Learning by Translating

Ecco una bibliografia contenente riferimenti a libri e pagine web sull’interpretazione televisiva, argomento della mia tesi di Laurea triennale dal titolo “Gli interpreti del piccolo schermo: On-screen Intercultural Mediation”.

• AAE-ESIT, ARTE: la chaîne des langues, 1998 (http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/office/1936/audio2.html).

• AIB, Interpretation on television, ESPaiic, 2001 (http://www.aibcnet.com/consejos_traduccion/television.php?id=en).

• AIIC, Essential do’s and dont’s when using simultaneous conference interpreting on TV (http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/article28).

• AIIC Technical and Health Committee, Media Interpreting – a different sort of world (http://www.aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/article91.htm).

• BROS-BRANN, E., Checklist for TV Interpretation, 1989 (http://www.aiic.net/community/attachments/ViewAttachment.cfm/a456p635-734.pdf?&filename=a456p635-734.pdf&page_id=635).

• BROS-BRANN, E., Simultaneous interpreting and the media: interpreting live for television (http://www.aiic.net/community/attachments/ViewAttachment.cfm/a452p630-726.pdf?&filename=a452p630-726.pdf&page_id=630).

• CHIARO, D., “Linguistic mediation on Italian television: When the interpreter is not an interpreter: a case study”, in GARZONE, G. – VIEZZI, M. (a cura di), Interpreting in the 21st Century. Challenges and opportunities. Selected papers from the 1st Forlì Conference on Interpreting Studies, 9-11 November 2000, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company (Benjamins Translation Library, 43), 2002, pagg. 215-225.

• GAMBIER, Y., GOTTLIEB, H. (a cura di), (Multi) Media Translation: Concepts, Practices, and Research, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001.

• KALINA, S., “‘Microphone off’ – Application of the process model of interpreting to the classroom”, in Kalbotyra, 57 (3), 2007, pag. 116.

• KATAN, D., STRANIERO SERGIO, F., “Look Who’s Talking. The Ethics of Entertainment and Talkshow Interpreting”, in The Translator, Manchester, St. Jerome Publishing, 7, 2, 2001, pagg. 213-237.

• KURZ, I., “Physiological stress responses during media and conference interpreting”, in GARZONE, G. – VIEZZI, M. (a cura di), Interpreting in the 21st Century. Challenges and opportunities. Selected papers from the 1st Forlì Conference on Interpreting Studies, 9-11 November 2000, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company (Benjamins Translation Library, 43), 2002, pagg. 195-202.

• KURZ, I., BROS-BRANN, E., L’interprétation en direct pour la télévision, in GAMBIER, Y. (a cura di), Les transferts linguistiques dans les médias audiovisuels, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion (attualmente in fase di ristampa).

• MACK, G., “L’interpretazione in tv: vecchie e nuove ipotesi di ricerca”, Relazione presentata al Congresso di fondazione dell’Associazione italiana di linguistica applicata AITLA, Pisa, 22 e 23.10.1999 (http://home.sslmit.unibo.it/~aitla/pisa/mack.htm).

• MACK, G., “New perspectives and challenges for interpretation: The example of television”, in GARZONE, G. – VIEZZI, M. (a cura di), Interpreting in the 21^st Century. Challenges and opportunities. Selected papers from the 1st Forlì Conference on Interpreting Studies, 9-11 November 2000, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company (Benjamins Translation Library, 43), 2002, pagg. 203-213.

• NIEMANTS, N., 2001 Unomattina: a case study in media interpreting, tesi di Laurea Specialistica non pubblicata, SSLMIT, Università di Bologna, 2008 (http://www.dailynterpreter.com/my-writings).

• RICCARDI, A., Dalla traduzione all’interpretazione. Studi di interpretazione simultanea, LED, 2003.

• STRANIERO SERGIO, F., “I (Paolo) Limiti dell’interpretazione, ovvero i mediatori antagonisti del testo televisivo”, Relazione presentata al Congresso di fondazione dell’Associazione italiana di linguistica applicata AITLA, Pisa, 22 e 23.10.1999 (http://home.sslmit.unibo.it/~aitla/pisa/straniero.htm).

• STRANIERO SERGIO, F., “Norms and quality in media interpreting: the case of Formula One press conferences”, in The Interpreter’s Newsletter, n. 12, 2003 (http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/2480/1/06.pdf).

• STRANIERO SERGIO, F., Talkshow Interpreting. La mediazione linguistica nella conversazione spettacolo, Trieste, EUT – Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2007.

This is not really a “Learning by Translating” Special post because I received less translation quotes than expected. I actually expected more participation… maybe not everyone has a favourite translation quote?

Anyway, I’m starting my post with a quote that Chris (Textklick on Twitter) sent me:

Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes. (Günter Grass)

He also wrote me (in Italian) that he loves translating as much as he loves Italian food! Thanks for participating, Chris!

Now I’m posting some other translation quotes I’ve found online lately.

