There was an amazing query on Proz.com recently, headed Mücke zum Elefanten.
The situation was a speech balloon in a cartoon about making mammoths from their DNA. A fly is sitting on a scientist’s desk and saying: maybe you can’t turn me into an elephant, but I might make a mammoth. (A play on words from the meaning ‘to make a mountain out of a mole hill’).
This was to be translated into English.
The solution wasn’t bad (Andrew Swift:”OK, maybe my DNA isnt up to cloning an elephant but Im sure I’d make a pretty good mammoth.”). I wonder what the payment was?
In this connection, there’s an excellent article (in German) by Nina-Sattler-Hovdar in today’s ADÜ-Nord Infoblatt (click on Publikationen, then Infoblatt, and select Infoblatt 1/2007/), based on her talk for the ATA last year, suggesting what to do if a client requests what is effectively copywriting. She also explains how one might go about charging and doing this kind of work if one wants to, and pleads for a category of copywriting (Texten) in translator directories.