always insipid–is an obligation of theAgencia EFE, considering the important role it plays in theuse of our language in Spain and in the Americas. The unityof our language is an asset that the Spanish-speaking com-munity must preserve. Today, the press, the radio, and televi-sion have more influence over the language than any educa-tional system. It is not an exaggeration to state that the futureof Spanish–or any other language, for that matter–is in theirhands. The Agency has a much greater responsibility thanany single news media entity on its own. This is one morereason, and a very compelling one, to ensure the use, in ourdispatches, of a style that is acceptable by all, a style whichdoes not violate common usage and which does not favor any

local or regional characteristics, andwhich does not promote unnecessaryneologisms or features responding topassing vogues.”

A team of two philologists (PilarVicho Toledo and Alberto GómezFont) is responsible for the dailyreview of the news. The team preparesa weekly report in which all the errorshave been detected. This report is sentto the directors, supervisors, and edi-tors of the different sections in theAgency. It includes a commentary

regarding a specific term or questionableuse of a syntactical structure, clarifica-tions of the names of certain countries,and warnings to avert possible errors. Itis also the responsibility of the DEUphilologists to respond to inquiries andquestions received by mail, telex, fax,telephone, or e-mail.

In August of 1996, The DEU createdan Internet forum on the Spanish lan-guage called Apuntes. Subscription tothis forum is free. Currently, there are250 subscribers who exchange between1,500 and 2,000 messages a month.

The DEU is in constant contact withthe Real Academia Española and theAcademias de la Lengua in the Spanish-speaking countries in the Americasthrough its Consejo Asesor de Estilo(Style Advisory Board). The membersof this body are: Gregorio Salvador andValentín García Yebra, from the RealAcademia Española; Humberto López

Continued on p. 44

The Departamento de Español Urgente of the AgenciaEFE: History and Objectives

By Alberto Gómez Font, Translated by Alicia S. V. Marshall

...It was [Ansón’s] goal to turn theAgency’s news services, distributed to allof the Spanish-speaking countries, into acatalyst that would help standardize theSpanish used in the press...


Morales, from the Academia Puertor-riqueña and permanent secretary of theAsociación de Academias de la LenguaEspañola; Leonardo Gómez Torrego, aresearcher with the Consejo Superior deInvestigaciones Científicas; José LuisMartínez Albertos, a professor of jour-nalism at the School of Information Sci-ence of the Universidad Complutense inMadrid; and José Luque Calderón, ajournalist at the Agencia EFE. Theymeet periodically with the philologistsfrom the DEU to review their work, andto express their opinions on issuesaddressed to them by the philologists.In this way, thanks to the work of theDEU and its Consejo Asesor, many ofthe terms or idioms appearing for thefirst time in the news or in the lan-guage of the press reach the RealAcademia Española and its dictionaryalmost immediately.

The DEU has also organized sixconferences on different aspects ofSpanish usage. In October 1989, aninternational seminar entitled “ElIdioma Español en las Agencias dePrensa” was held in Madrid. The eventwas attended by representatives fromkey international news agencies pro-viding service in Spanish, representa-tives from major national news agen-cies from Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas,editors from prestigious internationalpapers, as well as university profes-sors, journalists, and philologists.

Two years later, in April of 1991,the Agencia EFE organized anotherseminar entitled “El NeologismoNecesario,” and invited individualsresponsible for the style books fromthe largest Spanish newspapers, inaddition to university professors, jour-nalists, philologists, and technical lan-guage specialists.

In 1992, another conference wasorganized entitled “El Idioma Españolen el Deporte.” University professors,journalists, and sports writers attended

this event. The most important issue discussed in the sessionswas the need to standardize Spanish sports terminologywithout neglecting the particular characteristics of theSpanish-speaking countries in the Americas. The main focuswas on specialized language used by the press in the area ofsports.

The fourth seminar, held in May 1996 at the monastery ofSan Millán de la Cogolla in La Rioja, was entitled “El Españolante el Nuevo Milenio.” The basis for future seminars on spe-cific aspects of the language was established during thismeeting, including Spanish and education, Spanish and theestablishment of a norm, Spanish and the new technology, andSpanish and the news media.

The fifth seminar took place in May of 1997, again at themonastery of San Millán de la Cogolla. Its title was “El españoly las nuevas tecnologías,” which can be summarized in onephrase: “the computer and everything to do with it.” There wereround-table discussions and presentations on the translation ofcomputer-related texts, science in the press, Spanish on theInternet, computational linguistics, and language industries.

The sixth, and currently the most recent seminar, was heldin November of 1998, at the same venue as the previous ones,and was entitled “El español y los medios de comunicación.”

The proceedings from the first three seminars have alreadybeen published, and have become part of our beginning collec-tion of linguistic works. The first one, entitled El idiomaespañol en las agencias de prensa, was published by the Fun-dación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez (Madrid, 1990). The othertwo books, El neoligismo necesario and El idioma español enel deporte, have been published by the Fundación EFE(Madrid, 1992 and 1994).

A handbook entitled El Idioma Español en el Deporte—Guía práctica, was also published. It was presented at theOlympic Media Headquarters in Barcelona a few days beforethe opening of the Olympic Games, and was distributed amongall the Spanish-speaking reporters who had been sent to coverthe games for the sports news media (press, radio, and televi-sion). This booklet includes terms and idioms that present dif-ficulties in Spanish and foreign terms commonly used in all theOlympic sports to refer to general sports.

The publication of the Manual de Español Urgente is themost important achievement of the DEU and its ConsejoAsesor de Estilo. This book, already in its 12th edition (Cát-edra, Madrid, 1995), includes all the essential information forthe correct usage of Spanish by the press. Its purpose is to pre-vent potential linguistic errors, to help clarify doubts, and, inthese times of major technical inventions accompanied by theircorresponding linguistic innovations, to try to establish consis-tent criteria for the use of neologisms. The first edition, pub-lished in 1976, was entitled Manual de Estilo de la Agencia

The Departamento de Español Urgente of the Agency EFE Continued


EFE. We are almost positive that it is the oldest stylebook pub-lished in the Spanish-speaking community, in addition to beingthe most well-known.

The final book in our collection is the Vademécum deEspañol Urgente. Volumes I and II have already been pub-lished. It includes notes and comments on the improper use ofwords and structures, problems with spelling, incorrect trans-lations (copies), names of countries, proper names, etc., and itcompletes the Manual de Español Urgente.

Also related to the subject of style manuals is a project AlexGrijelmo, a reporter from the newspaper El País and the oneresponsible for its stylebook, and I presented during the FirstInternational Congress on Spanish Language, entitled “LaLengua y los Medios de Comunicación,” which was held inMexico City in April of 1997. The project, sponsored by theInstituto Cervantes, proposed the creation of a single stylemanual to be used by all the Spanish news media. Its historyfollows below.

In 1990, an international meeting was organized in Madridby the Agencia EFE, entitled “El español en las agencias deprensa.” Among the conclusions of the proceedings, publishedin 1991, there is a recommendation to prepare a book onwriting guidelines or norms to be used by all press agenciesdrafting news items in Spanish. The same proceedings includea short discussion, held during the meeting, regarding a “style-book” and the final agreement that, when referring only toguidelines or norms for correct Spanish usage by the press, wemust speak not of style, but rather of writing guidelines ornorms, since spelling, syntax, a dictionary of grammatical andlexical doubts, acronyms and country names, which wouldmake up the contents of such a book, are not related to style.

Two years later, the Congreso de la Lengua Española washeld in Seville. Milagros Sánchez Arnosi submitted a report onstylebooks in the session devoted to the Spanish language andthe press. She stated that “it would be very desirable if all news-papers that had created a stylebook would arrive at a commonunderstanding in order to standardize criteria, improve thequality of the written language in the press, and jointly con-tribute to the propriety of the language and, thus, to improvedlinguistic competence.” In the same session of the congress,Clara Eugenia Lázaro Mora, style reviewer for the ABC news-paper, solicited the “help and collaboration of the Real Academia Española” and asked that this institution put intopractice “as soon as possible its idea of meeting with the mediato develop jointly, and under its coordination, a set of specificguidelines for journalistic language, that is, a Manual de Estilofor all the Spanish media and, if possible, also for the LatinAmerican media.” I myself garnered the courage to proposedeveloping a “cocktail” in which the ingredients would consistof all of the manuals and criteria currently in use by the media.

Once the ingredients were all wellmixed in the cocktail shaker, the resultwould be a homogenous mix thatwould help standardize criteria andavoid the fragmentation of the Spanishlanguage used by the press.

And on these two occasions it sohappened, as is often the case in similarsituations, that the conclusions, com-mitments, and projects on which thecongress closed, never became a reality.So that this would not occur again, andbefore going to Zacatecas to proposethe project sponsored by the CervantesInstitute, we took the first two steps ofwhat we know to be a long journey.

First, we have tried to prepare asexhaustive a bibliography as possibleof all the books that must be reviewed.These books will serve as working ref-erences. From them, common pointson usage will be extrapolated and doc-umented. From this, disagreementsand various solutions to identical prob-lems that we must all study will comeout, making it possible to arrive at nec-essary agreements. We have alreadyregistered 163 works on this list,which includes general dictionaries,reference dictionaries, specialized lex-icons, stylebooks and manuals, pro-ceedings from language conferences,working notes from some groups,compilations of articles on the use ofthe language in the press, among othermaterial.

Of the 163 works already on ourlist, one-third comprise stylebooks andmanuals (also called style guidelines,writing guidelines, or norms). And ofthose, almost half, or about 26, arefrom the Americas. They are the style-books and manuals from some of themost important media groups in theregion: the Notimex News Agency(México); Colprensa (Colombia); Ven-press (Venezuela); Telam (Argentina);Associated Press (U.S.); Prensa Latina

Continued on p. 46


from knowing that one day the phone will ring and it will be acall from the publisher to let us know that we can pick up thefirst copy of the new book. And that day will mark the firsttime that Alex Grijelmo and I, upon receiving word of the pub-lication of a new stylebook, will no longer think about the“cloned sheep.”

The most recent news is that the project, thanks to the spon-sorship received from the Cervantes Institute, is progressingwell. All the stylebooks are being entered, and we hope that thefirst results, the first listings of acronyms, abbreviations, namesof countries and peoples, and others will be available soon, andthat we can publish them on the Cervantes Institute andAgencia EFE Web pages.

The media can reach a larger public, something no averagecitizen can do. Therefore, the media has a much greaterresponsibility towards society. An ordinary citizen, as such,can do little, but a journalist may reach a considerable numberof people with a newspaper column. It is precisely because ofthis wide reach that an error in language usage made by ajournalist, be it due to carelessness or lack of knowledge, willbe spread out among many, who, by mimesis, following amodel they believe to be correct, may repeat the error. Thus,the journalist may be contributing to an increase in thenumber of mistakes in language use. The mistakes, oftencasual and merely individual, make those who lack confi-dence in their use of the language feel very insecure; theauthority of a newspaper or a radio is seldom questioned by itsreaders or listeners. Let us consider a clear example of one ofthose mistakes, taken from one of the announcements in theVademécum de Español Urgente:

The following headline was published in one of the largestnewspapers in Madrid: “Detenidos siete chinos ilegales encinco restaurantes de Barcelona.” At first glance, it may appearas if those detained were not legally Chinese, that is, that theydid not fulfill all the legal requirements established in order tobe Chinese and, therefore, it is debatable whether they are Chi-nese citizens. If we consult the Diccionario de la LenguaEspañola de la Real Academia, we will find that illegal means“against the law,” meaning that the Chinese were against thelaw. However, that was not the case. Rather, those detained hadillegally entered Spain without having fulfilled all the require-ments to legalize their stay in the country.

Headlines must be drafted with extreme care, since it is pos-sible to say very absurd and funny things when trying to min-imize the use of space by saying a lot with as few words as pos-sible. Such is this example of the illegal Chinese, who mostlikely were legal Chinese citizens that had entered Spain ille-gally because they did not have the required documents.

(Cuba); the newspapers Clarín(Argentina); El Nuevo Herald (U.S.);El Panamá América (Panamá); ElPeruano (Perú); La Voz del Interior(Argentina); and radio stations, such asCaracol from Colombia.

