Never has translation been so interesting and rewarding as it is now in this golden age of the Internet. All that a translator needs in order to produce a WOW-level translation, provided that he/she has a highly sophisticated linguistic sense and sensibility in both source and target languages, is a smart brain and Google (no advertising intended -- it happens to be the generic term for search engines). By a smart brain, I mean its capacity to learn anything and everything instantly and thoroughly and explain the learned in a clear logical structure and elegant style. Any translator who is equipped with this mighty weapon can win the war against the most resilient enemies (= tough texts to tackle = clumsy outlaws of style and logic) even before waging it, relying 100% on the ally of united cloud power. The first Google hit page to a bilingual ("source word" + guessed translation) or monolingual (some keywords in the target language) search is highly likely to yield exact terms and related literature. Halfway along the translation, with some skillful readings, the translator becomes a specialist of any remote niche of human intellectual creation. As soon as I feel more or less sure in the subject matter, I reread the translated part and expand knowledge while correcting and improving that part. The remaining translation advances then a lot faster and more reliably.
Translation can hence be a most rewarding activity for those who have an innate thirst for knowledge and perfection. It is rewarding in a triple sense: financially, intellectually, and physically. I see some raised eyebrows on reading the third member of this threesome. Sedentary activities are usually known to be bad for physical health. In my case, quite to the contrary, I have only to do a translation a day to keep the doctor away (although I do some walking exercises in golf courses ;). Translation requires a 100% concentration on and undivided devotion to the text and subject matter. This kind of concentration is a lot closer to a successful meditation than sitting with crossed legs, closed eyes, and a 1000-winged mind. The onepointedness of mind is a primordial condition for meditation-mediated transcendence. Thus, translation transports me to a boundary state similar to a lucid dream. The hardest part of translation for me is to get out of this state of mind down to the "normal" consciousness level, just as is the case with meditation (I happen to have a decade-long practice of meditation). "Mens sana in corpore sano" holds true (or truer) in the opposite direction. I refrain from going deeper in this issue, well aware that it is an issue (important as it is) going beyond the scope of this blog.
And we translators of the 21st century are blessed with an ocean of reference and standard works for instant learning in any subject matter at the state-of-the-art level. Learning for translation is the most efficient way of learning because it is related to the most instant and direct application which does not allow any room for errors. It's a lot more than learning for exams: if you score low in an exam, it's your personal problem; if you deliver a bad translation, it has some ripple effects spreading in horizontal, vertical, and orthogonal directions in working and learning societies. Furthermore, while learning for exam occurs at the learner's level, learning for translation should occur at the teacher's level, because a translated text should be understood by the target audience well versed in the given subject matter.
As it pleases -- sometimes enchants -- me to read a clear, concise, and coherent text dressed in a neat and elegant style, I always try to produce such a text. To advance in the art of producing precise and elegantly flowing translations, I am exceedingly generous in taking time to read any good articles I come across while searching for right words or expressions to solve problems encountered during translation. Especially when I end up in the website of a journal replete with such articles, I do some extra reading absorbing knowledge and style. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is one of my favorite journals in this sense. JAMA has a dozen of specialty-specific journals. It frequently offers free articles for general reading population, and for every article there is at least a detailed abstract for perusal.
Speaking about medical translation, it's worth browsing on the MeSH Browser in search of exact medical terms. To test its usability for translation, I once entered "carcinoma" as a search term and promptly learned that I had sometimes used it wrongly as being interchangeable with cancer. This is a small example of why translators should always be humble and keep learning on a daily basis. In this globally networked virtual world without any temporal or geographical limitations, a happy translator can work till the last day of his/her life anywhere in the world, and a lifelong learning is a sheer necessity that satisfies his/her heart's desire at the same time.
Translation can hence be a most rewarding activity for those who have an innate thirst for knowledge and perfection. It is rewarding in a triple sense: financially, intellectually, and physically. I see some raised eyebrows on reading the third member of this threesome. Sedentary activities are usually known to be bad for physical health. In my case, quite to the contrary, I have only to do a translation a day to keep the doctor away (although I do some walking exercises in golf courses ;). Translation requires a 100% concentration on and undivided devotion to the text and subject matter. This kind of concentration is a lot closer to a successful meditation than sitting with crossed legs, closed eyes, and a 1000-winged mind. The onepointedness of mind is a primordial condition for meditation-mediated transcendence. Thus, translation transports me to a boundary state similar to a lucid dream. The hardest part of translation for me is to get out of this state of mind down to the "normal" consciousness level, just as is the case with meditation (I happen to have a decade-long practice of meditation). "Mens sana in corpore sano" holds true (or truer) in the opposite direction. I refrain from going deeper in this issue, well aware that it is an issue (important as it is) going beyond the scope of this blog.
And we translators of the 21st century are blessed with an ocean of reference and standard works for instant learning in any subject matter at the state-of-the-art level. Learning for translation is the most efficient way of learning because it is related to the most instant and direct application which does not allow any room for errors. It's a lot more than learning for exams: if you score low in an exam, it's your personal problem; if you deliver a bad translation, it has some ripple effects spreading in horizontal, vertical, and orthogonal directions in working and learning societies. Furthermore, while learning for exam occurs at the learner's level, learning for translation should occur at the teacher's level, because a translated text should be understood by the target audience well versed in the given subject matter.
As it pleases -- sometimes enchants -- me to read a clear, concise, and coherent text dressed in a neat and elegant style, I always try to produce such a text. To advance in the art of producing precise and elegantly flowing translations, I am exceedingly generous in taking time to read any good articles I come across while searching for right words or expressions to solve problems encountered during translation. Especially when I end up in the website of a journal replete with such articles, I do some extra reading absorbing knowledge and style. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is one of my favorite journals in this sense. JAMA has a dozen of specialty-specific journals. It frequently offers free articles for general reading population, and for every article there is at least a detailed abstract for perusal.
Speaking about medical translation, it's worth browsing on the MeSH Browser in search of exact medical terms. To test its usability for translation, I once entered "carcinoma" as a search term and promptly learned that I had sometimes used it wrongly as being interchangeable with cancer. This is a small example of why translators should always be humble and keep learning on a daily basis. In this globally networked virtual world without any temporal or geographical limitations, a happy translator can work till the last day of his/her life anywhere in the world, and a lifelong learning is a sheer necessity that satisfies his/her heart's desire at the same time.
