november 14: aatia elects 1999 leaders · criminal law, computer technology, general legal,...

The LetterPublished by the

Austin Area Translatorsand Interpreters Association

November 1998

Helmerichs chairsNAJIT board

The Board of Directors of theNational Association of JudiciaryInterpreters and Translators(NAJIT) recently elected CristinaHelmerichs D as its Chair.

“My goals for NAJIT are toprovide educational opportunitiesthrough consistent workshops and to promote professionalizationof court interpreting, possibly by supporting certification anddiscussing what certification shouldentail,” said Helmerichs.

Independently of NAJIT,Helmerichs is helping shape Texaslegislation on court interpretationcertification. i

December 12:3rdAnnual Meeting, Dinner

Adieu, 1998Say so long to a

very good year andcelebrate the beginningof a new one atAATIA’s 3rd AnnualMeeting, December 12,2–5 p.m. at the O.Henry Room of theAustin History Center.Then bring a guest to El Mercado Juarezrestaurant at 6 p.m. for the Annual Dinner.See the AATIA websitewww.aatia.org fordetails. i

November 14:Member Meeting

Blumenthal torecap spine talk

If you have a spine you won’twant to miss “Radiological Studiesof the Spine,” an abridged recap of Michael Blumenthal’s hit ATAconference presentation, at theNovember AATIA meeting.

Frank Dietz will examinecomputer file transfer problemsand solutions, previewing anupcoming workshop.

Sheng-jie Chen will finish the program with a talk “How to Translate for the Media.” Hewill also conduct an optional post-meeting interpreting practice session.

A brief business meeting,networking, refreshments, anddoor prizes will round out theafternoon’s packed agenda. i

AATIA elects 1999 leadersTeller's Committee Chair Harvie Jordan announced the results of

the 1999 Board of Directors election (*elected):

President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Asele Surina*87Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alain Braux 43. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jonelle Nelson*43Director of Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maria Fierro 33. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Monica Mitre*53Director of Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leon McMorrow*88Director of Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katarzyna Grzegorczyk*87Director of Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . Albert Bork*88

The tie for Secretary was resolved when Braux withdrew, citing new job demands and expressing confidence in Nelson.

Ninety ballots were received.Present AATIA Secretary Irina Marchenko, whose duties include

conducting elections, thanked Jordan and the other TellersCommittee members Alexis Takvorian, and Liliana Valenzuela. i

The AATIA Letter November 1998

Membership Update

NEW COORDINATES

Nora Castro has new coordinates:[email protected] home phone/fax 214-941-4753, pager 972-209-2712

NEW MEMBERS

Ms. Carmen E. Andreu 8310 Bent Tree Rd. Austin TX 78759 512-231-0897 [email protected] English>Spanish Spanish>EnglishBusiness, commerce administration,

economic program, employee handbooks,environmental quality, healthadministration, international affairs, socialsciences, training materials, transcriptsEnglish>Spanish Spanish>English Medical& community Business

Ms. Leslie Elizabeth French 3500 Greystone Drive #271 Austin TX 78731 512-343-1606 [email protected] Spanish>English Portuguese>EnglishSpanish>English Portuguese>English

Mr. Martyn Hitchcock 1507 Preston Avenue Austin TX78703 512-320-0398 512-478-2411 X 329 English French>English German>EnglishHistory, linguistics, publishing

Mr. Mauricio A. López 2314 Wickersham Lane #713Austin TX 78741 512-385-1180 [email protected] (Chilean) English>SpanishGerman>Spanish Italian>SpanishArts and humanities, business, business andconsumer law, computer technology,engineering/technology, general medical,miscellaneous, public administration,sciences, social sciences

Mrs. Ana Maria Mitchell 8802 Silver Arrow CircleAustin TX 78759 418-1328 418-1328 [email protected] English>Spanish* Spanish>English* General legal, oil and gas English>Spanish*Spanish>English* Petroleum Conference &seminar Legal & administrative

Mr. Felipe D. Perez 1714 Deerfield Drive Austin TX 78741512-447-7520 [email protected] Spanish (Mexican) English>SpanishSpanish>English Communications,international affairs, public information,public relations, publishing English>SpanishSpanish>English Conference & seminarLegal & administrative

Ms. Mary Calderon Robinson 9308 Tea Rose Trail Austin TX 78748 [email protected] SpanishSpanish>English English>Spanish Civil andcriminal law, computer technology, generallegal, government, justice, public order, andsafety, legal and paralegal, politics and