In reviewing these books, we havefound that many of them, mainly thosepublished in Spain, have been copiedfrom others, especially from the twopioneer works: the Libro de Estilofrom El País and the Manual deEspañol Urgente from the AgenciaEFE. The phenomenon of “cloned”books is already occurring, where eventhe same mistakes are duplicated. Wehave reached a point where we are allcopying from each other and cannotescape this vicious circle.

The second step we took beforegoing to México was to search out sup-porters for our venture. We wrote aletter to all the directors of the majormedia outlets in the Spanish-speakingworld and the United States. We toldthem about our project, requested theircommitment, urged them to tell usabout their problems regarding the useof Spanish in their media, and, lastly,asked them to send us anything theymight have that resembled a stylebook(even if it was only a few photocopiedpages), in order to be included on theabove-mentioned list. In less than amonth, we received word from over 30media directors.

Included among the media groupswilling to participate in the project are:the news agency Notimex and the news-paper El Universal (México); the newsagency Prensa Latina (Cuba); the newsagency Colprensa (Colombia); thenewspaper El Tiempo (Bogotá); ElNuevo Herald (Miami); Radio Nacional(Spain); Radio Caracol (Colombia); andChannel 11 TV (México).

We do not know how long thejourney will take, perhaps three or fouryears, but we are already beginning tofeel the pleasant sensation that comes

The Departamento de Español Urgente of the Agency EFE Continued

Continued on p. 57


Localization, Internationalization, Globalization, and Translation

By Tim Altanero

By now, you’ve probably run across the terms localiza-tion (L10n), internationalization (I18n), and globaliza-tion (G11n), and may have wondered what they mean

or how to become part of this explosive, lucrative market. Allof these terms are generally thought of as belonging exclu-sively to the high tech industry, particularly software. They areviewed as a relatively recent complication to the global mar-keting of products and services.

The majority of localization is from English to another lan-guage, because the majority of the world’s software is pro-duced in the United States. Since taking off in the 1980s and1990s, localization-related businesses have tended to congre-gate in Ireland. That country was chosen for its proximity toEurope, favorable tax structure, European Union membership,and English-speaking population. Today, nearly every majorhigh tech firm from Microsoft to Cisco has at least a smalloffice in Ireland, and the country has responded to industryneeds by building an educational infrastructure that is yet to berivaled by the United States.

DefinitionsIt is usually easiest to think of localization, international-

ization, and globalization in that order, although a trulyvisionary business would think in reverse. Let’s examine why.

Localization is the process of getting a product and itsaccompanying documentation adapted to a local market. Itincludes considerations such as translation, adapting currency,measurement, time, and date conventions appropriate to thelocal market, adjusting software code to function properly,resizing dialog boxes, defining shortcut key conventions, andeven deciding the size of the box in which the product will beshipped. In sum, the process consists of all the activities nec-essary to make the product look and act is if it were native tothe locale in which it is intended to be sold.

The localization process can be vastly simplified by inter-nationalizing the initial engineering phase of a project. Soft-ware can contain millions of lines of code, making it difficultto find text that requires translation. By isolating translatabletext from code in resource files, the integrity of code can beprotected, resulting in reduced testing costs. Dialog boxes thatresize automatically to accommodate text expansion savecountless hours. Preparing glossaries of industry-specificterms prevents multiple translations of the same concept,leading to a tighter, more consistent interface. All of this pre-planning for localization is at the core of the internationaliza-tion process.

Finally, there is globalization, which can be easily defined asthe condition in which all procedures and processes company-wide are structured in a way that facilitates localization. How-ever, creating this condition is the most difficult of the three

terms we have discussed so far. Espe-cially in our burgeoning “dot.com”economy, the resources often do notexist to hire and maintain a staff ofinternationally-savvy employees, whichis why we continue to see companiesfollowing the localization-international-ization-globalization path. While thegreatest efficiency may be achieved byadopting a globalization vision at theoutset, a country as large as the U.S.tends to lean toward an insular vision,leading to a distinctly monolingual poolof locally available talent.

How Do High Tech CompaniesHandle Localization?

The nature of high tech industry isprofoundly variable to the extent thatrequired resources vary over a productrelease cycle. As such, linguistic andengineering needs ebb and peak, cre-ating a need for flexible temporaryworkers. It may be called freelance,temp, or consulting, but in all but thelargest companies, resources do notpermit the retention of expensive spe-cialist staff during the period betweenproduct releases.

In general, translation is looked uponas a necessary, yet ancillary, componentof the larger localization project.Depending on the company, translationis either outsourced, or consultants arehired. The job of the consultant is torender the source language into thetarget language while maintainingsource code integrity. A consultant’s

...Especially in our burgeoning“dot.com” economy, the resourcesoften do not exist to hire and maintaina staff of internationally-savvyemployees...

Continued on p. 48


work is normally overseen by an in-house localization manager, or simi-larly titled individual, who has exper-tise in two or more languages, in addi-tion to extensive project managementexperience and some knowledge ofcomputer programming. Often, thelocalization manager is among only asmall handful of permanent staff thatdeals with international issues relatedto software production.

If a company decides to hire con-sultants, these will, ideally, work in-house. Such an arrangement allows forinter-lingual consultation among trans-lators of different languages, and per-mits the impromptu exchange of ideasand work procedures with engineersand others that will assist in makingthe project run smoothly. This methodof translation, though efficient for thecompany, is also expensive andrequires that additional time be spentrecruiting and screening translators, inaddition to purchasing publishing ordevelopment software tools in each ofthe target languages. Furthermore,there is the added cost of storing,maintaining, developing, and man-aging legacy documentation and soft-ware from previous releases.

Because of the difficulty of man-aging projects in-house, many compa-nies opt for a localization vendor. Overthe past 10 years, localization vendorshave emerged from consolidations,start-ups, and mergers within theindustry in response to the torrent ofdemand for such services from hightech companies. Among the largest ofsuch firms are Lionbridge, Lernout &Hauspie, ILE, Bowne, and SDL. Thesecompanies have large in-house staffsspecializing in many different areassuch as engineering, project manage-ment, linguistics, terminology, andtranslation, just to name a few areas.Some of the services offered by suchfirms include engineering, testing,quality assurance, translation, project

management, translation memory database development, Web-site translation, terminology management, and glossary cre-ation, among others.

Localization vendors provide efficiency for a market thatrequires labor only at limited intervals. By combining projectsfrom many companies at one location, the temporary nature ofthe work is eliminated, providing stable employment for thosewith specialized skills.

Basic Skills and Tools for LocalizationIn order to enter the localization field as a translator, a

broad-based education is the key. In addition to the linguisticqualifications required of any translator, some engineeringskills are necessary. The ability to understand computer code isvital. While it may not be necessary to write your own code, itwill be essential to be able to work within code that is alreadywritten. For example, the ability to distinguish between code,notes, links, and translatable text is necessary to successfullytranslate a piece of software. A primer course in hyper textmark-up language (html) would be a good start.

Educational opportunities in localization are on theincrease, though still rare. The University of Washington inSeattle offers a Certificate in Localization, and Kent State inOhio and the Monterey Institute in California offer courseworkas well. Austin Community College in Texas has a localizationcurriculum in the works. Overseas institutions, particularly theUniversity of Limerick in Ireland, offer graduate degrees inlocalization and localization engineering.

In addition to code of various sorts, there are also a numberof tools that have become industry standards when workingwith localization. For publishing, MS Word and AdobeFrameMaker are common tools. For online help development,RoboHelp is common, and if PDFs (portable documentformat—a common, cross-platform electronic documentformat) are required, Adobe Acrobat will be necessary as well.These software tools are not difficult to learn, but they arepricey, ranging from $200 to more than $1,000. That is a con-siderable investment for a freelancer, but may be worth it if thepay rate for a given project justifies the expense.

Finally, there are tools specifically for translators that maybe worth considering if you have a large volume of translationsthat tend to be repetitive. This is often the case with localiza-tion, where writing is highly structured and contained so as tobe clear, concise, and easily readable. Translation memorytools such as Trados, Star’s Transit, SDLX, and Déjà Vu,among others, assist with terminology management, glossarycreation, and translation memory database development. Theycan greatly increase translation speed by matching similar

Localization, Internationalization, Globalization, and Translation Continued

Continued on p. 60


Here I go again critiquing (criticizing?!) a translator’sjob. Truthfully, by discussing mistranslations I don’tmean to be judgmental (although there is no way out,

and I always feel guilty about the finger-pointing attitude Istart with) but to discuss and reconstruct lost meanings. Trans-lated texts, especially canonical ones, migrate to other coun-tries and represent the culture in which they were originallysteeped. Invisible translations may read well but can conveyfalse ideas about the original text to the unsuspecting reader. Itis precisely where the target text falls short in the “spacesbetween” the two linguistic or cultural systems that the edu-cated reader finds the richness of the original and begins toponder other possibilities for the transference of meaningacross cultural borders.

The purpose of a conversation about these discrepancies isto make us more sensitive and more aware of our skills andresponsibilities. Also, I believe that it falls upon those of uswho teach literature through texts in translation to expose theseflawed transpositions to our students. They should becomeaware of the richness of the original text, of the spaces in-between, and the difficulties that translators run into whentrying to accommodate a text into a different culture and lin-guistic system.

To elaborate on these issues, I chose some examples takenfrom the Portuguese translation of John Steinbeck’s Chrysan-themums. This is the story of a woman, Elisa Allen, who culti-vated chrysanthemums in a garden of her own in a corner ofher husband’s farm. The point of the story rests precisely onthe fact that this is “her” garden and these flowers are “her cre-ation,” meant for enjoyment and beauty, not for profit. Herflowers are “strong,” “big,” almost oversized, drawing com-ments like, “‘You’re a gift with things,’ her husband observed.‘Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year wereten inches across. I wish you’d work out in the orchard andraise some apples that big.’” Steinbeck describes Elisa as“handsome,” “over-powerful,” and “strong.” These qualifiersadd thematic nuances to the story, and therefore their transla-tion should have been carefully considered.

Here is the first reference to Elisa: “Elisa Allen, working inher flower garden, looked down across the yard…” The transla-tion reads: “Elisa Allen, que trabalhava no jardim, baixou avista sobre o pátio…” First, “looked down across the yard” iscertainly not “baixou a vista sobre o pátio.” But it’s the omis-sion of the possessive “her” in “trabalhava no jardim” whichclaims more attention, especially in light of the feminist angle ofthe story. “Her flower garden” clearly determines that thegarden is hers; it’s fenced in, set apart from the rest of the farm.As a result of using “no jardim,” instead of “no seu jardim,”plus leaving out the specification “flower garden,” the translatorinterfered with references essential to the meaning of the story.

A few lines below, Elisa’s husbandapproaches her garden quietly, and,says Steinbeck, “leaned over the wirefence that protected her flowergarden from cattle and dogs andchickens.” The translation reads: “sedebruçara sobre a cerca de aramefarpado, que protegia o jardim e odefendia do gado, dos cães e das gal-inhas.” To use “seu” here would havemade the statement ambiguous (itcould refer to “his” or “her”), and

“o jardim de flores dela” involvestoo many apparently unnecessary andcacophonous alliterations. Had thepossessive been clear in the firstinstance, it might have been omittedhere with no great loss of meaning orsuggestion. Still, to include the quali-fying “flowers” would have beeneasy and helpful. Both the possessiveand the idea that it is a “flowergarden” (in a corner of a cattle farm)come charged with feminist and the-matic implications, and should havebeen the object of careful considera-tion in the process of translating. Thetranslation, however, is invisible, andreads well in Portuguese. We don’tmiss the possessive or the specifica-tion, and thus don’t suspect theirpresence in the original.

The use of the possessive in thisconstruction is complicated by the factthat in Portuguese we normally don’tuse possessives in instances in whichit is common usage in English. For

Regaining Meaning

By Catarina Edinger

...[Students] should become awareof...the difficulties that translators runinto when trying to accommodate atext into a different culture and linguistic system...

Continued on p. 50


The husband answers, “‘I don’t know. I mean you look dif-ferent, strong and happy,’” leading to the next sequence ofexchanges:

“‘I am strong? Yes, strong. What do you mean ‘strong’?’ Helooked bewildered. ‘You’re playing some kind of a game,’hesaid helplessly. ‘It’s a kind of play. You look strong enoughto break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like awatermelon.’”

