(Almost) Wordless Wednesday April 18, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.1 comment so far
Film review: The Woman with the 5 Elephants March 28, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.4 comments
I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this documentary here. I saw it last year, and it has stuck with me. I remember hearing about “Svetlana Geier” back when I lived in Germany. It was interesting to learn more about her in this manner.
Photo by the Cinema Guild
The five elephants in the documentary title are Dostoyevsky’s great literary works, all of which have been translated by the 87-year-old Svetlana Geier, who is considered the world’s most masterful translator of Russian literature into German. Retranslating Dostoyevsky’s five major novels took Geier twenty years. She completed the project in 2007 and died shortly after the documentary was filmed at age 87 in November 2010.
The filmmaker visits with Geier, whose fascinating and dramatic life story has been colored by some of the most violent events in 20th century European history: Stalin’s purges of the kulaks (responsible for her father’s death) and the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine (ultimately responsible for saving her life and leading to a university education in Germany).
As the audience, we meet some of her family members and get a glance at her home life in Freiburg, Germany, where she was a university professor. She studied languages as a young girl in Kiev, and after the Germans invaded Kiev she began working as an interpreter for Dortmunder Brückenbau AG. After the Nazis were defeated in Stalingrad she and her mother decided to flee to Nazi Germany in 1943. The reasons were twofold – as an interpreter and translator for the Nazis she would have been considered a collaborator by the advancing Russian Army and her mother did not want to live amongst the people who had killed her husband. She studied in Germany at the University of Freiburg and became a university professor in Freiburg and the University of Karlsruhe. She began translating in 1953.
In the documentary we accompany her and one of her granddaughters as she visits the Ukraine for the first time in 67 years. She visits locations from her early adult life and speaks to university students about translation. However, as a translator, what I found most interesting and compelling was watching her translate and parse the language, word by word, with her colleagues. She dictates her translation to an assistant and then revises the typed translation with a musician friend who questions her word choices, argues the fine points of the German language, and provides some much needed levity. It wasn’t stated, but I got the feeling she urgently wanted to finish the project before she died.
I walked out of the theater amazed at how she worked, knowing that as a retired university professor she could afford to argue the finer points of German. If you get a chance to see the documentary I recommend you do!
Here is a link to the trailer to whet your appetite:
http://www.trailerspy.com/xmoov_flv/player/8971/va_blue/
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday March 28, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.1 comment so far
Thanks to the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters for posting it on their Facebook page.
TGIF: Jimmy Kimmel interviews Will Ferrell in Spanish March 17, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.add a comment
I don’t even know Spanish, but I can hear that he is obviously murdering the Spanish language. You may only be able to watch a few minutes of it, but I have posted all 3 parts. Will Ferrell certainly knows how to take a joke and run with it (or drive it into the ground as it were…). To continue this for as long as he did shows dedication to the joke and a strange kind of perseverance. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those of you who are celebrating today.
Bonus TGIF: Applied Language Solutions/Ministry of Justice Framework Agreement March 2, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Fun stuff, TGIF.15 comments
Court interpreters in the UK are protesting the signing of a private contract between Applied Language Solutions and the Ministry of Justice, which has seen their rates almost halved. According to an article in the Guardian, “As many as 1,000 interpreters are boycotting a privatised contract to supply linguistic services to all English and Welsh courts, resulting in postponed hearings, suspects being released and compensation claims.” According to Syed Amjad Ali, who organized the Manchester demonstration, “Interpreters were getting £30 an hour before, for a minimum of three hours, now they offering them £16-£22, no travel for the first hour and petrol of 20p per mile.” Apparently about 60% of the 2,300 people on the National Register of Public Service Interpreters are refusing to work for ALS under the conditions in the contract, and the court is starting to panic because cases are being postponed and even dismissed because they can’t find an interpreter. One of the biggest complaints is that qualified interpreters aren’t willing to work for those rates, so the quality of the interpreters who are being sent to jobs has understandably dropped.
The rates for interpreting in court in Germany (and government contracts here in the States) have always been lower than the standard market rate, so I can’t imagine what the UK interpreters are dealing with. Based on the chatter on my listservs and online, Applied Language Solutions signed an agreement to provide translation services to the court and for the 2012 Olympics. I imagine that will be hard to do if they can’t find anyone to provide those services for them. In the past the Olympics has relied on volunteer interpreters with no training. I happen to know someone who worked in Atlanta back in 1996. She did it as a lark because she knew a little Spanish. I knew her from back in high school. She has never worked in the T&I industry and is a Tastefully Simple salesperson. Anyway, I’m digressing…
Back to the matter at hand. As Chris Durban so aptly explained, “very worrying logistics & quality issues now have led the MoJ to authorize courts to look for alternate solutions — an indication that maybe, just maybe, some intermediaries’ race to the bottom rates-wise may have reached a limit.” It’s kind of hard for an agency that doesn’t actually do the work to provide bottom-rate translation services if the service providers choose not to work for them. Keep your chins up, fellow UK interpreters! We’re all behind you.
Update:
TGIF: Ríu, Chíu – RIP, Davy Jones March 2, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in TGIF.add a comment
I grew up watching reruns of The Monkees and became a huge fan. I saw them perform live several times, most notably in 1985 at Blossom Music Center. I think I still have the t-shirt somewhere… The lead singer Davy Jones died on Wednesday of a heart attack. He was always my favorite Monkees, so this video goes out to him. It is a beautiful a capella rendition of an old Spanish Christmas carol, “Ríu, Chíu.” Their voices blend really well together, and the first time I ever heard it I got chills and put it on repeat about twenty times until I could sing along with it. Critics claimed they weren’t real musicians, but anyone who can harmonize a capella (without instrumentation) is definitely a real artist. It is difficult to stay on key when you sing a capella. RIP, Davy Jones. You were always the cutest and most personable Monkee.
The English translation is:
River, roaring river, guard our homes in safety,
God has kept the black wolf from our lamb, our lady.
God has kept the black wolf from our lamb, our lady.
Raging mad to bite her, there the wolf did steal,
But our God almighty defended her with zeal.
Pure he wished to keep her so she could never sin,
That first sin of man never touched the virgin sainted.
River, roaring river…
He who’s now begotten is our mighty monarch,
Christ, our holy father, in human flesh embodied.
He has brought atonement by being born so humble,
Though he is immortal, as mortal was created.
River, roaring river…
TGIF: Wie gut ist dein Deutsch February 24, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.7 comments
The folks on the German Language Division are in the process of making a list of all the Anglicisms that have infiltrated the German language (Denglisch), and someone shared this a wonderful sendup of all the Denglisch words to the tune of “How Deep Is Your Love.” Even if you don’t speak German, you will understand a lot of the words in this song! Enjoy!
Translators do it better February 16, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.7 comments
I don’t know who made this graphic, but it is making the rounds. I had to share it with you all, because it is simply brilliant. I needed the chuckle to start my day. Enjoy!
Chicago Manual of Style proofreading question February 2, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.3 comments
Grant Hamilton shared this gem with the ATA Business Practices listserv this morning. It made me smile, so I wanted to share it.
I read this yesterday on the Chicago Manual of Style website and thought you might enjoy it, too:
Q. How do you recover from a real proofreading blooper—the kind that has everyone in gales and is terribly embarrassing?
A. Naturally, we have very little experience with this. Is there absolutely no way to blame it on someone else? If not, you probably should keep a low profile until it blows over. Lucky for you, proofreaders automatically have a fairly low profile.
Musings from an overworked translator 