Austin Area Translators& Interpreters AssociationPresident Tony Beckwith ? 479-8865 fax 469-9664 [email protected] Irina Marchenko ? 445-2668 [email protected]:Communications Geneviève Dell ? 371-7117 fax [email protected] Leon McMorrow ? 707-8928 fax [email protected] Michael Blumenthal ? 437-8540 fax 512/[email protected] Development Albert Bork ? 837-6448 fax 836-9440 [email protected]

Coordinators: Accreditation Albert Bork ? 837-6448 fax 836-9440 [email protected] Alexis Takvorian ? 891-6814 fax [email protected] Jane Chamberlain ? 453-1486 [email protected] [email protected] Maurine McLean ? 447-4779 [email protected] Cristina Helmerichs D. ? 452-589572174,[email protected] & Albert Bork 837-6448 fax [email protected] Marian Schwartz ? & fax 442-5100 [email protected] Info, Job Referrals Ria Vanderauwera ? 832-8415 fax 339-9210 [email protected] Members Esther Díaz ? & fax 312-1599 [email protected] Mike Magee ? 477-2977 fax [email protected] Asele Surina ? 832-5950 fax 832-5945 [email protected] Harvie Jordan ? 444-8537 fax 441-3983 [email protected] Frank Dietz ? 257-8413 [email protected]

The AATIA Letter The AATIA Letter Editor R. Michael Conner ? 474-7012 fax 474-2895 [email protected] Howard Simms ? 452-4700 [email protected] &Merry Wheaton ? 451-4772 fax 451-1935 [email protected]

November 1998 The AATIA Letter

CalendarAATIA welcomes visitors to the Austin HistoryCenter (9th & Guadalupe) on the 2nd Saturdayof odd-numbered months for general meetings andeven-numbered months for board meetings.

IN AUSTINNOV 14 10 a.m. SpanSIG meeting. Info Harvie Jordan 444-8537

1-4 p.m. AATIA regular meeting. Info 707-39005 p.m. Rowdy Translators SIG meeting. Info RiaVanderauwera 832-8415 or [email protected] 97 p.m. LitSIG. Info Marian Schwartz 442-5100 [email protected]

DEC 12 1-4 p.m. AATIA annual meeting6 p.m. Holiday dinner. Info Michael Blumenthal295-3141 or [email protected]

JAN 9 AATIA regular meeting & SIG meetings

BEYOND AUSTINNOV 5–9 Hilton Head, S.C. 39th ATA Conference.

Info 703/683-6100DEC 3–5 Guadalajara, Mexico. 21st ALTA Conference

Info 972/883-2093 or [email protected] 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. MITA Christmas party

Info Diana Iannariello 972/402-0493DEC 3–6 Brownsville. 2nd Translation Studies Research Forum.

Info [email protected]

international law, psychology, publicadministration, sociology Spanish>EnglishEnglish>Spanish Legal & administrativeEscort & telephone Criminal investigation

Ms. Traci M. Solomon 404 W. 37th Street Austin TX 78705 512-206-0720 [email protected] English English>Spanish Spanish>EnglishAdvertising administration, business,government, human resources, internationalaffairs, management, miscellaneous, politicsand international affairs, social sciences,telecommunications English>SpanishSpanish>English Escort & telephone

Ms. Géraldine Monique Touzeau-Patrick8100 N. Mopac #148Austin TX 78759 [email protected] French English>French French>English Artsand humanities, correspondence, education,employee handbooks, history, instructionmanuals, linguistics, literature, politics andinternational affairs

Ms. Kyoung Ah Woo 3500 Greystone Drive #154 Austin TX 78731 512-231-8271kay95@mail. utexas.edu Korean Korean>English English>KoreanAdvertising, business, fashion, marketingand sales Korean>English English>KoreanEscort & telephone Business, fashion

In memoriamMaria C. Brown 1931–1998

María Brown, AATIA member and Chair of the American Translators Association Accreditation Committee from1993 to 1998, died September 14 after a long illness. We extend our deepest sympathy to her family.

María was a founder and very active member of the Metroplex Interpreters and Translators Association in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area and a member of the Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association. She heldaccreditation in English-Spanish and Spanish-English translation.

María was also chair of the ATA Credentials Review Committee (1992-1993) and served as English-Spanish Language Chair from 1982 to 1998. She was also appointed to an ATA directorship for several monthsin 1992 following another director’s resignation.

Born in Puerto Rico, María earned a BA in 1952 from Beaver College in Pennsylvania and an MA in 1976from the University of Puerto Rico with a concentration in translation. She was employed as a translator at the Associates Corporation of North America from 1988 until her retirement in 1997 and had done free-lancetranslations as the Wordsmith, Inc., since 1970.