The husband’s verbal ineptitude prevails, especially sincethis awkward expression is used to describe a woman whokeeps a neat house and does not want to see a fight thatevening. She responds, “‘Henry! Don’t talk like that. Youdidn’t know what you said…’” and shortly thereafter, “‘I’mstrong,’ she boasted. ‘I never knew before how strong.’” This isprecisely the strength that will be shattered the moment shesees her dear chrysanthemums hurled by the side of the road.

Just like “nice” above, “strong” now becomes the wordemphasized and repeated. The repetition of the adjective car-ries thematic importance in the story. Here is the translation ofthe whole passage:

Henry atrapalhou-se:

Não sei. Acho-te diferente: vigorosa, felizAchas-me vigorosa? Sim, vigorosa. Que queres tu dizer porvigorosa?

Henry fitou-a estupefato.

Estás a brincar comigo? – perguntou, sentindo-se desam-parado. Que brincadeira é essa? Pareces tão forte que atéte julgo capaz de dominar um touro com o joelho, e tão felizque não me admiraria se o comesse com se fosse umamelancia....Sinto-me forte – alardeou. – Nunca me senti tão forte.(emphases mine)

The change from vigorosa to forte when the original textrepeats the same simple word “strong” misrepresents thesequence as Steinbeck expressed it, as well as his concern forwords and style. This exchange relates directly to other refer-ences to Elisa as being “over-eager” or “over-powerful” and tothe fact that she grows unusually big flowers. At this point inthe story, her “strength” derives also from the fact that astranger (to whom she feels attracted) admired her flowers andasked for a sample; an indication that her talent has beenfinally recognized outside her fenced-in world. The emphatic

example, we say lavo as mãos whenthe common expression in English is Iwash my hands; I will wash my face,my hair translates as vou lavar o rosto,a cabeça, with the article instead ofthe possessive. However, in the case ofSteinbeck’s story, the feminine pos-sessive sets Elisa’s property asidefrom the rest of her husband’s farm.She excels in taking care of herflowers in her garden. Hence theimportance of reading the whole storyor at least learning about it prior toengaging in the task of translating.The translator should be aware of theway words in the text bear meaningsin order to recreate the emphasis asfound in the source passage.

On a couple of occasions Steinbeckmakes use of the repetition of wordsand phrases to enhance certain traits ina character. Toward the end of thestory, he lingers over the meaning ofthe word “nice.” As Elisa gets dressedto go out, her husband makes a com-ment: “‘You look so nice!’” and sheresponds, “‘Nice? You think I looknice? What do you mean by ‘nice’?’”Here is the translation:

Bravo, Elisa! Estás formosa!

Formosa? Achas que estou formosa?Que entendes tu por ‘formosa’?

First, if we wish to quibble withdegrees of niceness and beauty, Ibelieve that the equivalent of nice hereis “bonita” and not “formosa,” aschosen by the translator. The use of tubetrays the fact that the translator isprobably a speaker of Continental Por-tuguese. In Brazil, tu is used in thesouth, by the Catarinenses and Gau-chos, and in some areas of the State ofSão Paulo. Yet, the construction soundstoo formal for the general register ofSteinbeck’s story. I would probablysay, “O que é que você quer dizer com‘bonita’?’”.

Regaining Meaning Continued


use of “strong” in this passage contrasts with the situation atthe end of the story in which Elisa turns her face away from herhusband “crying weakly.” The translation, “chorando perdida-mente,” fails to establish this contrast as well, although I admitto the difficulty of finding an equivalent in Portuguese for theopposition “strong/weak” in this context.

In another instance the repetition implies irony and its omis-sion causes those who read the translation to miss an importantaspect of Elisa’s character. When Elisa’s husband leaves herfence, she hears “the squeak of wheels,” and realizes that it’s apeddler stopping by the farm in search of pots and pans to fix.When he first pulls over, his dog cowardly runs under thewagon as the two ranch shepherds approach him. Trying todefend his dog, the man says, “‘That’s a bad dog in a fightwhen he gets started.’” The passage continues, “Elisa laughed.‘I see he is. And how soon does he generally get started?’ Theman caught up her laughter and echoed it heartily. ‘Sometimesnot for weeks and weeks.’” It is important to realize that thecomment and laughter serve to establish some kind of rela-tionship between the peddler and Elisa. He then explains thathe is off his usual road and asks Elisa for instructions on howto get to the Los Angeles highway (which comes translated asPlanalto de Los Angeles!). She suggests a road, but cautionshim that she doesn’t “‘think [his]team could pull through thesand.’” Bragging about this team, comprised of an “old bayhorse and a little grey-and-white burro,” the man answers “‘Itmight surprise you what them beasts can pull through.’” AndElisa ironically echoes his addendum of moments before:“‘When they get started…’” getting the man to “smile for asecond,” and confirm by repeating, “‘Yes, when they getstarted.’” It is hard to believe that the translator failed to noticethe ironic repetition, but the Portuguese text misses the point:

Quando dá para morder, é uma fera.Elisa riu.

Estou vendo. Quando é que dá para morder?O riso de Elisa contagiou o homem, que riu também de boavontade.

Às vezes demora semanas e semanas.

And some lines below:...Não creio que seu carro possa atravessar a areia.…Não se preocupe, os animais puxam bem.Quando lhes dá na veneta, não é? – perguntou Elisa.O homem esboçou um leve sorriso.

Sim, quando lhes dá na veneta.

Without the echo of the interjection,the target text misses the irony and theemotional response of the characters.Besides, Elisa’s use of irony enhancesher strong character and adds a dimen-sion to this woman, her quick way withthoughts and words, which the transla-tion fails to convey.

The rural setting brings forth thecomplexities of how to translateregionalist speeches and/or ungram-matical language as used by unedu-cated characters. At one point the ped-dler asks Elisa for some work andexplains that he “‘ain’t had a thing todo today.’” The Portuguese reads,“‘ainda não estreei.’” “Não estreei,”which sounds strange to me as theequivalent of the expression in thesource text, belongs to a higher registerand does not reflect the colloquial,rural, grammatically flawed languagewhich characterizes the man whouttered it. My Brazilian inner earwould translate this as a caipira, ornordestino would probably say it:“Num consegui nada inda hoje,” or“Num tive trabalho [trabaio] indahoje,” reflecting the man’s social posi-tion and illiteracy. The travelingrepairman has his job spelled out in“clumsy, crooked letters” on thecanvas of his wagon: “Pots, pans,knives, scissors, lawn mores, Fixed.”The translator found an extremelygood solution to keep the alliteration in“letras toscas e tortas,” but did notreproduce the misspellings. The Por-tuguese, “Amola tesouras e navalhas.Consertam-se panelas, canecas, etc.”is impeccably grammatical, with eventhe passive construction in the plural.We almost expect the wrong “Con-serta-se…,” at least in Brazil.

Part of the problem may derivefrom the fact that the translator spokeContinental Portuguese. When I readtranslations of dialogues pertaining to

Continued on p. 52



flores.” It seems almost natural to avoid using the objectivepronoun because we know we don’t use it properly.

On the other hand, I wonder how Continental Portuguesereaders respond to a translation that uses typically Braziliansyntax and expressions. Here is an example from DorothyParker’s “Arrangement in Black and White.” Paulo Rónai andAurélio Buarque de Hollanda use language that echoes myown colloquial speech forms:

“‘Well, thank goodness,’” she said, ‘because I wouldn’thave embarrassed him for anything. Why, he’s awfully nice.Just as nice as he can be. Nice manners, and everything. Youknow, so many colored people, you give them an inch, andthey walk all over you.’”

Puxa, graças a Deus! Porque eu não gostaria de chatearêle, por nada neste mundo. Nossa, como êle é encantador!Fino que só êle! Maneiras refinadas e tudo! O senhor sabe,há tantos negros que quando o senhor dá o pé logo querema mão! ...

Here, the common “chatear êle” and the “Puxa” and“Nossa” create a very familiar colloquial dialogue, both inlexical and syntactical choices. How do these colloquialismsfare across the ocean? Some “Lusos” who attended my pre-sentation in St. Louis confirmed that these passages soundstrange to them.

And here is one more example of differences between thelanguage spoken in Europe and the one in Brazil. In this case,the translation of a term into Continental Portuguese misleadsthe Brazilian reader and affects the meaning of the passage inunexpected ways. When Elisa tells the peddler she has nothingin need of repair, he smartly manipulates her feelings byadmiring her flowers. He refers to them as “‘kind of long-stemmed flower? Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke?’”And she responds, “‘What a nice way to describe them.’” Thetranslator, revealing the fact that he/she uses Continental Por-tuguese, writes: “Que maneira engraçada de descrevê-los.”“Engraçada,” as the translation of “nice,” leaves the unsus-pecting Brazilian reader thinking that Elisa found the commentfunny and not “nice.” Only in Portugal does “engraçada” sug-gest “graceful” or “nice”; in Brazil, “engraçado” means onlyfunny or laughable. Again, notice the use of the objective pro-noun “descrevê-los” in the example above; in Brazil, it wouldmost probably become “de descrever os crisântemos,”orsimply “de descrever.” Should we begin to entertain the needfor both a Brazilian and a Continental version of foreign texts?

At the risk of being redundant, the discrepancies betweensource and target texts provide me with a means to point outthe richness of the original and how meanings and linguistic

rural characters into Continental Por-tuguese, the language never seemsadjusted to the character. It oftenseems to belong to a higher registerdue to a vocabulary that I considermore sophisticated and admirably cor-rect, somewhat unrealistic for the set-ting. Of course, these concepts datefrom my school days when someteacher mentioned that people in Por-tugal, unlike most Brazilians, alwaysuse objective pronouns properly, anduse objective pronouns and not thesubjective ones if that is what the con-struction requires. For example, theyreally say “eu o vi” and not “eu vi êle”as many Brazilians, even educatedones, often do. We usually don’t writethis way, but we certainly speak quite agrammatically imperfect Portuguese.Here is one more example. The peddlerfeigns disappointment when Elisaexplains that chrysanthemums dobetter transplanted than seeded, andsays, “‘Oh, I s’pose I can’t take noneto her, then…’” with the incorrectdouble negative. The translation reads,“‘Ah...Visto isso, não posso levar-lhenenhuma,’” in a perfect, grammaticalconstruction. Likewise, when Elisaexplains how to transplant the flowers,her Portuguese is flawless: “‘Se quiser,coloco-as em areia úmida e poderálevá-las imediatamente. Tenha ocuidado de conservar o vaso em água,para não deixá-las morrer. Depois é sótransportá-las.’” [“I can put some indamp sand, and you can carry themright along with you. They will takeroot in a pot if you keep them damp.And then she can transplant them.”]. InBrazil, the objective pronouns areseldom used in such a perfect way,especially orally. A Brazilian farmwoman would more likely have saidsomething like, “Posso por as floresem areia molhada e aí você pode levarsem problema. Elas vão criar raízes novaso se voce deixar sempre molhado. Edepois ela pode transplantar as

Regaining Meaning Continued

accomplishments get “added” or “subtracted” in the target text.As teachers of literature, we should make our students awareof the translation processes and enhance the linguistic possi-bilities of both source and target language. As academic diplo-mats, we owe this to the cultures we straddle and bridge as weintroduce new readers to them.

ReferencesParker, Dorothy. “Arranjo em Branco e Preto.” Contos Norte-

Americanos. Seleção, tradução e notas introdutórias de

Aurélio Buarque de Hollanda ePaulo Rónai. Rio de Janeiro: Ed.Tecnoprint. 163-167.

Steinbeck, John. “Os Crisântemos.”Maravilhas do Conto Norte-Ameri-cano. 3rd ed. Introd. and notes byEdgard Cavalheiro. S. Paulo: ed.Cultrix, 1963. 245-259.

translated as : He would write if you would answer:.

In indirect speech, “would” expresses futurity: He said hewould bring the book: .

It expresses a regular action: Fridays he would sleep late:.

“Would” may mitigate the strength of a statement or arequest: Would you please leave:

.

