Santa makes me happy.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. So he can make people happy. As usual, half of the things on my Christmas list this year were books. (The other half was divided between music, knitting supplies, the odd gift card, and a new heavy winter coat -- I live in upstate NY now). This is both because I love to read and because it's my job to read and write. I buy lots of books for myself and frequent the library and read articles online, but Christmas always means that I get even more books than usual. Which I love.

So, without further ado, here are three of this year's favorites:

#1

This year, I even got something useful in my daily work: the Collins Robert French Dictionary. This thing is a bible, both in size and scope. It's bilingual, and as close to comprehensive as a print dictionary can get in this digital world. It's going to replace the pocket dictionary currently on my shelves.

But, you ask, why? Didn't I just read that this is a digital world? Why is this necessary?

And that's a valid question. For me, it's a matter of variety and security. Different dictionaries tend to have slightly different definitions, and being able to research many options for one word can sometimes make the difference between an okay choice and the best contextual choice.

And as for security, well, I usually use lots of online dictionaries, both free and subscription-based (I'm currently on a test run of the Oxford Language Dictionary online) because they're faster. But the Internet is a fickle creature, and can crash, disappear, or not be available on travels.

#2

In October, I went to the ALTA Annual Conference in Rochester, and heard Marian Schwartz talk about her new book, Maidenhair. It's "an instant classic of Russian literature," and I am so very excited to sink my teeth into it. I'll let it speak for itself:

"Day after day the Russian asylum-seekers sit across from the interpreter and Peter—the Swiss officers who guard the gates to paradise—and tell of the atrocities they’ve suffered, or that they’ve invented, or heard from someone else. These stories of escape, war, and violence intermingle with the interpreter’s own reading: a his­tory of an ancient Persian war; letters sent to his son “Nebuchadnezzasaurus,” ruler of a distant, imaginary childhood empire; and the diaries of a Russian singer who lived through Russia’s wars and revolutions in the early part of the twentieth century, and eventually saw the Soviet Union’s dissolution."

So. Excited. And I even met the wonderful translator, because as it turns out, people in the literary translation industry are categorically wonderful!

#3

Another wonderful translator, who I hope to meet someday, is Gregory Rabassa. He's the only reason that any Americans have read Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is one of my favorite books. Rabassa wrote a memoir of translation in 2005 called If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents. Rabassa is one of those people whose life and work proves that translators are writers, too. He's one of those people who makes my job awesome, because he's made my job exist. And he wrote his own book eight years ago.

Yes, please.

So, all I have to do is finish sobbing through reading Stone Upon Stone, which is my current obsession. I should really stop reading it before bed, though; it's messing with my dreams.

Happy 2013! I'm back! Plus: previews of upcoming things

The holidays have been very good to me. Moving was successful, family time was wonderful, relaxation was had, and I even got a few nice presents (more on that in a later post -- some should be of interest to my dear readers!). Professionally, I made a conscious choice not to accept any jobs between Christmas and New Year's. Instead, I used the time to very leisurely work my way through a novel sample whose deadline is now approaching fast, retool my (and my family's) finances, and get my work life in order for the new year. It was a nice week of spending time with the people I love, with a couple calm hours of work inserted whenever I felt like working.

This was a good choice. I feel so much better about diving back in to a normal schedule starting tomorrow.

At any rate, exciting things are happening, and I've got some good posts simmering in the back of my head to write over the next few days and weeks. Here's what you can look forward to reading about soon:

• a wonderful review of a recent choir concert that made use of supertitles translated by yours truly
• previews of The Last Love of George Sand, the biography of the famous French writer that I translated from Evelyne Bloch-Dano's original book, slated for publication by Skyhorse on February 6
• possibly a book giveaway for said biography, because I think it's a fantastic story
• and the aforementioned Christmas haul, of course

Sound good? Awesome. 2013 is going to be a marvelous year.

Better Late Than Never!

So, remember this post? All about how I was going to send out holiday cards to colleagues and clients? Okay. So. Didn't happen last year.

BUT!

I have officially finished writing and posting every holiday card that I wanted to send this year. I DID IT.

One year late.

