Lost in my first translation

 Tradurre e` Tradire (translation is treason)
 -Italian Proverb

I have just completed the rough draft of my first formal translation of a journal article from Polish to English, and let me just say, I am glad to be writing some of my own stuff for a change. It turned out to be a much trickier job than I thought it would be, and oddly, the hardest part has been dealing with ENGLISH.

People in our lab group have been kind of running around for the last few days, as everything is happening at once. I have been a little bit restless recently, as this general busyness means that nobody has really gotten around to thoroughly talking to me about my project. I have been doing some reactions, and an awful lot of reading of the scientific literature, but that gets old pretty quickly. So I rather eagerly took the opportunity to translate a paper that the group hopes to submit for publication shortly. And it has been quite a challenge, which is surprising considering that 1) English is my native language, 2) I had 16 years of writing practice in school and 3) on top of that, I wrote for a newspaper once a week, and was actively involved in speech and debate for 8 years in one capacity or another. I think my expository writing is pretty good, and considering that you are reading this, evidently so do you. But translating is a different skill.  

Both English and Polish have some handy shortcuts that the other language does not have. For example, whenever I speak Polish I start to miss the apostrophe to indicate the possessive, and definite and indefinite articles. On the other hand, I am gradually starting to see the beauty of case-endings in Polish. It makes word order less important, as whether something is a subject, definite object or indefinite object is made clear just by looking at the word. What's funny is that I (and anybody who has ever tried to speak Polish, ever) have problems producing the correct endings for particular situations. Yet I am somehow able to pick them up when reading or listening, and they can be handy.

Unfortunately, this is part of what makes translations difficult. From time to time, I have to effectively reverse the word order when translating, as a literal, word-for-word translation is understandable but weird. For example, some literally-translated lines: "choosing the correct conditions of synthesis can allow to a large extent control of morphology of obtained ceramics and through it control of properties" or "observed in the last few years is progress in science regarding materials, which is finding application in all areas of science." I think the average reader would understand what I'm trying to say, but who writes that way? Translating also flies in the face of something that I'm trying to do while learning Polish, namely, to think in Polish, as I find that if I think in English and try to translate in my head I start having problems with finding words. What's also funny is that after translating, I have to spend about half an hour adjusting to writing my own prose in English, as certain habits of Polish writing tend to sink in after a while. 

All sorts of other things have to be considered in a translation. One important facet is a linguistic concept called "register," which just means the level of formality that is used in a piece of work. Much as you would not speak to the President of the United States by saying "how's it hangin'?", there is a certain academic style that needs to be followed when writing an academic work. The problem is, when I am translating for myself, either in my head or while reading, any word that reasonably approximates its Polish equivalent will do. All I have to do is remember that certain Polish words are "fancier" synonyms. This approach does not work when you are trying to translate something for a formal paper and the sentence that pops into your head is "A lot of folks have dealt with various things that can readily be considered members of a particular class of objects, and this paper touches on the various theories that surround them and how our results line up with the theory." If you heard that on the street, that would be OK. It's perfectly understandable. But in an encyclopedia it would look weird. In fact, one of the hallmarks of a non-native speaker writing English is the sudden inclusion of bracing colloquialisms.

I had some unexpected difficulties with the English language, and some things started to dawn on me about the language I grew up speaking. Word order is important and occasionally unforgiving. Consider "the boy eats a hot dog", "a hot dog eats a boy", "a hot boy eats a dog", "the dog eats the boy and feels hot", "the boy eats the dog, who feels not so hot." All very, very different sentences, and this in a sentence with just one subject, one object, one verb and one adjective. Imagine what a headache it must be to put together complex sentences! Don't even get me started on parenthetical thoughts. At any rate, all this taken together has forced me to occasionally write a sentence out twice, first more or less literally, then a second time in order to have it make any sense.

Translating is also strange for me as it is the first time in my life that I have had to write something in a style and with a word choice that is not my own. I have edited papers before, quite a few of which had writing styles that were different from my own, but that was entirely different as it involved changing a few words, rearranging them, but leaving the basic voice and structure roughly the same. Imagine trying to write an essay that imitates, say, Mark Twain to the point where the essay is mistaken for one of his works. Now imagine that Mark Twain didn't speak English and you are trying to write the essay as if he did. You aren't trying to imitate Mark Twain, you are trying to be Mark Twain, because as a translator to a foreign language, you are. And that's hard.  

Strangely enough, the fact that it is a technical paper means that I found it easier to translate. The experimental section and data analysis parts were easier than the introduction. I ascribe this to the fact that I already know a lot of the technical terms in English, so if I see a picture or get a description of how that picture is analyzed, I know exactly what to call the picture. There are also a fair number of cognates here, which is very helpful. It is also much easier to pull out terms from context, as I have a fair idea of what that context is.

Translating has been pretty slow work. I estimate that I translated a 1500-word document in about 6-7 hours, and that's a rough draft that still needs improvement. Google Translate has been very helpful, and I think that the second time will be easier. However, on getting home tonight I did indulge in a well-deserved cocktail.