Work

I ought to be used to it by now, but long translation work--from ten single-spaced pages up--still manages to give me a migraine despite my tried and tested 7-step program:

1. Read the original through.
2. Split screen and make a rough translation, skipping tough words/phrases for later. Take note of key and recurring terms.
3. Go over the skipped words/phrases. (This usually takes just as long as Step 2.)
4. Read the first draft with language structure in mind. Move things around.
5. Proofread.
6. Proofread.
7. Proofread.

I could keep proofreading indefinitely but, by Step 6, the migraine usually kicks in and, by the start of Step 7...well, just imagine me scowling fiercely at the screen. After sending them off, I spend the next 48 hours, at least, torturing myself with things I missed. Because there always are--especially in "Look, Ma, no spellcheck!" Filipino where a word four syllables long is short.

The hardest ones to translate are academic papers where almost all sentences are compound and it's raining qualifiers. I always find myself editing the original inside my head. (If you know about the ulcer-inducing agonies I went through with a certain book, yep, I'm always like that.) Whenever there's an error in sense like, say, a mixed metaphor, I fix it in the translation. It's actually possible to make a translation that's better, in terms of clarity, than the original. And then there are special cases where I can tell that I'm translating a translation. For those, I also have to imagine what the original might have been like.

The easiest for me are poetry and narratives (fic and non-fic). Maybe because writers write with an eye to being translated? Har har. But whatever I translate, I am constantly reminded of how important it is to have a good ear for how people use words. A big part of translation is actually mimicry.

So, I'm all done with work but with a blistering headache and wishing that I had more time to make them perfect. It's probably the closest thing to regret that I permit myself. And the punchline is...this is work I love doing.