Avoidance of Successive Placement of VerbsIn certain structures successive placement of verbs should

be avoided. Translation of the following sentence: “Muchremains to be done” should be:and not, as it is seen in some writings,

. That is because the noun in the nominative case, ,should follow the first verb, , with the second verb,

, coming after the nominative noun. By the same token, one should say:

, as long as its elimination is impossible for us,and not: . Also,

, as long as a specter of a nuclearwar reigns over the world, and not:

.

Specification ( )In English sentences where specification (tamyiz) is used,

such as, “He did this in disregard/contempt of that,” the correcttranslation would be to use the

, and not .

Translation Between Arabic and English Continuedfrom p. 24


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See page 69 for more information.

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care and consideration should be givento every item, choosing appropriatewords, imparting the correct tone,selecting effective phrases. I am sureyou will agree, Mr. President, that suchtasks are totally beyond the reach ofmachines.

As you travel around the world andhave people from around the world assistyou in your endeavors, stop and think:The professional that you are dependingon so heavily to interpret the meaning ofyour words and thoughts in a precise andaccurate manner, is the very partner thatyou cannot work without in your negoti-ations and dealings. With many moredialects and languages than there arecountries, translators and interpreters arebecoming increasingly essential in ourglobal world.

Mr. President, translators and inter-preters all over the world are saddenedby a statement that can so easily bemisinterpreted, making people evenless aware of the importance of thetranslation profession in facilitatingcommunication between differentcommunities and between differentcountries. We take this opportunity torequest that you use your powerfulvoice, not to make translators andinterpreters more invisible, but ratherto enhance the crucial role that theyplay in our society.

— Ad-Hoc World Committee forTranslation Awareness

Paul Perry, M.A., Chair

COMMITTEE MEMBERS—JOINTSIGNERS

Julia Lambertini AndreottiLos Angeles, CA

Letters to the Editor Continued from p. 14

WWW.ATANET.ORGVISIT ATA’S WEBSITE AT

OF LITERARY NOTE By Jo Anne Engelbert

Marian Schwartz on Translating NinaBerberova

Literary reviewers, so versatile inpanning or praising authors,develop hardening of the the-

saurus when they have to judge transla-tors; “competent” and “yeomanlike”appear to be their total inventory ofadjectives. When translations are so goodthat even New York Times reviewers find words to note their excellence, it’s an occasion for rejoicing. MarianSchwartz’s translations of three books byRussian émigré novelist Nina Berberovahave warranted such attention. They areThe Ladies from St. Petersburg, The Bookof Happiness, and Cape of Storms, allpublished within the past two years byNew Directions. Presently serving aspresident-elect of the American LiteraryTranslators Association (ALTA), Marian,who lives and works in Austin, Texas, hasan astonishing resume that includes 23book-length translations and dozens ofstories and articles. We asked Marian toshare some of her insights on translationand publishing with Chronicle readers.

JE: Marian, congratulations. By any stan-dards, these books are a significant contri-bution to contemporary culture. And theyare great examples of the art of transla-tion. One reviewer says the work was“translated with care and suitable trans-parency.” Another says you have rendered“Berberova’s distinctive Russian into fineand elegant English.” Phrases like this ina review are so rare. Tell me, do you feela special affinity for the writing of NinaBerberova? How important is it for thetranslator to be able to identify with theauthor’s way of thinking?

MS: I think it’s usually a mistake for aliterary translator to take on a project she

can’t believe in. Not only do you have tobe confident of your own skills, but youhave to admire the original text.

JE: Did you seek Berberova out, then,because you admired her work?

MS: I met her in conjunction with a nonliterary project, and when I realizedwhat a marvelous stylist she was and howgratifyingly intelligent her writing was, Iinquired whether she had ever written anyfiction (my personal interest). She gave mesomething off her shelf, I read it, I askedfor permission to translate it, and within ayear it had won first prize in the LiteraryReview’s Novella-in-Translation Contest.This was Sentence Commuted, later pub-lished as Astashev in Paris, much to mydismay.

JE: It’s hard to imagine someone thoughtthat title change was an improvement! So,in other words, you not only liked herwriting, but you could identify with theway her mind worked. That’s got to bevery important.

MS: I think so. Before Berberova, Iignored my gut and translated what I wasadvised to translate. With her, I trusted mygut, which turned out to be the right thingto do. She was the first author I chose onthe basis of my own taste and judgment.

JE: Interesting. It’s like choosing a mate, ora dentist. Or a psychiatrist. Maybe harder. Ithink the question of what, or rather whom,to translate is tremendously important.

MS: I agree. My work with Berberovawas an important part of my own self-education as a translator. When I firstbegan to translate her literary work, shewas only known within the academiccommunity. And she wasn’t particularlywell liked or even respected there.

JE: You had good instincts and the con-fidence to act on them. Tell me, did youwork together on the translations? Didyou become friends?

MS: Yes, we worked together on the

books, and she was very helpful. And overtime we became friends.

JE: Nina Berberova was at Princeton,wasn’t she?

MS: Yes, when she died in 1993 she wasprofessor emerita. She fled Russia in 1922.

JE: I’ve read that a lot of Berberova’swork describes the experience of WhiteRussians at the time of the revolution andafterward.

MS: That’s right. What was so specialabout working with Berberova was that,for the most part, she was recreating avery specific milieu—the working-classWhite Russian émigré world of Billan-court, where the Renault factory was, andwhere so many of those émigrés worked.She helped me to visualize this world sothat I could get it right in English.

JE: Can you give us an example of thekind of thing she could help you with?

MS: My famous example concerns a dogin one of the stories: apparently a bluesheepdog (golubaia ovcharka), but actu-ally a fashionable deerhound that was agray color with a bluish cast. The dog wasimportant because it was a status symbol.

JE: It’s an incredible advantage to be ableto work with someone who can supplythose details. So many translations getpublished with all the blue sheepdogs,and God knows what else, still runningaround loose. No wonder reviewers don’tknow what to say about translations. Howelse did Berberova help you?

MS: Well, I think I was fortunate to haveread The Big City while she was stillalive, because I was able to ask herwhether she had a specific place in mind.She was surprised at my confusion andinsisted that this was simply Manhattan.In the story, she refers to Manhattan as a“cape,” which is probably not inaccuratetechnically, given that the northern end

Engelbert, anactive member ofATA and an ATA

director, is a freelance trans-

lator in St. Augus-tine, Florida.

Continued on p. 61



Hungarian Treasury of WordsA Dictionary of Synonyms, Idioms,and AntonymsMagyar SzókincstárRokon értelmã szavak, szólások ésellentétek szótáraEditor:Gábor KissPublisher:TINTA Publisher, Budapest929 pagesPublication Date:1999ISBN:963-85622-2-6Available from:TINTA Könyvkiadó, Szatmárhegyi u.13., H-1116 Budapest, Hungary; Tel:+(36-1)208-58-11; Fax: +(36-1)208-39-89; E-mail: [email protected] by:Helen M. and John F. Szablya

The Hungarian Treasury of Words waspublished with support from the NationalScientific Research Foundation of Hun-gary. It contains 25,500 vocabularyentries with 42,300 synonyms, for a totalof 80,600 words.

Every vocabulary entry is printed inbold letters, with the part of speech (e.g.,noun, verb) given in parenthesis right afterthe word. If there are two possibilities forthe part of speech, then both either appearin the same parentheses or there are twoentries. For example: red (noun, adjective);jackass I. (noun), jackass II. (adjective).

If there are several meanings for thesame vocabulary entry, then the synonym-groups are separated by an empty diamond sign (◊). If the antonym is available, it comes after the synonyms andcontinues with the synonyms of theantonym. Following the antonyms, the

idiom for the original vocabulary entry is given.

We are both Hungarian translators. Weuse this book extensively in our work andare very satisfied with the number andvariety of words, synonyms, antonyms,and idioms it provides.

Gabor Kiss, the dictionary’s editor, hasa rather unusual background (not to mention the fact that he owns hundreds ofdictionaries). His first degree was in computer mathematics. For his seconddegree, he pursued his true dream, linguis-tics. While still in school, he was alreadyemployed by the Hungarian Academy ofScience Linguistic Institute. The Institutehad just purchased its first computer atthat time, so a linguistic student with adegree in computer programming wasexactly what was needed. He was on theteam that developed the Russian and theHungarian-speaking computers. He thenmoved on to work on the big Hungarianliterary dictionaries.

To provide some perspective on the evolution of reference works for the Hungarian language, here is a bit of history.The first dictionary that contained the Hungarian language was published inVienna in 1538. It was a six-language(Latin-Italian-French-Czech-Hungarian-German) dictionary that printed the wordsaccording to concepts, and not in alphabet-ical order. Most Hungarian dictionaries,from the earliest days on, have a beehive ontheir cover pages to show that the wordswere collected as bees collect honey.

New dictionaries were assembled fromthose that came before, adding newwords/concepts and giving new meaningsto old words as the language developed.Even today, Hungarian continues tochange, which sometimes leads to disagreement over meaning. Take thereviewers of this dictionary for example.Helen is 10 years younger than John, buteven in those short 10 years there have beenchanges to the meanings of several words.This leads to occasional differences ofopinion between them. For instance, theother day the Hungarian word esszencia(essence) came up. For Helen, it meant aconcentrate from which housewives madeliquor, rum, or druggists made perfume.

However, for John, the word meant concentrated vinegar. According to the dictionary, Helen’s interpretation was listedfirst and John’s second.

Many new words continue to be addedto the Hungarian language as a result ofHungary’s status as one of the newly liberated countries. For example, Webpage, Website, software, environmen-talist, shopping mall, and many more.

Slang dictionaries, student talk,soldier talk, and idioms all have theirrightful places in the Hungarian Treasury of Words. Kiss used 19 single-language dictionaries, seven two-language ones, as well as two idiom andproverb collections in his research whilecompiling this dictionary.

A unique feature of this single-language dictionary in Hungarian is thatit provides antonyms for about half thewords. The other half is missing, as theconcept of antonyms is not very wide-spread and can be controversial. Forinstance, many would name “window” asan antonym for “door,” though that is notreally an antonym, but only a word in thesame circle of concepts. For “sky,” somewould name “earth,” others “water.”

The idioms given make the dictionarycolorful, but in a thesaurus-sense, most ofthe time one would not be able to use asentence instead of a word to express aconcept.

The Hungarian Treasury of Words isalso available on CD-ROM. Two compa-nies have produced a CD-ROM for theBudapest Book Festival: the Scriptum Rt.in Szeged, and the MorphoLogic Kft. inBudapest. Both programs contain the samematerial, only their user-interface is dif-ferent.

For example, let’s look at the word“horse.” How many idioms can we find withthis word? The CD-ROM brings up 84 dif-ferent versions. Of course on paper, wewould have to go through a lot of pages tofind them because they all come under different vocabulary entries. For example,“he eats as much as a horse” would comeup in connection with “big eater,” while“it’s worth as much as a horseshoe on adead horse,” would come up under “super-fluous,” and so on. Using the CD-ROM

DICTIONARY REVIEWS Compiled by Albert Bork

Bork is chair of the ATA Dictionary

Review Committee.

version, we can bring up all 84 varieties atthe click of the mouse.

The most important use of this dictionary is to monitor the precise,colorful, and correct use of the Hungarianlanguage. This is going to be increasinglyimportant, especially since Hungary isgoing to become a member of the Euro-pean Union. Language is the carrier ofculture and it is important to keep theidentity of the language alive.

Both of us wholeheartedly recom-mend this dictionary. It is available inHungary and at all Hungarian bookstoresin the U.S. and Canada, and can beordered using the information above fromany bookstore or individual.

Random House Webster’s Dictionary ofthe English Language (CD-ROM)Publisher:Random HousePrice:$28Reviewed by:Robert France

The Random House Webster’s Dictionaryof the English Language on CD-ROM isnot a hot-off-the-press, just releasedproduct; it has been around for a time,and some of you are already using it. Forme, however, it came onto the scene onlyin February of this year, and in the brieftime since then, I have found it to beastonishingly useful. Much more so thanI ever would have imagined.