Over the years, María both worked and volunteered at a number of volunteer agencies and enjoyedinterpreting for a local hospital, where she served as Director of Volunteer Services. She and her husband Dougraised five children. María had a gift for organization and will be missed by her friends and colleagues. i

The AATIA Letter September 1998

Okra on theSilk Road

by Asele Surina © 1998

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN professionalinterpreters need interpreters? Are we more critical or moreunderstanding due to ourexperience? Since I do not speakArabic, French, or Berber we had to work with several interpretersduring our recent trip to Morocco.

My husband Glenn is opening a professional cooking school inAustin and arranged a visit to theroyal culinary school in Rabat. It islocated on the palace grounds andadmits only female students. Eachyear they receive about 2000applications and select 40 youngwomen who dedicate their lives to a career in culinary arts and almostnever marry.

By coincidence, we visited theschool while a national televisioncrew was filming a documentaryabout it. A professor from the localuniversity, fluent in both Englishand French but not an interpreterby profession, accompanied us. The TV correspondent decided to interview the American guest.Glenn talked about his research on Silk Road cuisine, following the

various culinary influences fromChina to the Mediterranean andvice-versa.

Something peculiar happenedafter the interview: our interpreterasked Glenn what he had said about okra, a common vegetable in Morocco. We were surprised, asokra was not mentioned, but let itgo in the excitement of the events,and the interpreter dropped thesubject.

The next morning we received a frantic call from the interpreter.Apparently he could not sleep allnight trying to figure out the okramystery, but finally—to his horror—he did. “You said SILK ROAD!”he cried. Instead of “Silk Road” he had heard “okra” and was toonervous in front of the TV camerasto double-check.

That night on Moroccannational television during the sixo’clock news Glenn waspronounced an expert on okra,following its path from China to the West. We would have had no problem with that, except forthe fact that okra does not exist in China and certainly did notoriginate there. Okra comes fromAfrica, so had anybody actually paidattention to the news they mighthave been confused.

I was livid at first, thinkingabout one of the main rules of thebusiness: always check with theclient if you are not sure; neverguess, especially in an unfamiliarfield. It was not even livebroadcasting, I fumed, so therewould have been no harminterrupting.

Moments later my heart wentout to the poor interpreter whospent a sleepless night and wasmuch more upset than we were.Then I thought to myself: nexttime, hire a professional! i

Rain greets ATAexam candidatesOn a welcome rainy Sunday,September 13, 1998, 43 of thescheduled 44 ATA accreditationcandidates braved tropicaldepression Frances to sit for exams.

They came to Austin fromFlorida, New Mexico, andMinnesota as well as other Texascities, according to Albert Bork,AATIA Director for ProfessionalDevelopment.

Language pairs tested wereEnglish-French, English-German[2], English-Russian, English-Spanish [21], French-English,German-English [3], Italian-English, Japanese-English, andSpanish-English [12].

Thanks to Mike Conner, DavidJones, Leon McMorrow, andMarian Schwartz, who proctoredthe September 13 accreditationexamination sitting and donatedtheir fees to AATIA. i

Change of AddressOlga B. Anderson400 Fourth AvenueWestwod, New Jersey [email protected]. i

Memorial GiftsFinance Director Leon McMorrowreported that the association hasreceived several donations inmemory of Maria C. ("Maritza")Brown. i

ThanksMaurine McLean and Frank Dietzfor donating doorprizes for theSeptember meeting, a TherapySisters CD entitled “ADisfunctional Christmas” and aMicrosoft Publisher softwarebundle. i


THE FIRST PHONE I canremember was on thekitchen wall in my

grandparents’ house in BuenosAires. It was probably onegeneration beyond the kind you hadto crank with a handle. The rotarydial was on the front, just above the speaking tube, and you listenedthrough a small earpiece that hungin a metal cradle on the side. Theearpiece was attached with a lengthof cable that was no more than acouple of feet long, so there was nomobility, no strolling around with a long, curly cord trailing behind.You stood right there in thekitchen, yelling into themouthpiece, and everyone marveled at this new technology.

A few years later we moved toMontevideo, Uruguay where wewent for quite a while with nophone at all. At that time, in that place, you didn’t just order aconnection and have it installed the next day: you put your name on a list, and you waited. We relied,during that period, on the kindnessof the proprietors of the café on thecorner. They had a wonderfullymodern, elegant phone, made ofblack plastic, that sat on the counter

by the window. It had a neat littlenewfangled talking-and-listeningdevice that sat in a cradle across thetop. I can still remember the sturdyfeel of that handset, into which I poured who knows how manyentreaties, excuses, promises, and anassortment of stories of one kind oranother. As I grew older, strayed alittle farther, and came home a little later, I began calling the caféto advise my anxious parents not to wait up. The proprietors wereunfailingly gracious about sendingsomebody to fetch my father to takethese calls. He repaid their kindnessby ordering cups of coffee and theoccasional glass of wine. It was anarrangement that seemed to suit usall.