The lesson here: persistence is key. Especially when it's going to make other people happy, and bring a little joy to their humdrum lives. (Thank you, Lina Lamont.)

One Peril of the Publishing Industry:

Lead time.

There's that expression that goes: "Hurry up and wait." That is the publishing industry, from an author or translator's perspective.

You hurry up to get that manuscript to your editor...and then wait nine months to see it in print.

You get super stressed about finishing it, and tweaking it to perfection, and you're so excited/relieved when you finally do...only to put all that excitement on hold for the marketing push next season.

Or even before contracts are signed, you translate a new sample or write a new story as fast as you can to send out to all the magazines and literary journals and agents that you can...and then try not to sit around waiting for the response to hit your inbox, because it won't come for a very long time.

Then, when everything's done and you're finally ready to share your work with the world, and accolades start coming in...you're not allowed to publicize the reviews until they get published, which could be days or weeks after you're notified about them.

-------

In my younger days in a children's chorus, we worked with a wonderfully eccentric performance artist. At lunch one day, he got everybody's attention, because he wanted to share a poem with us. "It's called, 'Waiting,'" he said. He cleared his throat. Exhaled slowly. Gazed at the ceiling in preparation. Took a sip of water. Made eye contact with every single person gathered around the table. Stood up. Straightened his vest, brushed the crumbs off of his vest. Planted his feet in a firm stance. Clasped his hands in front of him. Took a deep breath.

And bowed, to giggles and a rapid crescendo of applause.

That was it. And it's the only poem I remember in its entirety from before age 15.

Hurry up and wait.

The Work-at-Home Blessing

Some days, you wake up, and you don't want to get out of bed. Because you're sick. You suddenly have a stuffy nose, a thick and scratchy throat, and a splitting headache right behind your eyes. It's not pneumonia or the plague, just a seasonal bug. A bug which most people will still go to work with, and which many people are expected to come into work with. (For better or for worse -- but that's a discussion for another day.)

And then, there are those of us who do the majority of our work from home. Clients on the other end of emails can't tell if we're sick. Just avoid videoconferencing, and it's possible to stay in your pajamas all day, propped up by pillows in bed, with a cup (okay, five) of tea and a slice of toast and a glass of orange juice and a bowl of applesauce and some soup, all close at hand. No one will know!

Oops. Probably blew my cover. You all know! My secret is out. Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh*coughcoughcough*...... Oh well. No use getting worked up over it. I can still work, and work well, at that.

Ah, the blessings of a freelancer.

Say What You Mean…

…but it’s okay if other people don’t mean what they say.

To illustrate: a person who volunteered to script out a libretto translation for supertitles emails you, saying: “This isn’t going to work, I need a literal translation because I can only put up one phrase at a time. How long would it take you to do that and send it over to me?”

They don’t mean: “This is TERRIBLE this is not what I was looking for AT ALL you’re such a BAD PERSON and a DREADFUL professional what were you THINKING!!!?!?!??!?!?!??!” (with exclamation points and question marks ad infinitum, because we all know that person…)

They may instead actually mean: “This is a beautiful translation, but I don’t know how to work with it. Could you please help me?”

So, don’t email them back: “Oh my GODS how could you be so STUPID and not APPRECIATE all of my hard work you’re a blithering MORON!!!!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!” (also because you don’t want to become that person…)

Instead, write: “The project managers and I agreed that a more poetic, lyrical translation would be best for this concert. I did endeavor, however, to translate phrase by phrase, instead of being completely free with the translation. The ideas in each line should still line up between the French and the English translation. Would you like me to send you a copy of the English with the corresponding French text lined up?”

Now, instead of being a terrible awful person, you are instead a pleasant, helpful correspondent who goes beyond the job description to make everyone’s lives easier. And then, the people you work with are grateful, appreciative, and even more complimentary on your work.

As Wil Wheaton says, don’t be a dick.

(Especially when the other person is a volunteer – they are only being nice! Don’t make them mad.)

Behind the Scenes of Walking the Walk

Setting:  Doing a translation of a French cantata libretto for a chorus' December concert, for program insert and possible supertitles.