It is not my first CD-ROM dictionary.Several months ago, based on a favorablereview in the Chronicle, I purchased asomewhat costly bilingual technical tome(Routledge), whose contents represented agreat improvement over my previous technical dictionary, more than justifyingits cost. But the real revelation was thetremendous ease of use and the time saved.With the dictionary open, a quick toggleprovides instant access to the desired information. However, I generally open itonly when working on a technical docu-ment, or when an unfamiliar technical termpops up in some other kind of text.

Nevertheless, it brought me to the real-ization that I want to eventually have as

many dictionaries as possible on my harddisk, with any or all them open simultane-ously in Windows, placing all sorts of essen-tial reference material just a toggle away.

Having come to this realization, thefirst thing I looked for was an off-the-shelfmonolingual English-language CD-ROMdictionary. At a local general market book-store, I found the Random House, priced at$28. Random House having long been myfavorite English-language dictionary ofthe printed persuasion, I bought the CD-ROM with no further ado. Several weekslater, my old faithful printed RandomHouse is still permanently open on a tablenext to my desk, but more as décor than asan active duty reference book. Virtuallyovernight, it became extinct, turning into adinosaur because it simply cannot compete with the CD-ROM version. Thelatter is so useful that I automatically openit every time I turn on my computer. Thus,it is always available, just a toggle away,and I consult it far more often than I usedto consult the print version. At first, I wasconcerned that the CD-ROM versionmight not be as complete in either thenumber of entries or depth of detail, butto date I have found it just as complete inevery respect. As a result, I click on it at

the slightest need or whim: to explore ameaning, double-check a doubt, look fora synonym in a context other than theMS-Word thesaurus, or just out of simplecuriosity about some word or another.

In sum, it is a treasure to have and use,and one which I recommend to everyChronicle reader. As translators, we ATAmembers are, ipso facto, dictionary-oriented people, but beyond the value it can have in your daily work, I recommend it to you for your familiesand friends, and for your children orgrandchildren still in school. I think thisparticular technological wonder is one ofthe most effective ways that has evercome along to steer the computer-but-notdictionary-oriented student into frequentcontact with the dictionary, and thence onto an ever richer command of the language.

Since the above review was prepared,the reviewer has obtained the Clave Diccionario de Uso del Español Actual onCD-ROM. Without going into detail, itseems both comprehensive and easy to use.Besides the basic dictionary, it contains anumber of other highly useful sections.

I do not wish to end here without first mentioning an issue that is bestto clarify when speaking of situations that deal with the language of thepress and its variations from the norm. What needs to be clarified is thatjournalists do not write as poorly as it might seem based on what has beensaid previously, and the language of the press is not as faulty as it wouldseem because of the errors that we may find.

Most journalists have a good command of the language, which istheir working tool, and they use it better than the average speaker. How-ever, as was previously stated, they enjoy the good, or perhaps unfortu-nate, fortune that their message reaches thousands of people, and sowhat they say or write, along with any possible errors, may be imitatedby many listeners or readers who look to them as models. The respon-sibility is great. Therefore, media professionals must care for anddefend the language they use, and be aware that they can trigger unde-sirable changes.

The Departamento de Español Urgente of the Agency EFE Continued from p. 46



Address your queries and responses tothe Translation Inquirer, 112 ArdmoorAvenue, Danville, Pennsylvania 17821, orfax them to (570) 275-1477. Internetaddress: [email protected]. Assisting:Roy Wells, [email protected]. Pleasemake your submissions by the 25th of eachmonth to be included in the next issue.

In a way that shows imagination withlanguage that only the very youngnormally achieve, my nephew

referred to one of his toys as a “helpfuldump truck.” That is what this column is:a means for the Translation Inquirer to behelpful by unceremoniously dumping lin-guistic problems on more than 7,000other people and organizations in our pro-fession.

[Abbreviations used with entries inthis column: D-Dutch; E-English; F-French; G-German; I-Italian; L-Latin; Pt-Portuguese; R-Russian; Sp-Spanish; Su-Finnish.]

New Queries(D-E 5-2000/1) Mieke Lancaster was

working in the topic of lathes and found“kogelomloopspil.” What is it?

(E-F 5-2000/2) Tony Roder needs toknow whether the new continental cur-rency is called “Euro, euro, euros, orEuros” in French. And whatever it is, areconversion tables handed out or sold for itin France?

(E-I 5-2000/3) An Italian equivalent ofequal opportunity employer is needed,preferably the standard formulation if oneexists.

(E-L 5-2000/4) Someone who ispreparing a family crest asked Tony Roderto translate the inscription Commit thy workto the divine into Latin, presumably to placeon the crest itself.

(F-E 5-2000/5) The verb “interpeller”appeared several times in an analysis of apreview of a new radio campaign for adrinks dispenser. Examples: “Pour lesemployés - ils sont interpellés par l’idéedu distributeur.” And: “Pour les décideurs- ça peut être interpellant, mais cellefaçon de renseigner ne fait pas très‘sérieux’...” Who knows the meaning ofthis verb?

(F-E 5-2000/6) ULE was a problemabbreviation for Bruce Sanderson in thefield of logistics. Here is what he found:“Nombre de réferences (en fonctionclasses de volume ULE prédéfinies),” fol-lowed by a table: “% de lignes,” withcapacities of 0.1 lit. Could it be “unitélivrée entière?” And might delivered unitbe a proper English rendering?

(F-E 5-2000/7) Mary Lalevée wasreviewing a translation about satellites,and encountered (7.a) “trois positionsorbitales.” Are these three orbital posi-tions, and not orbital slots? In a veinmore attuned to space commerce, shefound (7.b) “vendre du secteur spatialainsi que les liaisons montantes oudescendantes correspondantes”; it seemsparticularly strange for her to use spacesector, as in “XXX utilise actuellementdes secteurs spatiaux fournis par les satel-lites Y et Z.” Then, (7.c) “remplacementde la tête de réception appelée L”:receiving head? And lastly, “...des ser-vices en bande Ku et en bande C”: are the“bandes” really bands?

(F-E 5-2000/8) Gene Weissmanencountered the numerical term “deize”in a Belgian document (“le deize du moisde Janvier”). Does this stand for “dix” or“dixieme?”

(G-E 5-2000/9) The context was a1935 description of some features thatpresumably were in northwestern Ger-many, but for Motuacidorue the geo-graphical appellation of “Bergisch-Märkisch” drew a blank. What region isthis—or was this, given the boundarychanges since then?

(R-E 5-2000/10) Elliott Urdang hadproblems finding standard equivalents fortwo terms in a lease agreement for a prop-erty being leased out by EbhfdktybtUBJG (Ujcelfhcndtyyjq bycgtrwbb gj

j[hfyt gfvznybrjd): (10.a) ,fkfy-cjcjlth;bntkm. The term balance holderwas found on the Web, but it was a poorEnglish translation. Oddly enough, ,fkfy-cjlth;bntkm exists, raising the question ofwhether these two are synonyms. The otherproblem term was (10.b) j[hfyyjt j,zpfntkmcndj, taken from a sentence frag-ment dsgjkyznm nht,jdfybz j[hfyyjujj,zpfntkmcndf c EUBJG. He could not findthe equivalent.

(Sp-E 5-2000/11) On a school certifi-cate from Lima, Peru, Gerard Mryglotfound the abbreviations E.P.M., U.S.E.,and M.G.P. Any ideas what these are?

(Su-E 5-2000/12) Yngve Roennikewonders whether “suuntautuneisuus” is bestrendered as direct approach in English.

(Su-E 5-2000/13) In connection withpulp-related machinery, Yngve needs toknow the meaning of “käppyrä.”

Replies to Old Queries(E-Sp 1-2000/5) Renato Calderón

often says in regard to this column that helikes to keep the pot boiling. He certainlydid that with inner city, as replies keepcoming in. This interesting one fromMirtha Nebeker, which is used inArgentina and Uruguay, is “barrios mar-ginados,” normally located on the out-skirts of a city. But even in NorthAmerica, adds the Translation Inquirer,inner city never refers to an area in thehistoric core. Take Philadelphia, forexample. If you tell me, “I work in CenterCity Philadelphia,” I assume you are inbusiness or government work. But if yousay, “I work in Philadelphia’s inner city,”I think of the huge area surroundingNorth Philadelphia Station, quite a dif-ferent environment altogether.

(E-Sp 4-2000/2) (whereas...): EricMcMillan claims this is best renderedinto Spanish as “considerando.”

(G-E 11-99/5) (“Bereichsleiter”):Area manager, section manager, or sec-tion chief are preferred by Lotte Ehrlich.

(G-E 11-99/7) (“mit sich selbst” plussurrounding sentence): Lotte Ehrlich ren-ders the entire thing, which is on page 68of the November-December Chronicle, asThe manager, or managing director, mayrepresent the company himself or as rep-

THE TRANSLATION INQUIRER Compiled by John Decker

Decker, an activemember,

is a freelance technical translator

in Danville,Pennsylvania.

resentative of some other officer of thecompany.

(G-E 1-2000/9) (“Schiebglieder-band”): The term conveys sliding linkconveyor to Kriemhilde Livingston, incontrast to “Gleitbandanlage” which is asliding belt conveyor.

(G-E 1-2000/10) (“Nichtangriffsvere-inbarung”): It’s a nonviolation agreementfor Kriemhilde Livingston, while AlexisTakvorian likes no-contest clause.

(G-E 2-2000/6) (“Auslagerblock”):From Karin Isbell: delivery block,delivery station, or delivery shelf.

(G-E 2-2000/7) (“Bevollmächtiger”):Karin Isbell goes with ounce of power ofattorney or attorney in fact for this. It’s anauthorized representative or agent,deputy, or attorney at law, according to Kriemhilde Livingston. Selma Benjamin likes plenipotentiary. DavidWilmsen notes the similarity between“Bevollmächtiger” and the Arabic“wakiil,” a proxy, or a person or entitythat holds a patent or franchise to sellproducts, or to act on behalf of a largerentity.

(G-E 2-2000/8) (“erfindungsgemäß”):In over three decades of translatingpatents, Phil Fisher has used based on theinvention or of the invention. Dependingon context, Karin Isbell likes in compli-ance with, according to, in keeping with,subject to, or under the provisions of theinvention. No client has ever challengedthe Translation Inquirer for his use ofinvention-specific for this.

(G-E 2-2000/9) (“als-ob-Betrach-tung”): Context, says Karin Isbell mightdictate any of the following: quasi view,tentative view, or projection, ...as it were.

(G-E 3-2000/6) (“die Leistungs-fähigkei t des Naturhaushal ts”) :Kriemhilde Livingston suggests the pro-ductivity of natural ecology.

(G-E 3-2000/9) (“Alleinstellung”):Randall Condra reports that “Alleinstel-lung,” “Alleinstellungsmerkmal,” and“Differenzierungsmerkmal” are all syn-onyms for unique selling proposition,some feature that sets your product apartfrom the competition. This is increasinglydifficult to achieve and maintain in business, therefore companies must

concentrate on a “Differenzierungswerbe-merkmal” (unique advertising proposi-tion), a means of advertising that givesthe product a unique appeal.

(G-E 4-2000/6) (“Mädchenauge”):From a Finnish Website, Eric McMillanlearned that the Latin name for this isCoreopsis tinctoria, and in English, cal-liopsis, plains coreopsis, and annualcoreopsis. Australians call it tickseed.

(G-E 4-2000/7) (BGR): Very plau-sibly for a technical document, thisexpands to “Bundesanstalt für Geowis-senschaften und Rohstoffe,” as found byEric McMillan.

(Pt-E 2-2000/10) (“acometido”): Thismeans that the patient has the conditionor the disease, says Thais Simões. He orshe might be debilitated, paralyzed, oroverwhelmed by the condition, but notnecessarily so. The Aurélio dictionaryhas several definitions of “acometer,” oneof which is “manifestar-se de repenteem.”

(Sp-E 2-2000/12) (“teoría de impre-visión”): In the French civil code, saysPhilippe Vitu, there exists a notion of“imprevision,” which, more specifically,is “changement de circonstances.” Hisproposed English version is change ofcircumstances theory.

According to Susana Greiss, it isimprovidence theory. Black’s Law Dic-tionary states that improvidence, as usedin a statute, means excluding one foundincompetent to execute the duties of anadministrator by reason of improvidence.It means that want of care and foresightin the management of property, whichwould be likely to render the estateunsafe and liable to loss or diminishmentof value, in case the administrationshould be committed to the improvidentperson.

