Lost in Translation


Lost in Translation

I was asked recently to write about the Australian bushfires for an Italian website which I did twice, but to my dismay, a lot was lost in translation, as were nuances, and in cases what survived was quite wrong with important bits edited out. My English was translated into Italian, by humans, I presume, and then back into an English that made me cringe. I hoped that friends would never see it as I had it checked by friends and take pride in my accurate English. I also have many years as an English teacher to fall back on. 

The fires were ongoing so I proposed a 3rd article but on the condition that I am provided an email to send corrections, or it would all be a blog and nothing more. This request was via an old friend with a lifetime in journalism. He replied that there were too many stories on Australia and they would hold until further notice, which was fine by me. I believed and trust him.

Now with 3 journalists in my family and a lot of writing over the years for various media I understand the importance of editing, which like proofreading, is essential to round off an article and improve it. After all, Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald had Max Perkins to round off their prose so who am I to talk. Also, editing is to fit the final product be in a web page or other competing contributions.

Good editing is essential and enhances good writing, but what does one make of the misinformation in the Murdoch and the Berlusconi empires. Political bias and alarming concoction is the answer.

Many great books have been translated into English by competent translators and shine. I know of 2 people who could translate my writing accurately, but into German. One is my “son-in-law” Malte, my daughter’s partner, who is a journalist reporting in English for DW, and the other is a FB friend Barbel Winkler who is steeped in fighting for action on climate change and involved in, amongst other things, skepticalscience.com . Like Malte her English is perfect, so she would get it right.

So writing for an Italian website doesn’t work for me but it did get my writing again, like this blog and many more to follow.  Amen to that.

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