In the mid-fifties we weretraveling in northern Uruguay, on our way to a family vacation insouthern Brazil. A few miles fromthe border, my father decided to call ahead to check on ouraccommodations. The operatorquoted an astronomical price, andexplained that—since there was nodirect link between Uruguayan andBrazilian telephone networks—thecall would have to be routedthrough Montevideo, up to New

York, back down to Sâo Paolo, and on out to our hotel that was, at most, a hundred miles away from where we were. Instant, easycommunication at the flick of aswitch was still some years away.

I’ve sat in drafty post offices,hotel lobbies, and telephone booths in various parts of theworld, waiting (for hours, evendays, sometimes) for calls to be putthrough to some faraway number.These calls were often plagued with a crackling sound that madeconversation difficult or pulsatingwaves of roaring, gray noise that swept it away entirely. Westruggled, often against enormousodds, to discover whether everyonewas well and—for some mysteriousreason—what time it was at theother end of the line. But justgetting through, being able tocommunicate, was worth it all. And all the time, our technologykept improving. One day, wethought, we’ll all be wearing thoseDick Tracy watches, just you waitand see!

Well, that day seems to havearrived. We carry cell phones onour belts, in our purses, in our cars. We can call and be called by anyone, anytime, anywhere. Ithought I’d be ecstatic when wefinally got to this point, and for awhile I was. But then I read aboutthose pigeons, and now I’m not sosure. i

Coming home to roostby Tony Beckwith ©1998

The other day, the newspaper reported that about twothousand homing pigeons had lost their bearings anddisappeared. The birds were competing in races and failed to return home. Pigeon enthusiasts were puzzled andacknowledged that no one really knows how homing pigeons do what they do. The race organizer claimed thatthese birds use electromagnetic fields to help them navigateand speculated that cellular phone activity might interfere with that process.


The Ladies from AustinIngrid Lansford interviews translator Marian Schwartz

What sparked your interest inforeign languages?Probably the glamour. I thought Iwould work at the UN and know a dozen languages and be terriblysophisticated. It did not quite workout that way. I had a very goodFrench program in elementaryschool, so I started very early andstill can read it. I would ride theFifth Avenue bus while visiting mygrandparents in New York and justdaydream about which to learn.When I got to college, I decided todo the hardest one first: Russian. Itgot its hooks into me. But I also didSpanish in college and a little Czechin graduate school. After getting your master’s at UT, you worked in New York inediting. Was this a detour?It was helpful in every single way,and I think it is an option thattranslators often overlook. Literary translators are really in the publishing industry and need to know more about the industry.

As an editor I learned whathappens to a book at every stage. Iknow what an editorial board wants.I also have some idea how theybudget, so I know what the contractshould look like.

When you wanted to gettranslation projects was it helpfulto know how the publishingindustry works?Only insofar as the first book I

translated, Landmarks, was througha connection with that house,through another low-level employee.She had a friend who was starting a publishing house and wanted to do that book. It’s an extremelyimportant book. When they askedme, I didn’t believe that it hadn’tbeen translated. It’s a seminalphilosophical work. And then, thesecond book, I got because I’d donethe first one.

The other advantage aboutediting was: I learned how to copy-edit. This allowed me to gofreelance. For many years I did moreediting than translating. And then itgot to be about half and half. Now Iwill do an occasional manuscript.

You found that translating was a greater challenge to you andmade better use of your talents?Oh, editing got pretty monotonous.It was not diverse enough for me.Translating is always somethingnew. Well, most of the time.

How many books have youtranslated and on what subjects? It is 17 books: two philosophy, sixfiction, two art books, four historybooks, one journalism, one politics,and one criticism. That’s probably apretty good representation of what Itranslate in general.

You are now co-translating avolume of assorted writings fromthe revolutionary period?The volume is not a co-translation.

It’s just me. Yale is publishing a series of edited volumes ofdocuments from the Soviet archives.The book I am doing now containsletters, poems, and other documentswritten by ordinary people to publicfigures like Lenin.

And do you particularly like thiswork because it ties in with TheLast Tsar?I’m not real picky. As a freelancer,unless its something absolutelyhorrible, I will do almost everything.Assuming the financial terms areacceptable, I don’t get very high and mighty on these things. I’mavailable.