What they see:

After a conversation in which I try convince them that a more complex (read: not as literal) translation is preferable, citing poetic flow and the like, I offer to do a sample of the well-known lullaby-like section to prove my point, that the rhyme scheme can kept intact without sounding forced.

They receive the sample shortly thereafter, and see that yes, indeed, the rhyme scheme makes it easier to read, without sounding disjointed.

What actually happens between the two events:

Oh FRACK rhyming is hard, I mean I knew this already but it's still hard, where's that rhyming dictionary gone to, oh FINE now which of these rhyming websites works best, WHY isn't there a rhyme for "angel" besides "archangel" because that just defeats the purpose, this doesn't make any sense anymore, I've completely lost the original meaning, well crap, start over, okay, now here's a list of all the words that could possibly be at the end of this line so do ANY of them match up with ANY other words that could possible be at the end of the NEXT line? no? okay, square one, right then, time to MAKE UP WORDS, English is stupid anyway, it's so freaking hard to rhyme in English, I mean, mother and father are fine feminine rhymes but that sounds so WEAK and the original libretto is so simple here so why is it so HARD in another language? oh right. translation. hard. fun, yes? fun? I guess, sometimes, maybe, so wait, can you make "lowly" rhyme with "woe" and "grow," maybe if it's at the end of the first line which runs into the second so you can fudge a bit and say that the second syllable really belongs to the second line not the first because that obviously makes TOTAL SENSE (sarcasm) (but maybe not, because Shakespeare did that, or did he only do that with different words of the same sentence, not different syllables of the same word) oooooh, hey, "abhorred" is a good word, but maybe it doesn't work in context, maybe it's too complex of a word, but WHY is it too complex? the "b" next to the "h" is unusual? it doesn't look English? or just that no one uses it ever, even though it's only two syllables, so maybe it's not that complex after all...hmm, I wish I knew more about linguistics, because there must be a way to quantify if a word is complex or not, and I wonder how many variables there would be, and if they take its usage in common speech into account -- STOPIT. you're rhyming, not leading a research on word complexity, you chose THIS field, not computational linguistics. okay. translation. ooooh, "Lord" rhymes with "sword," and "abhorred" actually DOES work in context, this could be kinda cool.........

That happens.

On a loop.

For three days straight.

I love my job. :-)

Real Life Gets in the Way

It does. It's not "if," it's "when." Life interferes with EVERYTHING from time to time.

For example, I was planning on writing so many things on this blog for the past month. And then we had to move, kind of suddenly, to a temporary apartment on the third floor of a friend's parents' house in the suburbs, and the two-day move stretched into five days, and Mr. S got an interview in Rhode Island, and Labor Day weekend family visits happened, and now here we are, just over two weeks from the ALTA Conference in Rochester, and I've just finished my to-do list to prepare for the conference, and we're trying to figure out which boxes we should be unpacking so we can actually live a normal life and which we should just leave in storage. And yet, through all of that, I've been working. I've taken my paying jobs, and I've done some volunteer work for my favorite NGO in Switzerland, and I've even started a new pet project (it's a French comic book about an awesome cross-dressing heroine who can win knife and gun fights on a merchant ship in the late 18th century, thank you for asking). The conference is coming up so quickly, and I'm so excited about it -- I've even got a meeting lined up with the adviser for the University of Rochester's MA in Literary Translation program, which may be my next destination.

Life gets in the way, and pushes you forward at the same time. But only if you work at it.

Universal business advice, expanded upon from a brief phone conversation with a fellow translating stranger

- Be wary of entering into agreements if you are already busy; or, alternatively, desperate.  Too busy, and you may renege on your end of the bargain.  Too desperate for work, and you can be taken advantage of. - Find a personal contact within a large company that you're working for.  Make sure they can rely on you for honest communication and prompt fulfillment of your promises.  Then, you can rely on them for flexibility, good projects, and dealings with Accounting (read: getting paid).

- Figure out how best you negotiate rates as a contractor.  If the other party is being difficult, you have two options to protect yourself: either be firm for the initial talks and give discounts as you see fit, or compromise at first and be firm on that compromise.

Huh.  I know more than I think I know.  Talk and practice are different animals, though.  It's tough work working for yourself!