Translation is a bit like shoveling coal. You scoop it up and toss it into the furnace. Each lump is a word, and each shovelful is another sentence, and if your back is strong enough and you have the stamina to keep at it for eight or ten hours at a stretch, you can keep the fire hot. (Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions)

Simultaneous interpretation is like driving a car that has a steering wheel but no brakes and no reverse.(Preter Pyotr Avaliani)

Translators can be considered as busy matchmakers who praise as extremely desirable a half-veiled beauty. They arouse an irresistible yearning for the original. (Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Art and Antiquity)

All I require of a translator is that he or she be a more gifted writer than I am, and in at least two languages, one of them mine. (Kurt Vonnegut)

Jakob Grimm compared the task of the translator with that of a sailor: the latter mans a ship, directs it with full sails to the opposing shore, but then has to land ‘where there is different earth and where different air plays.’ (Birgit Stolt)

It were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet. The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower – and this is the burthen of the curse of Babel. (Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defense of Poetry)

Last, but not least, now “Learning by Translating” has an Official Facebook page! Click here to view it and become a fan of my blog!

A year ago I found (while reading “From Our Lips to Your Ears”, one of my favourite interpreting blogs) a very interesting radio programme on language-related topics: “Talkin’ About Talk”. It was broadcast in 2005, the Year of Languages in America. There are different topics covered, e.g. bilingualism, translation and interpreting, dialects, threatened or dying languages, language learning, etc. Here you can find all the radio scripts and download the episodes. Actually, I’ve listened only to “What does it take to be an interpreter”?, but I would like to download some other episodes (like “Is British English Superior to Ours?”, which is about British VS American English, a topic that has always fascinated me; “Do you have to go abroad to learn a language?”; “What does it mean to be bilingual?”; “Can you make a living loving languages?”; “What does it take to learn a language well?”; “How good is machine translation?”; and “How are dictionaries made?”).

“What talent it takes to translate one language into another — listening and speaking at the same time! You can’t pick up a dictionary. And you can’t just spit out words like a robot. The interpreter’s job is to convey meaning. And since a lot of meaning is expressed by tone of voice or the nuance of words and phrases, his job is far more than translating word for word.

[...]

A translator needs somewhat different skills. But again, strong knowledge of two languages is just the beginning, because translating can get very complicated. There’s the question of technical terms. Lawyers file writs of mandamus. Physicians treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The terminology can be pretty daunting, and for translation you need to understand what it means. Because, like interpreting, translation isn’t about words. It’s about what the words are about. Simply looking things up in a dictionary isn’t enough. Not even close.”

(http://www.cofc.edu/linguist/archives/2005/10/what_does_it_ta_1.html)

Let’s start with a post about all my favourite quotes on translation and interpreting.

Inauguriamo il blog con un post contenente tutte le mie citazioni preferite sulla traduzione e l’interpretazione.

• Nel 1968 e 1969 “Lo scherzo” fu tradotto in tutte le lingue occidentali, ma con quali sorprese! [...] In un altro Paese incontrai il mio traduttore, un uomo che non sa una parola di ceco. Gli ho chiesto: “Allora come ha fatto a tradurre il libro?”. E lui mi rispose “Con il cuore”, e ha tirato fuori una foto dal portafoglio. (Milan Kundera)
• La vita di ogni creatura potrebbe dipendere un giorno dalla traduzione istantanea e precisa di una singola parola. (Paul Engle)
• Translating is communicating. (Eugène Nida)
• Without translation, there is no history of the world. (L. G. Kelly)
• An interpreter is like a mathematician. She approaches language as if it were an equation. Each word is instantly matched with its equivalent. (Kim)
• Communication is the very raison d’être of interpreting. (Vuorikoski)
• Translating a poem, if the creator is a craftsman, is like rescoring a piece of music for a different kind of musical ensemble. (Smith)
• Per tradurre un libro bisogna essere disposti a trasferirsi armi e bagagli nel libro stesso, e poi a restarci dentro: al libro, alla storia e anche all’autore, con il suo carattere e la sua vita, che non possono essere ignorati, visto che si dovrà conviverci almeno tanto a lungo quanto dura il lavoro di traduzione: dunque mai per poco tempo. (Laura Bocci)
• What I very much admire in interpreters is their unending curiosity, their boundless thirst for knowledge and their almost painful precision of their work [...] But without a doubt all interpreters love talking. That certainly seems to be linked with the profession. Some of our interviewees have described this spontaneity of communication as déformation professionnelle. (David Bernet)
• Interprète, mon frère, pour le client, l’auditeur, le seul orateur, c’est toi! (J.-D. Katz)
• Mentre un cattivo traduttore fa tutto il possibile per tradurre parola per parola, un buon traduttore si distacca dalla versione letterale solo quando questa è evidentemente inesatta. (Peter Newmark)
• Il traduttore non deve comprendere solo l’ovvio contenuto del messaggio, ma anche le sottili sfumature di significato, i valori emotivi importanti delle parole e le caratteristiche stilistiche che determinano il “sapore e la sensazione” del messaggio [...] In altre parole, oltre a conoscere due o più lingue coinvolte nel processo traduttivo, il traduttore deve conoscere a fondo l’argomento in questione. (Eugène Nida)