But you also have favorites, forinstance, Lost in the Taiga, the book about a family of OldBelievers discovered in Siberiaduring the 1980’s. And youapparently like Nina Berberova.I think there could be no bettermatch for my taste in fiction. I have to be linguistically meticulousbecause she was meticulous, andmust never wind up with anawkward construction in English. I must not be sentimental.

How did you come to know herso well?When I was in graduate school here,my advisor was a professor namedRichard Sylvester. He and I did onetranslation together, a short piece.He knew that I had gone to NewYork and was translating. He knewBerberova, and she had written anonfiction book that she asked him to translate. He had to go toMoscow, so he called me and asked

The following are excerpts from Ingrid Lansford's extensiveinterview of best-selling translator Marian Schwartz on the occasionof her recently published work, Nina Berberova's The Ladies fromSt.Petersburg. Read the complete interview in the Reading Room ofthe AATIA website www.aatia.org. i


if I could come in on the project.That was in 1981. And I said yes!Definitely! So we did that together.

While I was doing it, I realizedwhat a good writer she was, and Iasked her if she had written anyfiction. She said, “Ah, yes, but—Idon’t do fiction any more, I am notinterested. But here is some.” Shegave me a copy, inscribed to me.

I would take the train—shelived in Princeton then, and I livedin New York—and we would spendthe day together and work on thefirst book, and then subsequentones. We kept in pretty close touch,especially when I lived in New York.

In one of our LitSig meetings youmentioned that some of the mosttelling details in Berberova’sstories have no counterpart inRussian life today. Whatchallenges did this present?The problem of visual details comesup in just about everything shewrote. And up to ‘92—she died in‘93—I could just call her and askher what these things were. Now,there’s really nobody else aroundwho can explain what thesereferences are. With the book that iscoming out, I had questions that I never didresolve. I had to make some goodguesses.

These details come in theopening paragraph. Her openingparagraphs are crucial. They take your breath away. They arebeautifully constructed, they tend to have very long sentences. I oftenhave to deconstruct them entirely,radically, and then put them backtogether to recreate the same effect.There is a melodic line to thesesentences. And if you’ve got strangedetail, that’s definitely not the time to start explaining. You’ve just got to go with it and make it

understandable and—not try toexplain. One of the dangers ofliterary translation is that peopleexplain rather than translate.

There were several such instances in the The Ladies from St.Petersburg. There were stockings,openwork stockings. DoubtlessNina would have gone on for halfan hour about what kind of womanwould wear those stockings, whather level of fashion was—was sheahead of her time, or maybe wearing

fashions of two years ago, had beena fashionable woman, but could nolonger be a fashionable womanbecause of the war. Or it could haveshown that she had bad taste. I’msure to Nina these details spokevolumes.

Let’s talk about ALTA. You haveserved on the Board of Directorsand are currently Secretary.ALTA has been important in somany ways—let me count them. In a narrow sense it’s been valuablebecause of the other Russiantranslators. I’ve learned things abouttranslating Russian, I hear thegossip, I find out who people are,

what publishers are doing what.Through the newsletter, I have a

fairly comprehensive sense of what’sgoing on in the translation world.And I also like it because, although it was started by academics, they arenot academic conferences. We don’tread any papers and there is genuinediscussion.

Going to the conferences is very exciting. Even in years whentranslation work is slow it fires meup again. And that’s what everyonesays. They don’t know why they go,but when they leave, they know whythey’ve been there, because it’s soinspiring.

There are very few otherenvironments where you can reallytalk about your problems. You can find out how other people did it. If you participate in panels orworkshops, you have an audiencethat lets you clarify thoughts onwhat are essentially narrow topicsrelated to translation. So it’s acombination of things I learn andconnections I make. I meet a lot of people there, I make very goodconnections with editors. Manyreferrals have come through people I got to know there.

And because I’m interested inliterature in general, a presentationon a translation from Spanish, if it is well done, is going to interest me,even if it’s like nothing I will ever door ever have done. You’re aroundsome very great writing.

Finally I like it because it’sglamorous. It’s a way to meetinternationally famous, sophisticatedpeople. i

Marian Schwartz will readfrom Nina Berberova’s TheLadies from St.Petersburg at 7 p.m., November 21, atBookPeople (6th & Lamar). i


MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

IN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS wordswere not separated. Perhaps peopleonce had the time to sort out where one word ended and the next began, but by the Middle Ages spaces were appearing betweenwords. Nowadays we take them for granted.

But spaces cannot be dismissedas merely vacuous little areassprinkled throughout a text. Thedifference, for instance, betweengreen house and greenhouse is morethan spaciousness.