(Sp-E 2-2000/13) (“ingresos in tran-quera”): Expanding a bit on what MatildeFarren wrote last month, Rudi Theis tells usthat a “tranquera” is the gate guarding afarm or any rural establishment inArgentina. He believes this term to refer toany income the producer—in this case adairy farmer—gets from setting his productat the gate. It is a rural variation on F.O.B.

(Sp-E 2-2000/15) (bottling industry

terms): For (15.b) (“contadores deenvase”), Susana Greiss offers container(can, bottle) counter, as in the act ofcounting; (15.c) (“medidores analógicos”):analog meters; (15.d) (“mermas”): ullage,being the amount by which a containerfalls short of being full; and (15.e) (“accesocontrolado por llave secreta”): access byrestricted (secret) code.

John Schweisthal believes this wholecluster relates to the embedded controlcomputer system for the bottlingindustry’s production line. Assumingthis, he offers secure data for (15.a)“datos fijos”; wastage or spillage for(15.d), unless the context is an attempt bythe control program to do some electricalcurrent and voltage calculations for theprocess, in which case it would be elec-trical losses; and secret key access for(15.e).

(Sp-E 3-2000/15) (El Salvadoreanpolice organizations cluster): SandraBravo worked for the Argentine FederalPolice (A.F.P.) as a translator and had thesame problem. Speaking purely of herexperience in Argentina, she states that“delegaciones” (15.a) are police stationsin the interior of the country which are incharge of A.F.P. cases at a provinciallevel. “Subdelegaciones” (15.b) depend,in turn, on these local police stations,mainly in rural areas, and are in charge ofmatters delegated to them. So, shebelieves the best equivalents are localpolice stations and rural police stations,respectively.

In Argentina, a “puesto policial”(15.c) is a group of police forces spe-cially organized for a specific purposelike a sporting event, demonstration, orparade, to patrol a certain location. Policepost or patrolling unit might be goodequivalents.

As for (15.d) “resguardo,” she quotesMaría Moliner in stating that the wordimplies both the surveillance carried outin a place to prevent smuggling and thegroup of employees in charge of doingso. Although the term checkpoint mainlyrefers to the traffic being halted by policefor inspection, in Sandra’s opinion, it

Continued on p. 62



HUMOR AND TRANSLATION By Mark Herman

Follow-up and Follow-onLydia Razran Stone suggests a spelling of the English sound

“oo” not included in the November/December 1999 column:“ieu,” as in the word “lieu.”

Both Ana María Paredes and Daniel A. Martínez, com-menting on the February 2000 column, wrote to say that“Centro para Mujeres Abusadas” does indeed mean “Center forAbused Women,” because “abusada” means “alert” or “clever”only in Guatemala and Mexico, and then only when it is spokenrather than written. Therefore, the sign is a mistranslation onlyfor a limited group of people.

Meanwhile, two more interesting pieces of Spanish havebeen submitted.

Ramón Torres saw a sign in San Antonio reading: “No sepermiten armas, Violadores serín castigados,” to which Mr.Torres adds: “Leaves a lot to the imagination, doesn’t it?”

The problem with the Spanish is the meaning-spread of both“armas” and “castigados.” The sign does have the straightfor-ward meaning:

“Weapons not allowed. Violators will be punished.” How-ever, “armas,” in Spanish, as in English, means both a person’stwo “arms” and “weapons.” The verb “castigar” means to“punish,” or to “mortify” the flesh, or to “correct” a typo, or to“cut down” expenses. Therefore, among other things that areimaginable is a reading of the sign as: “Arms not allowed.Those coming in here with arms will have them cut off.”

Paul Sadur writes of a bilingual couple owning a cleaningbusiness—husband Guatemalan and wife American—who useda wax stripper, labeled in English: “Heavy Duty No RinseSpeed Stripper.” Unfortunately, the product was also labeled inSpanish, as: “Deber Pesado Ningún Enjuague a la Mujer QueHace Strip-Tease de Velocidad.” Oh well. As letters to Ann Lan-ders often attest, there are many people who like to do theircleaning in the nude, though I did not know the practiceextended to commercial establishments.

Submit items for future columns via e-mail to [email protected] or via snail mail to Mark Herman,5748 W Brooks Rd, Shepherd MI 48883-9202. Examples oftranslations of humor are preferred, but humorous anecdotesabout translators, translations, and mistranslations are alsowelcome. Include copyright information and permission if rele-vant. Unless submitters request otherwise, material submittedmay be shared with Robert Wechsler of Catbird Press ([email protected]), who is planning an international collection ofhumor in English translation.

Herman is alibrettist and

translator.

strings from legacy work for the translator to edit.For those with an engineering background, localiza-tion development environment tools such as ForeignDesk, among others, are popular becausethey provide a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) environment. These tools are costly as well,and purchasing them depends largely on thecost/benefit analysis of your project.

ConclusionThe Internet has provided all computer-literate

humanity with easy access to every product sold ononline. The ease with which foreign markets can be

accessed and with which foreign markets can accessthe U.S. has lead to an enormous boom in the needfor quality translations in the context of localization.Localization appears likely to continue its breakneckgrowth rate, and it is a lucrative field. While thedetails may seem daunting at first, the industry isundergoing constant and major changes that arelikely to bring the costs of tools and training withinreach of freelancers. When computers becamehousehold appliances, nearly every freelancerlearned to use a word processor. It may be only amatter of time before code becomes second nature.

Localization, Internationalization, Globalization, and Translation Continued from p. 48


was not originally passable. She alsotalks about the “upper” and “lower”town. I originally imagined a Europeantown where one part was up on a hill andthe other was down by the river. I actuallybegan to find the terms quite poetic.

JE: I guess “upper” and “lower” townbecame “uptown” and “downtown” inyour translation.

MS: Yes, I simply said “uptown” and“downtown.” The problem is that inRussian, what we call “downtown” isreferred to as “tsentr,” and New York’sdowntown has never been in the center.But these were merely her normal termsfor these concepts, and I saw no reason toover-romanticize what is essentially amechanical issue.

JE: What about “cape”? Was that thesame kind of problem?

MS: Not really. I kept “cape,” for onereason, and that’s because it’s the kind ofimage that shakes you out of your ordi-nary perception. Another reason wasbecause Berberova was writing Cape ofStorms at about that time, and I think

there is a point to maintaining continuityof vocabulary when possible.

JE: Fascinating. It’s all about decisions,isn’t it, and weighing all the tradeoffs.What a complex process. And translationis only the beginning. Getting someoneinterested in publishing your work can bealmost as hard. Any ideas on this subjectfor our readers?

MS: It’s been both my experience andmy observation that in the field of literarytranslation, merit is not enough. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, publicationcontracts are the result of a personal con-nection, especially since very few trans-lators work with agents. You can’t sit athome producing marvelous translationsand expect editors to beat a path to yourdoor. Likewise, you can’t come up with amarvelous project and expect to get a footin an editor’s door.

JE: Merit alone may not be sufficient,but it is still the indispensable ingredient,of course. Any advice for beginningtranslators about how to establish thosepersonal connections?

MS: I don’t think they’re that hard tocome by if you make the necessary effort.Attending workshops and conferencesand taking active part in literary trans-lator organizations like the ALTA andATA’s Literary Division can yield usefulcontacts. And you can educate yourselfabout publishing, which is, after all, thebusiness end of literary translation.

JE: Here again the organizations can behelpful. Every conference offers opportu-nities to learn about publishing, contracts,and the like. Marian, thank you for sharingyour ideas with our readers. ATA is inordi-nately proud to have you as a member.And best of luck in your work with ALTA.

MS: Thank you, Jo Anne.

This column will appear six times a yearto bring highlights from the literary fieldto all our members. Please send me yoursuggestions for future articles: [email protected] or 789 Captain’s Drive,St. Augustine, FL 32084.

Of Literary Note Continued from p. 55

T he American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation, an independent, 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was established tohelp the translation and interpretation professions to preserve their past history, to assist in their present work, and to

stimulate future research through grants.Plans are underway for awarding the first national scholarship to students planning to enroll in studies leading to entry into our

professions and for underwriting the first and much needed research project on our professions.Your financial support in AFTI’s initial stages of development is particularly important. Give something back to the professions: Please make a tax-deductible contribution to AFTI today. Send your check, payable

to AFTI, to:

American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation c/o Western Michigan University 335 Moore Hall Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5093; or

American Foundation for Translation and Interpretationc/o American Translators Association225 Reinekers LaneSuite 590Alexandria, VA 22314

For more information, contact AFTI President Peter Krawutschke at (616) 387-3212; fax: (616) 387-3103; e-mail:[email protected] or contact ATA Headquarters at (703) 683-6100.

AFTI is an independent, 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation


Three of the most frequently asked questions about theaccreditation program are: “Who are the graders?”“What do they do?” and “How are they chosen?”

All of our graders, except in new language combinations, areATA members accredited in their grading language combina-tion, who are recruited by the accreditation program leadershipas needed. Grader candidates must have passed the accredita-tion exam with superior performance, and must demonstrate theability to evaluate exams according to accreditation programstandards and grading guidelines.

Graders are expected to participate in grader training ses-sions at the ATA Annual Conference and to have ready access toe-mail for communication with the program manager, the lan-guage chair, and other graders. Graders are also expected to par-ticipate in the annual selection of exam passages, preparesample translations of these, and collaborate with other gradersin the workgroup to identify acceptable renditions, evaluateanticipated errors, and establish consistent grading practices.

Each exam is graded independently by two graders (and, insome cases, by a third) who do not communicate with eachother during this step. The number of exams and practice testsa grader may evaluate varies by language combination,depending on the number of candidates and the number ofgraders in the workgroup. Some graders may see only one examin a year, others a hundred or more.

If an exam demonstrates superior performance, the gradermay recommend the candidate as a potential grader. Individualworkgroups make efforts to enlist graders with background and

experience in each of our passage categories and, where needed,with expertise in the various regional specialties in a given lan-guage. Every effort is made to be inclusive.

When needed, the manager of the accreditation programcontacts potential new graders. Interested candidates are askedto grade an exam from our archives according to grader guide-lines and instructions. All grader candidates also sign a confi-dentiality agreement and submit a current resume. Afterreviewing the graded exam, the language chair decides whetherto invite the candidate to join the grading pool. Based on therecommendation of the language chair, graders are appointed bythe chair of the ATA Accreditation Committee. During theirtenure as graders, they must perform all of the appropriategrading duties under guidance from, and review by, the lan-guage chair. They may resign or be retired at any time.

I have just described the usual path to becoming a grader, butnow I will offer one more option. We are looking for a few goodtranslators to join our grading workgroups, and I invite you tosubmit your resume and a letter of intent to me if you wish tobecome a grader for ATA. This invitation is open to anyone whois currently accredited by ATA. The job requires a time com-mitment and dedication to your chosen profession. We pay astipend, but it does not begin to match your salary as a trans-lator. For more information or to apply, please contact me [email protected] or fax or mail your resume and a letter ofintent to: ATA, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA,22314 or 703-683-6122.

2000 ATA Editorial Calendar

Here is the Chronicle editorial calendar for the coming year. Letters and articles are encouraged.

You can find submission information on page 4.

JuneFocus on the ClientLanguages: Nordic

JulyFocus on Science and

TechnologyLanguages: Slavic

AugustFocus on FreelancersLanguage: Portuguese

SeptemberFocus on Agencies,

Bureaus, andCorporations

Language: Japanese

OctoberFocus on the Law and

Translating/InterpretingLanguage: Italian

November/DecemberFocus on Training and

PedagogyLanguages: Limited

Diffusion

What it Takes to be a GraderBy Terry Hanlen, Accreditation Program Manager

ACCREDITATION FORUM

may be used by extension as an equivalent to “resguardo.”Blanca Onetto, on the other hand, likes the customs controlthat one dictionary suggested.

