Three things
OK, here goes:
Three names you go by:
Alex
Papa
Dee
Three screennames you’ve used:
Jakofal
Allroad
AlexR (Sorry - very boring)
Three physical things you like about yourself:
my eyes
my legs
my scars
Three physical things you don’t like about yourself:
my chubby tummy
my hairy shoulders and back (which I don’t get waxed, by the way)
my height (too short)
Three parts of your heritage:
Italian
Irish
English
Three things that frighten you:
Tax bills
Italian drivers
Politicians
Three things you’re wearing right now:
Black polo shirt
Dark green trousers
Socks with holes in them
Three of your fav bands or musical artists:
The Who
The Jam
The Tom Petty
Three favorite songs:
Who are you?
Going underground
Into the great wide open
Three things you want in a relationship:
lots of mind blowing sex
love
fun
Two truths and a lie?
I’m untidy
I’m boring
I’m a hunter
Three physical traits that appeal to you in the opposite sex:
a pear shaped bottom
a nice voice
a sexy walk
Three of your fav hobbies:
Playing with PC’s
Cycling
Reading
Three things you want to do really bad right now:
Be in bed with my other half
Ride a motorbike at insane speeds
Go for a crap
Three careers you’re considering:
Astronaut
Rock guitarist
Writer
Three places where you want to vacation:
A nice planet in another star system
The US of A
A motor racing school
Three kids names you like:
Rachel
Martin
Zak
Three things you want to do before you die:
ride a Ducati
travel at many times the speed of light
Write a book
Three ways you act like a girl:
I like to dress well (When necessary)
I get uptight
I like dancing (not that what I do could be called that)
Three celebrity crushes:
Joanna Lumley - in her ‘New Avenger’ days
Jolene Blalock - T’Pol - Star Trek
Ines Satre
Three people who need to take this quiz now:
Caesar
Paul
Janey
And you can blame fellow blogger Christian Ventrello (Who writes a damn good blog, IMHO) for this silliness. (Which I needed, it’s been a heavy week)
A translation
First let me say that I find translating quite difficult and it is rarely as straightforward as one may think. To do the job well, you need to have an in depth knowledge of the subject of the text which needs to be translated. Now, I am quite good at ‘on-the-spot’ translations, that is readinf something in English and roughly translating it into Italian. I can usually do this well enough to give my listener, or listeners enough information for them to understand the sense of the subject matter.
Last week a friend of a friend asked me if I would be interested in translating a text for a sculptor friend of his. I gamely said yes, but added that I would like to see the text first to see whether I would be capable of doing the work. The text was sent and on the face of it, seemed quite straightforward. Then I got down to doing the translation and discovered that it was riddled with rather complex philosopical concepts and references. It is here that I have to add that my knowledge of philosophy, of the linguistics of thought, is, to put it mildly, somewhat limited. Fortuneatly, my other half has a degree in philosophy and so she was able to explain the meaning and concepts behind the words. This, I have to say, was a great help and without her assistance, I would have found myself in deep water. There was even a word in the original Italian text which was difficult for Italians to understand and which made the task even more of a challenge.
The internet can be a useful resource in these excercises, as you can test the validity of sentences by searching for them to see if anyone has used such a structure before. If they have, then you are on the right lines, if not, you need to go back and reformulate until the result becomes something close to ‘natural’ English, or whatever language you are working with.
Anyway, despite the difficulties, I’ve finished the work and it will accompany an exhibition of this sculptor’s work in that beautiful part of the world which goes by the name of Slovenia.
I know of people with a much higher knowledge of Italian than my goodself who steer clear of translating, possibly because they have not yet realised that it is more or less essential to specialise in a particular area, otherwise you find yourself trying to translate and interpret ideas with which you are not familiar and becoming an overnight expert in ‘quantum physics’, to use an extreme example, is nothing if not difficult. If, of course, you have studied or are familiar with quantum physics, you will find it much easier to translate from another language, with which you are familiar, into your own. I hope you get the idea.
You can try to use internet ‘machine’ translators, but the results, which may point you in the right direction, are often odd to say the least. The Italian goverment once dropped a clanger by using a machine translation on one of its web pages. The result was, depending on your point of view, either hilarious or dreadful.
The difficulty is ensuring that in translating, you retain the original sense that the author intended, and this at times can be frustrating. It is all too easy to interpret one word wrongly and end up with a sentence that destroys the meaning intended by its author.
Moral of the story: Only translate if you are familiar with the subject matter of the text you are working with and that you have an in-depth understanding of the language you are working with. Oh, and you also need to be able to write well and accurately, too. Simple. Not.
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Photos from Flickr
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