The French, as usual, have theGaul to be distinctive even in suchintangible areas as space. Frenchtypography requires a space beforeexclamation points (sacre bleu !),colons, semicolons, question marksand the percent sign, as in n’est-cepas ? and 100 %.

A space is also required bothbefore and after quotation marks, as in « L’état, ce moi » . This lends a somewhat ethereal quality toquotations, but it has long beenaccepted that the French know howto state things in style, as it were.

The Germans, not to be left without their own space (orLebensraum, as the case may be),inserted a space for emphasisbetween every letter in the Frakturtype style that resembled OldEnglish typefaces. This may seem

extreme, but since Fraktur had no italics, the Germans had to do s o m e t h i n g to attractattention. The device is still seen to this day in warnings and

precautions like A ch t u n g ! (butthe digraph ch is never separated).

German and a growing numberof other languages also use a spacewhere English uses a comma toseparate the higher numbers, as in 1 000 000. In all languages, a so-called disambiguating space is highly recommended betweennumbers and units of measurement.Note the flowing clarity of 50 l/minvs. the potential confusion of50l/min.

Foreign surnames are frequentlyde-spaced upon arrival in America.Van der Straaten may have leftAmsterdam as three words, but

it is more likely to be seen asVanderstraaten in New Amsterdam(better known today as New York).Delaware traces its etymology to a certain Baron De La Warr. And the double surnames of Spanish,content in their homelands asseparate words, are often unspacedand hyphenated instead in theUnited States. The hyphen is aHispanic coping mechanism toincrease one’s chances of beingalphabetized where one’s friendswill look in the phone book.

Speaking of hyphens, they caneven be suspended in space in manylanguages, such as in pre- and post-Shakespearean England.

Spaces even have high-techapplications. The U.S. PostalService is serious when it requeststhat zip codes be preceded by atleast two spaces, which have beenfound to assist high-speed opticalscanning devices. Spaces incomputer commands are not to betampered with. And who of us hasnot been told by our editors that we should no longer type a doublespace after periods at the ends ofsentences? In an age of wrap-aroundword-processing software, the extraspace would spoil the right marginin justified text.

But if the USPS adds spaces,advertisers seem to be compensatingwith an all-out campaign forspacelessness. NationsBank®,MasterCard® and WordPerfect®are all efforts to attract attention by obliterating perfectly innocentspaces.

These are only extreme cases. It is clear that the trend towarddeleting spaces is an old one:

© 1998 by Charles M. Stacy

It seems translators can never let down their guard for asecond—we literally have to worry about nothing, if space canbe considered nothing. In language, spaces play a role all theirown, one that is just as important as many otherconsiderations.

September 1998 The AATIA Letter

English long ago reduced the Latinphrase et cetera to etc. If furtherevidence of shrinkage is needed,English could submit a lengthy listof words that were once writtenseparately: nothing, anything,something, someone, however,anyway, sometimes, maybe,notwithstanding, nevertheless.

All these words are indicative of a trend toward hyphenlesscompounds. Words like fundraisingand decisionmaking will continue toproliferate. And it must be admittedthat this is true to our heritage as aGermanic language. German lovescompound words.

Spaces are also vanishingwholesale in abbreviations. The entity that was originallyabbreviated U. S. S. R. first lost its spaces to become U.S.S.R., andthen its periods, leaving USSR,before finally vanishing intonothingness altogether. One mustbe careful not to push a good thingtoo far.

The planet is literally shrinking:contemporary practice has noweliminated spaces even between our initials, as in Dr. I.C. Spotts,Optometrist.

Nature, file names and Internetaddresses all abhor a vacuum (at least as represented by spaces).

At this rate, we may come fullcircle and return to the style ofancient manuscripts where wordswere simply copied together in run-on fashion with no spaces at all. En garde ! i

Known as the Word Wizard,writer/translator Stacy can be reachedat [email protected].

Membership NotesDatabase Coordinator JaneChamberlain informed the Board ofDirectors that as of the October 10meeting AATIA had 218 members(187 Active, 10 Associate, and 21Business). This total representsgrowth of nearly four percent overthe previous year.

The annual membership drivebegins in the next few weeks. Theprocedure will be simpler than lastyear, when the database was beingreconstructed.