“Inquilinos” is a word that gets misused, says RenatoCalderón. In reading La Opinión, the Los Angeles Spanishnewspaper, he was pleasantly surprised on March 23, 2000 tosee a headline that correctly uses this word, COMPENSAN AINQUILINOS (RENTERS ARE COMPENSATED). Unfortu-nately, the spanglishism “rentar” was used twice further on inthe article, so it could not be a mistake. As a noun, “renta” inSpanish is the income derived from a property, not the prop-erty offered for rent. The person who takes up such an offer is“inquilino, arrendatario.” To hang out a proper Spanish-lan-guage sign equivalent to FOR RENT, one must write SEALQUILA. “SE RENTA” merely parrots such dreary spang-lish as carpet-a, and market-a. YUK!!!

The Translation Inquirer Continued from p. 59


Upcoming Accreditation Exam Information

FloridaSeptember 23, 2000, Orlando(2 sittings)Registration Deadline:September 8, 2000

GeorgiaJune 10, 2000, AtlantaRegistration Deadline:May 26, 2000

MichiganJuly 15, 2000, NoviRegistration Deadline:June 30, 2000

New YorkOctober 28, 2000, New York CityRegistration Deadline:October 13, 2000

North CarolinaJune 4, 2000, PinehurstRegistration Deadline:May 19, 2000

OregonAugust 12, 2000, PortlandRegistration Deadline:July 28, 2000

ArgentinaAugust 12, 2000 Buenos AiresRegistration Deadline:July 21, 2000

Registration for all accreditation exams should be made through ATA Headquarters. All sittings have a maximum capacity and admission is based on the order inwhich registrations are received. Forms are available from the ATA Website or from Headquarters.

Please direct all inquiries regarding general accreditation information to ATA Headquarters at (703) 683-6100.

Upcoming Accreditation Exam Information

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to the following people who have successfully completed accreditation exams:

English into SpanishAna Carmen DelgadoMexico City, Mexico

Margaret Carol Rhine-MedinaMadrid, Spain

Carmen Rio-ReySantiago, Spain

Rosana Paola StrobiettoCapital Federal, Argentina

Blandine González WashingtonEureka, MO

German into EnglishBeate Monral-MacDonaldJoppa, MD

Scholem A. SlaughterBrooklyn, NY

Portuguese into EnglishAlicia B. EdwardsWashington, DC

Russian into EnglishJonathan BaramPhiladelphia, PA

The Active Member Review Committee ispleased to grant active or corresponding status to:

Yuliya BalbekCorrespondingTexas

Thomas C. CanfieldActiveNorth Carolina

Mee Chun ClinardActiveGuam

Alvin FigueroaActiveNew Jersey

Susana G. HaakeActiveCalifornia

Brian HowellsCorrespondingBrazil

Larissa V. KulinichActiveWashington

Edgar A. MorosActiveVenezula

Dorte H. ScheelerActiveNorth Dakota

Felix StungeviciusActiveIllinois

Christina L. VerduinActiveNew Jersey

Contact Dee Warwick-Dias at (703) 683-6100 ext. 3008 ore-mail [email protected].

Interested in advertisingin the ATA

Conference Program ?


ATA Chapters

Atlanta Association of Interpreters and Translators (AAIT) P.O. Box 12172Atlanta, GA 30355Tel: (770) 587-4884www.aait.org

Carolina Association of Translators and Interpreters (CATI)604 W Academy StreetFuquay-Varina, NC 27526Tel/Fax: (919) [email protected] • http://www.ncgg.org/CATI• Local group meetings held in Asheville, Charlotte, and Research Triangle Park,

NC; and Columbia and Greenville/Spartanburg, SC.• 1999 membership directory, $10; CATI Quarterly subscription, $12.

Florida Chapter of ATA (FLATA)P.O. Box 830632Miami, FL 33283-0632Tel/Voice: (305) 274-3434 • Fax: (305) [email protected] • http://members.aol.com/flata2

Mid-America Chapter of ATA (MICATA)P.O. Box 144Shawnee Mission, KS 66201Attn.: Meeri YuleTel: (816) 741-9441 • Fax: (816) 741-9482http://www.planetkc.com/bentompkins/micata

National Capital Area Chapter of ATA (NCATA)P.O. Box 65200Washington, DC 20035-5200Tel: (703) 255-9290 • E-mail: [email protected]• The Professional Services Directory of the National Capital Area Chapter of

the American Translators Association (NCATA) has gone online. It listsNCATA members and the services they offer, together with additional infor-mation that enables translation and interpretation users to find just the rightlanguage specialist for their projects. Bookmark http://www.ncata.org andcheck out the NCATA directory. If you maintain language-related Web pages,you may want to include a link to the directory. NCATA is always interested incomments and suggestions.

Note: All announcements must be received by the first of the month prior to the month of publication (September 1 for October issue).For more information on chapters or to start a chapter, please contact ATA Headquarters. Send updates to Christie Matlock, ATA Chronicle,

225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314; Tel: (703) 683-6100; Fax: (703) 683-6122; e-mail: [email protected].

WA

OR

CA

NV

MT

ID

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AZ

NM

CO

WY

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SD

NE

KS

OK

TX

MN

IA

MO

AR

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WI

IL IN

MI

KY

TN

MS AL GA

FL

SC

NC

VA

WV

OH

PA

NY

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CHAPTERS, AFFILIATED GROUPS, AND OTHER GROUPS

New York Circle of Translators (NYCT)P.O. Box 4051, Grand Central StationNew York, NY 10163-4051Tel: (212) 334-3060 • E-mail: [email protected]://www.nyctranslators.org

Northeast Ohio Translators Association (NOTA)1963 E Sprague Rd.Seven Hills, OH 44131Tel: (440) 526-2365 • Fax: (440) 717-3333E-mail: [email protected] • http://www.ohiotranslators.org

Northern California Translators Association (NCTA)P.O. Box 14015Berkeley, CA 94712-5015Tel: (510) 845-8712 • Fax: (510) 883-1355E-mail: [email protected] • http://www.ncta.org• Telephone/online referral service. See searchable translator database on

Website.• 2000 NCTA Membership Directory available in print version for $25 or on

diskette for $10. To purchase, mail remittance to the above address, or fax/tele-phone MasterCard/Visa number and expiration date.

• A Practical Guide for Translators, 1997 revised edition available for $10.To purchase, mail remittance to the above address, or fax/telephone Master-Card/Visa number and expiration date.

• NCTA General Meetings for 2000:Place: University of California Extension, 55 Laguna Street, San FranciscoDates: May 20, September 16, December 9

Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society (NOTIS)P.O. Box 25301Seattle, WA 98125-2201Tel: (206) [email protected] • http://www.notisnet.org

Southern California Area Translators and Interpreters Association(SCATIA)P.O. Box 292268Los Angeles, CA 91367Tel: (818) 725-3899 • Fax: (818) [email protected] • http://www.scatia.org

Affiliated Groups

Michigan Translators/Interpreters Network (MiTiN) P.O. Box 852 Novi, MI 48376 Tel: (248)344-0909 • Fax: (248)344-0092 E-mail: [email protected]

Utah Translators and Interpreters Association (UTIA)P.O. Box 433Salt Lake City, UT 84110Tel: (801)583-1789 • Fax: (801)583-1794E-mail: [email protected]://www.stampscapes.com/utia

Other Groups

American Literary Translators Association (ALTA)Box 830688Richardson, Texas 75083-0688Tel: (214) 883-2093 • Fax: (214) 833-6303

Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association (AATIA)P.O. Box 13331 Austin, TX 78711-3331 http://www.aatia.org

Chicago Area Translators and Interpreters Association (CHICATA)P.O. Box 804595Chicago, IL 60680Tel: (773) 508-0352 • Fax: (773) 508-5479E-mail: [email protected]

Colorado Translators Association (CTA)P.O. Box 295

Eldorado Springs, CO 80025Tel: (303)554-0280 • Fax: (303) [email protected]• For more information about the online directory, newsletter, accreditation

exams, and professional seminars, please visit http://cta-web.org.

Delaware Valley Translators Association (DVTA)606 John Anthony Dr.West Chester, PA [email protected]• 1999-2000 Membership Directory available for $10. Please make

check payable to DVTA and mail your request to the above address.

El Paso Interpreters and Translators Association (EPITA)1003 Alethea Pl.El Paso, TX 79902 Fax: (915)[email protected]

Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs/International Federationof Translators (FIT) 2021 Union Avenue, Suite 1108, Montreal, CanadaTel:+1 (514) 845-0413 • Fax: +1 (514) 845-9903E-mail: [email protected]

Houston Interpreters and Translators Association (HITA) 3139 W. Holcombe, Suite 140Houston, TX 77025Tel: (713) 661-9553 • Fax: (713) 661-4398E-mail: [email protected]

Metroplex Interpreters and Translators Association (MITA) 7428 Summitview DriveIrving, TX 75063 Tel: (972) 402-0493http://www.users.ticnet.com/mita/

Nebraska Association of Translators and Interpreters (NATI) 4542 S 17th StreetOmaha, NE 68107

New England Translators Association (NETA) 217 Washington StreetBrookline, MA 02146 Tel: (617) 734-8418 • Fax: (617) 232-6865 E-mail: [email protected]/~netaweb/index.htm

New Mexico Translators and Interpreters Association (NMTIA)P.O. Box 36263Albuquerque, NM 87176Tel: (505) 352-9258 • Fax: (505) [email protected] • http://www.cybermesa.com/~nmtia• 2000 Membership Directory available for $5. Please make check payable

to NMTIA and mail your request to the address listed here, or contact usby e-mail.

Saint Louis Translators and Interpreters Network (SLTIN) P.O. Box 3722 Ballwin, MO 63022-3722 Tel: (636) 394-5334 • Fax: (636) 527-3981E-mail: [email protected]

The Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia(STIBC) Suite 1322, 808 Nelson StreetVancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 2H2 Tel: (604) 684-2940 • Fax: (604) 684-2947E-mail: [email protected] • http://www.vcn.bc.ca/stibc

The Translators and Interpreters GuildLocal 32100 of the Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers ofAmerica8611 Second Avenue, Suite 203Silver Spring, MD 20910-3372Tel: (301)563-6450/Toll Free: (800)992-0367 • Fax: (301)563-6451E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] http://www.trans-interp-guild.org



The demand for English<>Chinese translation hasbeen growing rapidly in recent years, and the number

of translators/interpreters is also increasing.

To achieve these objectives, we have voluntarily formed apreparatory committee to carry out the mission offorming a Chinese Language Division (CLD). First, wewill need a minimum of 20 active ATA members to signa petition to the ATA Board of Directors requesting theestablishment of the CLD. We also ask that all ATA mem-bers show their support for this undertaking. Second, thegroup is now in the process of drafting the CLD bylaws.As soon as we secure the 20 or more signatures required

for the petition, we will submit it, together with thebylaws and the name(s) of the acting administrator(s), tothe ATA Board of Directors for its approval.

Anyone wishing to support the establishment of the CLD,please contact Christie Matlock, chapter and divisionrelations manager, at ATA Headquarters. Your signatureon the petition and/or your ideas and suggestions aregreatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your kind sup-port from the Preparatory Committee of the Chinese Lan-guage Division: Robin Feng,Yuanxi Ma, Frank Mou, andLaura Wang.

Establishing the

ChineseLanguage

Division Under

the ATA

with -ware, all of which have various different terms in Spanish,have only one equivalent in English. For example:

soporte físico, soporte material = hardware

programación, programas, soporte lógico = software

programación de grupo/de equipo, programas de grupo/deequipo, soporte lógico de grupo/de equipo = groupware

programación por cuota/de acceso libre, programas porcuota/de acceso libre, soporte lógico por cuota = shareware

programación de dominio público/de acceso libre al público,programas de dominio público/de acceso libre al público,soporte lógico de dominio público/de acceso libre al público= freeware

Here are some additional cases in which this proliferation ofsynonyms in Spanish will be translated into English as a singleterm:

autoedición, edición electrónica, edición asistida por ordenador =desktop publishing

red de ordenadores/computadoras, red informática = computer network

conexión en red, conexión en redes, modo compartido = networking

defecto, error = bug

arreglo, cadena, matriz, vector = array

direccionador, enrutador, encaminador = router

interruptor, conmutador, llave = switch

onditas, ondiculas = wavelets

zona intermedia de memoria, memoria intermedia, almace-namiento intermedio = buffer

por defecto, predeterminado = default

ConclusionI hope that this discussion has helped those technical transla-

tors who work into English from Spanish, particularly those whowork with network computing texts, by encouraging them toseek the proper English term for these neologisms in Spanish, inspite of a proliferation of terms which remit to the same newmeaning.