Anyone who has filled out aquestionnaire in the past year won'treceive one with the membershipmailing. To update a directoryentry, photocopy the page, markthe changes, and enclosing it withyour renewal. All members shouldscrutinize their entries carefully. i

Memorial contributions. AATIAFinance Director Leon McMorrowreported that the association hasreceived several donations inmemory of Maria C. (“Maritza”)Brown. i

Thanks to Maurine McLean andFrank Dietz for donating doorprizesfor the September meeting: aTherapy Sisters CD entitled “ADisfunctional Christmas” andMicrosoft Publisher software. i

AATIA’s Hospitality Coordinator,one of the most important positionsin the association, remains vacant.Most vital duty: make sure eachmeeting has plenty of toothsomerefreshments. To step forward,contact Michael [email protected]. i

New website seeksto serve translatorsThe Translation Factory, a websitein English and French (Spanish and Arabic mirror sites are in thepipeline), provides information on translation jobs, terminologyresources and various translationissues at www.ahost4u.com/zak/pageprin.htm.

The new site has just added a Forum where visitors may postterminology queries, comments, or general translation chat. MarkProsser, one of the site’s creators,said “It’s a much more modest affairthan CompuServe’s FLEFO, but itis open to all!” Translators can alsoadvertise in the Jobs section free ofcharge. i

Monterey meetannouncedThe Graduate School ofTranslation and Interpretation(GSTI) will hold its 30thAnniversary Conference this winter:January 11- 13, 1999.

With a theme Tradition andInnovation in Translation andInterpretation, the conference willbe held at the Asilomar ConferenceCenter, Monterey, California. Formore information call(408)647-3591 or email:[email protected]. i

See “What’s New” at http://www.aatia.org


On ReviewingBooks

by Tony Beckwith

WRITING BOOK REVIEWS is good exercise for atranslator. It’s an activity

that requires the same kind of close, careful reading of a text that is essential to translation. Agood review springs from a clearunderstanding of the work, which is exactly where a good translationmust begin.

The length of the averagereview provides another disciplinethat can help a translator to honehis or her skill with words. In myrecent review of Collected Fictionsby Jorge Luis Borges, (AustinAmerican-Statesman, October 4,

1998) the challenge was to absorbover five hundred pages of literarycreation, then distill my feelingsand opinions into an article thatwould inevitably feel too short.What to do?

First, I tried to convey a sense of the scope of the work:“Interweaving vast scholarship with folklore and dreams, his workrises up from its Argentine rootsand speaks from universal levels,whirling and drifting in time andspace.”

I wanted to say somethingabout Borges’s particular style: “He sifted each story down to the nugget at the core, then told it in clear, beautifully winnowedsentences. In this collection we canappreciate his evolution into his‘plain style,’ which had so much todo with his international appeal.”

A reference to his legendarystatus among writers seemed calledfor: “This collection shows whyBorges is considered such a finestoryteller. He reminds his readersof the simple enjoyment of wonder,of gazing in amazement at the marvelous unfolding of life. Heis constantly referring to the charm of coincidence and the symmetry of chance.”

Borges was considered a mastercraftsman of great subtlety: “Andalways, there is the sense of readingat one level while a parallel meaningis unfurling somewhere else,billowing out in an unseen,elemental wind.”

And finally, I wanted toacknowledge the superb work of the translator: “Borges thought ofliterature as guided dreams. AndrewHurley has entered the writer’sdreaming at the point where vision coalesces into words. He has reverently re-directed Borges’fictions at the source, carefully

choosing words and images thatecho the rhythms of the original,giving us Borges in English that stillsounds like Borges. What a joy!”

Having done all that, the editorof The Letter then asked me tosqueeze it down even tighter, sothat it could be shoehorned into anarticle for this issue. I appreciatethat. As a translator, I can alwaysuse the exercise. i

AATIA Webmeister Frank Dietz’sarticle “The Eight Laws ofSuccessful Software Localization”appeared in the fall 1998 issue ofthe Austin Software Leader. Inconnection with this he has createdan online glossary of softwarelocalization terminology that can beaccessed at www.jump.net/~fdietz/softgloss.htm. i

New ConnectionsA new unmoderated mailing list onPolish translation has begun fortranslation purchasers andproviders.

To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to [email protected]. To post a message,use the address [email protected].

For more information contactAndrew Niedzielski [email protected]

iThe Imperial Russian HistoricalSociety Now has a site devoted tothe history of the Romanov dynastyand the Russian monarchysponsored bywww.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/index.html.

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September 1998 The AATIA Letter

The “Europa” server athttp://europa.eu.int/index.htmoffers some interesting resources onthe European Union. Besidesinformation on the euro (the newcurrency), it contains the texts oftreaties, laws and officialpublications. All of this is offered inEnglish, Spanish, French,Portuguese, Danish, Greek, Dutch,

German, Italian, Finnish andSwedish! You will also find links toEU institutions such as theEuropean Parliament or the CentralBank, as well as lesser-knownagencies such as The EuropeanAgency for the Evaluation ofMedicinal Products or TheEuropean Centre for theDevelopment of VocationalTraining. AATIA Webmeister

Frank Dietz reports on a series ofarticles on translation as aprofession by RogerChriss. Theyshould be of interest to beginningtranslators, even though some ofthe computer-related information isvery dated (Pentiums have “toomuch horsepower for a translator”):http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/laszlo_gabris/CHRISS00.HTM. i

Webmeister’s Corner

DTP for translatorsby Frank Dietz © 1998

DTP is not a disease, butthe abbreviation for desktoppublishing, a technologyconsisting of hardware(computer, printer) andsoftware elements thatallows a home user toachieve results that ageneration ago were onlypossible with extremelyexpensive typesetting equipment (if the user knowswhat he or she is doing).

Why should a translator learn something aboutDTP? There are three main reasons.1. You can create your own marketing materials.

These days, many programs ranging from yourword processor to very cheap or even free (see myJuly Webmeister’s Corner) low-end DTP programsallow you to create newsletters, business cards,stationery, or marketing brochures.

These programs are not as powerful as full-fledged DTP software, but they are very user-friendlyand often use templates—ready-made layouts thatyou fill with your own texts.

Programs such as Printmaster, Print Artist, and (in a somewhat higher price and performance range)Microsoft Publisher contain numerous templates and pieces of clip art that you can play around with.If you combine these programs with a good inkjetprinter you can achieve nice color output.2. You will avoid mistakes when dealing with textsthat will be transferred to DTP programs.

Even if you do not actually create DTP files, it isimportant to know something about this category ofsoftware, as many texts that you translate may end upin a desktop publishing program. You should avoidmany problems that stem from old “typewriterhabits,” such as aligning items in columns byrepeatedly pressing the space bar. A great resource on these issues is the slim book The Mac is Not aTypewriter: A Style Manual for Creating Professional-Level Type on Your Macintosh by Robin Williams (no, not that Robin Williams) and its companionvolume The PC is Not a Typewriter. 3. You can offer DTP services yourself.

You could even eventually become atranslator/graphic designer, but that takes much morethan buying the appropriate hardware and software— many designers have gone through intensiveprofessional training.

A more immediate goal would be to acquire andmaster the DTP programs common in your field ofwork. That way, you can receive English files, openthem, translate them, and return them to the desktoppublisher, who then will make the necessary designadjustments (your translation, for instance, might belonger than the original).

The three heavyweights in this area arePageMaker and FrameMaker (both by Adobe) andQuark Express. Be forewarned, though, these are all complex programs that take a while to learn.Furthermore, they are expensive and have relativelyhigh hardware requirements (they are known as“memory hogs”), and the files they create are oftentoo large to fit on a floppy, so you will have to investin a larger-capacity removable media device, such as aZip , Jaz , SparQ, or LS 120 Superdisk drive in orderto exchange files. i


AATIA Agenda: November 14, 1998

10 a.m. SpanSIG (Sanchez Bldg., UTCampus, MLK &Speedway)

1 p.m. General meeting(Austin History Center, 9th & Guadalupe)

5 p.m. Rowdy Translators SIG(Dog & Duck Pub, 17th & Guadalupe)

PO Box 13331 ii Austin, TX 78711-3331 ii 512-707-3900http://www.aatia.org

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AATIA’s newest SpecialInterest Group: RowdySIG

AATIA’s RowdySIG will discuss the merits of various imported beverages at its networkingsession 5 p.m., November 14, at the Dog &Duck Pub. “We always welcome newcomers,”said co-founder Ria Vanderauwera. i

1999 dues to riseAt its October 10 meeting the AATIA Board

of Directors approved a five-dollar increase inannual dues for Active and Business membershiprespectively to $35 and $55.

Associate dues remain unchanged at $20.Associates are entitled to receive the newsletterand are elegible for member discounts, but do not participate in the services directory, referralservice, or voting.

New memberships go into effect immediatelyupon payment of 1999 dues. i

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The La Malinche T-shirtA great gift from a translator or interpreter!

AATIA’s colorful shirt makes a perfect gift for theholidays. The classic design has been reissued on a natural 100% cotton T-shirt.

Specify size S, M, L, XL, and XXL and send a $15 check (includes taxesand shipping), payable to“AATIA,” to:

AATIA T-ShirtPO Box 13331Austin TX 78711-3331

Guaranteed Christmasdelivery if ordered byThanksgiving.

november 14: aatia elects 1999 leaders · criminal law, computer technology, general legal,...

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