ReferencesCrystal, David. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cam-

bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Crystal, David. Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Lan-guage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Linder, Daniel. “Translating Neologisms in Spanish TechnicalTexts.” ATA Chronicle, 28: 10, 1999, pp. 54-55, 76.

Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation. London: PrenticeHall, 1988. (Spanish translation by Virgilio Moya, Manualde Traducción. Madrid: Cátedra, 1992).

Translating Neologisms in Spanish Technical Texts Continued from p. 42

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translation company with Fortune 500clientele has openings for Staff Linguiststo provide technical translation, editing,proofreading and QA support for com-puter software localization and financial,scientific, medical and legal documenta-tion projects in major European andAsian languages. Requirements include:a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics, Trans-lation or a relevant technical subject, twoyear’s professional experience in tech-nical translation and fluency in relevantlanguages including idiomatic fluencyand cultural knowledge. Send coverletter, resume and salary req. to HarvardTranslations, 815 Somerville Avenue,Cambridge, MA 02140, Fax: (617)868-6815, www.htrans.com. No calls.

SeekingTechnical Translation Manager

(Denver)- Direct translation of tech-nical/scientific docs from English toSpanish, mainly highly technical opera-

tions manuals for gas/steam turbinepower plants operated by clients in LatinAmerica. Organize/assign translationdistribution. Review completed transla-tions for technical/scientific accuracy.Min. req: 4 yrs exp Spanish/Englishtranslation, including Spanish to English& vice versa & including 1 yr technicaltranslation from English to Spanish ofGE Power Generation Systems docs.45,013/yr, 40hrs/wk. Must have proof oflegal authority to work in the U.S. Applyby resume only to Colorado Departmentof Labor & Employment, EmploymentPrograms, Attn: Jim Shimada, Two ParkCentral, Suite 400, 1515 Arapahoe St.,Denver, CO 80202-2117 and refer to joborder #CO 4654086.

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The first edition of the American Translators Association’s Translation and Interpretation Services Survey is now available.

This survey includes compensation data, trend information, education and experience levels, and other profile information on seven common employmentclassifications found in the translation and interpretation professions.

This is a publication you will not want to miss. Price: $45 (members), $60 (nonmembers)

To order, contact:

ATA, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314;

(703) 683-6100

(703) 683-6122 fax

Order Today!

Translation and InterpretationServices Survey

American Translators Association


ATA BOOK ON TRANSLATING ANDINTERPRETING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE

Translating and Interpreting Programs in America, ASurvey is now available from ATA. Compiled andedited by Bill Park, this 68-page publication givesthe contact names and course offerings for degreeand certificate programs given by schoolsthroughout North America. This is the updated andexpanded version of Park’s Translator and Inter-preter Training Programs in the U.S. The cost is $20to members and $25 to nonmembers. For moreinformation or to order, contact ATA Headquartersat (703) 683-6100; fax: (703) 683-6122; or e-mail:[email protected].

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eLance.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

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American Translators Association 41st Annual Conference

Wyndham Palace Resort • Orlando, FloridaSeptember 20-23, 2000

Plan now to attend ATA’s Annual Conference. Join your colleagues for an exciting educational experience in Orlando, Florida.

ATA’s 41st Annual Conference in Orlando will feature:• Over 120 educational sessions offering something for everyone;• A Job Exchange area for individuals to promote their services and for companies to find the translators and interpreters

they need;• Exhibits featuring the latest publications, software, and services available;• Opportunities to network with over 1,200 translators and interpreters from throughout the U.S. and around the world; and• Much more!

The Registration Form and Preliminary Program will be mailed in May to all ATA members. The conference rates are listed below—with no increase for 2000. As always, ATA members receive significant discounts:

Conference Registration Fees ATA member Nonmember Student MemberEarly-Bird (by 8/15/2000) $185 $275 $70

One-day $95 $140 n/aAfter 8/15/2000 $230 $345 $80

One-day $115 $170 n/aOn-Site (after 9/15/2000) $290 $430 $90

One-day $145 $215 n/a

Note: Students and one-day participants do not receive a copy of the Proceedings.All speakers must register for the conference.

Hotel AccommodationsThe Wyndham Palace Resort, the host hotel, is conveniently located in the Walt Disney World Village Resort. The hotel, which is 20minutes from Orlando International Airport, is within walking distance of many Disney attractions.Conference attendees can register at the discounted rate of $138 single/double per night. This rate is good until August 27.To make your hotel reservations, contact the Wyndham Palace Resort at 1-800-327-2990. Be sure to specify that you are attending theATA Annual Conference.

Mark Your Calendar Today!September 20–23, 2000

GET THERE

FOR LESS!

Additional information,such as optional tours,pre-conference semi-nars, and various net-working events, willappear in the ATAChronicle as itbecomes available.

Plan now to attend thelargest gathering oftranslators and inter-preters in the U.S.

Once Again, ATA Offers the Services of Conventions In AmericaTo Help You with Your Travel Arrangements.Conference Attendees Are Eligible for the Following:

• On American Airlines and Delta, save 5% - 10% off the lowest applicable fares; take an additional5% off with minimum 60-day advance purchase. Travel between September 15-28, 2000 on Americaor September 18-25, 2000 on Delta.

• Call Conventions in America, ATA’s official travel agency, for the lowest available fares on any air-line and discounts on the official carriers. Plus, receive free flight insurance of $100,000.

• As for car rentals, conference attendees are eligible for discounts through Alamo Rent A Car. Ratesstart as low as $28/day for economy models or $120/week, with unlimited free mileage. Check withConventions in America personnel for more information.

Call Conventions in America at 1-800-929-4242, ask for ATA group #505. Outside the U.S. andCanada, call (619)232-4298; fax: (619)232-6497; Website: http//www.stellaraccess.com; E-mail: [email protected]. Reservation hours: Monday-Friday 6:30am - 5:00pm Pacific Time.

If you call direct or use your own agency:American: 1-800-433-1790, ask for Starfile #8690UEDelta: 1-800-241-6760, ask for File #159252AAlamo: 1-800-732-3232, ask for ID #252553GR

PresidentMs. Ann G. MacfarlaneP.O. Box 60034Seattle, WA 98160-0034Tel: (206) 542-8422Fax: (206) [email protected]

President-ElectMr. Thomas L. West IIIIntermark Language Services1175 Peachtree St., NE, Ste.850Atlanta, GA 30361Tel: (404) 892-3388Fax: (404) [email protected]

SecretaryMs. Courtney Searls-RidgeGerman Language Services2658 48th Avenue SWSeattle, WA 98116Tel: (206) 938-3600 Fax: (206) [email protected]

TreasurerMr. Eric Norman McMillan1824 S Street NW, #304Washington, DC 20009-6137Tel/Fax: (202) [email protected]

AMERICAN TRANSLATORS ASSOCIATION

OFFICERS

DIRECTORSMr. Allan W. AdamsAdams Translation Services10435 Burnet Road, Suite 125Austin,TX 78758Tel: (512) 821-1818Fax: (512) 821-1888 [email protected]

Mr. Kirk Anderson2455 Flamingo Drive, #401Miami Beach, FL 33140Tel: (305) 532-7252Fax: (305) [email protected]

Ms. Beatriz Bonnet7465 E Peakview AvenueEnglewood, CO 80111Tel: (303) 779-1288 Fax: (303) 779-1232 [email protected]

Mr. Scott Brennan10005 Cairn Mountain WayBristow, VA 20136-3009Tel: (500) 447-7407Fax: (703) [email protected]

Dr. Gertrud Graubart Champe521 Melrose AvenueIowa City, IA 52246Tel: (319) 335-2002 Fax: (319) [email protected]

Dr. Jo Anne Engelbert789 Captain’s DriveSt. Augustine, FL 32084Tel: (904) 460-1190 Fax: (904) [email protected]

Prof. Alan K. Melby1223 Aspen AvenueProvo, UT 84604Tel: (801) 378-2144 Fax: (801) [email protected]

Ms. Izumi SuzukiP.O. Box 852Novi, MI 48376Tel: (248) 344-0909Fax: (248) 344-0092 [email protected]

Mr. Timothy Yuan89-33 Pontiac St.Queens Village, NY 11427Tel: (718) 776-8139Fax: (718) [email protected]

DIVISION ADMINISTRATORSFrench LanguageJoan Bond SaxWeston, MATel: (781) 237-9697Fax: (781) [email protected] LanguageHelge L. GuntherWest Chester, PATel: (610) 430-0646 Fax: (610) [email protected]

Hebrew Language[being established]Batya ReichmanHouston. TXTel/Fax: (713) [email protected] E. TeichmanHouston, TXTel/Fax: (281) [email protected] Language Roberto CrivelloSalt Lake City, UTTel: (801) 278-7757Fax: (801) [email protected]

Japanese LanguageJon JohanningArdmore, PATel/Fax: (610) [email protected]

LiteraryClifford E. LandersMontclair, NJTel: (201) 200-3239Fax: (973) [email protected] M. MattesonBallwin, MOTel/Fax: (314) [email protected]

Portuguese LanguageVera AbreuSan Jose, CA Tel: (408) 266-5832 Fax: (408) [email protected]

Science and TechnologyNicholas HartmannMilwaukee, WITel: (414) 271-4890 Fax: (414) [email protected]

Slavic LanguagesNatalia KissockMorris, MNTel: (320) 589-3975Fax: (320) [email protected] Language Alicia MarshallEvanston, ILTel/Fax: (847) [email protected] Company Steven P. IversonMilwaukee, WITel: (414) 271-1144Fax: (414) [email protected]

ATA REPRESENTATIVESTo International Federationof Translators (FIT)Peter W. KrawutschkeKalamazoo, MITel: (616) 387-3212Fax: (616) [email protected]: http://www.fit-ift.org

To Joint National Committeefor Languages (JNCL)Christophe RéthoréHarrisonburg, VATel: (540) 568-6552Fax: (540) [email protected]

To Regional Center forNorth America (RCNA)Vacant

To ASTM Translation UserStandards ProjectRosalie P. WellsWest Grove, PATel: (610) 869-0920Fax: (610) [email protected]

ASTM Language Interpreting StandardsProjectBruce T. DowningMinneapolis, MNTel: (612) 624-6552Fax: (612) [email protected]

COMMITTEE CHAIRSAccreditationShuckran KamalVienna, VATel: (703) 242-0740Fax: (703) 242-0750

Active Membership ReviewVacant

BudgetEric Norman McMillanWashington, DC Tel/Fax: (202) [email protected]

ChaptersKirk AndersonMiami Beach, FLTel: (305) 532-7252Fax: (305) [email protected]

Dictionary ReviewAlbert G. BorkAustin, TXTel: (512) 437-8772Fax: (512) [email protected] YuanQueens Village, NYTel: (718) 776-8139Fax: (718) [email protected]

EthicsKaren BroveyLibrary, PATel: (412) 655-7288Fax: (412) [email protected]

Honors and AwardsCourtney Searls-RidgeSeattle, WATel: (206) 938-3600Fax: (206) [email protected]

InterpretationChristian DegueldrePacific Grove, CATel: (408) 647-4179Fax: (408) [email protected]

Professional DevelopmentMarian S. GreenfieldSouth Plainfield, NJ Tel: (212) 648-8421Fax: (212) [email protected]

Public RelationsL. Manouche RagsdaleLos Angeles, CA Tel: (310) 275-9571 Fax: (310) 271-1319 [email protected]

Special ProjectsVacant

TerminologySue Ellen WrightKent, OHTel: (330) 673-0043Fax: (330) [email protected]

TrainingGertrud Graubart ChampeIowa City, IATel: (319) 335-2002Fax: (319) [email protected]

Translation and ComputersAlan K. MelbyProvo, UTTel: (801) 378-2144Fax: (801) [email protected]

American Translators Association 41st Annual ConferenceWyndham Palace Resort • Orlando, FloridaSeptember 20-23, 2000