Translation links/Übersetzungslinks

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1. On Sarah Dillon’s weblog, there is an entry headed 5 Qs with Marc Prior:

Based in Germany, Marc Prior is a freelance translator with over 20 years’ professional translation experience under his belt. By day, he translates from German, Italian and Dutch into English, specialising in occupational health and safety and environmental engineering. By night, he’s a mentor on the very popular ITI Professional Support Group and is also active on support forums for a range of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools. Read on for Marc’s take on life without Windows and getting started as a translator.

This is an interesting interview, mainly about Linux and becoming a translator. Marc was in his mid-teens when he decided to become a translator, so he presumably went through the whole process consciously, which makes him well-suited as a mentor.

2. I know Marc from FLEFO on Compuserve, in the good old days. When I was talking to him recently, I was mentioning Brian Mossop’s book Revising and Editing for Translators. I read the first edition and found it very interesting. Part of it I implemented, and part I read away from the office so never got back to. Mossop discusses degrees of quality, since checking has to take place under constraints of time and money. He also quotes empirical studies – what do translators actually do when they revise? I wondered if the second edition was much different? It looks as if it has more on computer aids to checking.

I only just realized that Brian Mossop has a website, and there are some articles of his there too, for instance “Approximately 3037 ships”: Translating French approximation words, and Empirical studies of revision: what we know and need to know
.

3. Finally, I accidentally discovered a new translation theory e-journal (only available online), trans-kom. The first issue has an emphasis on theory:

In this thematic issue launching the e-journal trans-kom, the important question
of universality in translation will be reflected upon from a number of different theoretical
and empirical vantage points, and in particular from the perspective of “intervention” –
which may be taken to be the very opposite to universality. If universality constitutes
something like the “stable core” of translation, intervention is the way originals and
their translations vary or are deliberately made to vary, in the act of translation.

Further information in the first PDF:

trans-kom
trans-kom ist eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für Translation und Fachkommunikation.
trans-kom veröffentlicht Forschungsergebnisse und wissenschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge zu Themen
des Übersetzens und Dolmetschens, der Fachkommunikation, der Technikkommunikation, der Fachsprachen,
der Terminologie und verwandter Gebiete.
Beiträge können in deutscher, englischer, französischer oder spanischer Sprache eingereicht werden.
Sie müssen nach den Publikationsrichtlinien der Zeitschrift gestaltet sein. Diese Richtlinien können von
der trans-kom-Website heruntergeladen werden. Alle Beiträge werden vor der Veröffentlichung
anonym begutachtet.
trans-kom wird ausschließlich im Internet publiziert: http://www.trans-kom.eu

Miscellany/Vermischtes

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While I am getting on with the work of which I may have taken on too much, here are some notes and links.

1. The Kirchweih has started

This is appropriate, as today is October 3, a German public holiday – or rather, yesterday was – and apparently that is being merged with the Oktoberfest outside Germany – or so says Wortistik, reporting from Marbella.

Jetzt hätte man den armen Leutchen von der Tourismusbehörde natürlich erklären können, dass in Deutschland der 3. Oktober überhaupt nicht gefeiert wird, sondern wenn überhaupt dann festlich begangen, und das auch nur an einem einzigen Ort, nämlich da, wo gerade des Föderalismus wegen die Bundesratspräsidentschaft liegt und damit auch die Verantwortung zur Ausrichtung des Festakts – aber muss man das wirklich erklären?

Unfortunately I failed to locate the Orgelpark (sorry about that, Trevor), though I walked round the area twice.

2. ‘Chip shop owner battered man’. More here.

3. I am a bit envious of those who go on comedy courses.

Yours sincerely/Mit kollegialen Grüßen

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Having today already been confronted with ‘Sehr geehrte Kolleginnen und Kollegen’ addressed to persons outside Germany, I am wondering about ‘Mit kollegialen Grüßen’, but that’s easy: ‘Yours sincerely’ (at least in British English).

Michael Kadlicz in Wiener Neustadt – is that still Vienna? – received this from a fellow-lawyer:

Sehr geehrter Herr Kollege Mag. Kadlicz!

Aufgrund eines bedauerlichen Versehens habe ich bemerkt, dass in der letzten Nachricht in der Schlussformel das Wort “kollegiale” Grüße nicht aufgenommen war. Ich bitte dieses Versehen höflich zu entschuldigen, wie Sie mich ja bereits kennen, bringe ich Ihnen selbstverständlich die volle kollegiale Wertschätzung entgegen.

Ich zeichne mit
freundlichen kollegialen Grüßen

Not really translatable, I’m afraid.

If I were registered to comment at twoday.net, I would comment on the first sentence. Is it the regrettable oversight that the writer noticed his omission? Translators tend to correct this kind of thing.

I love the firm’s website – must have changed since I last saw it. Blog.

German-American Day Blawg Review/Blawg Review Deutsch-amerikanisch

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German law blogs can take part on October 6, which is apparently German-American Day. This is a day when Americans put on their Lederhosen and pretend they are in Munich, I believe.

Any German blawgs that would like to be showcased and linked next Monday presumably have to have an entry written in English (?). They can submit this by Saturday October 4 but ideally even earlier.

Blawg Review explains itself on its site. I am probably not the person to explain it. It is a kind of blog carnival.

Here is an earlier Blawg Review, hosted on the New York Personal Injury Law Blog and based on the New York Marathon (with a link to the longest urinal in the world).

Here is the gen on Blawg Review for German American Day.

And here is the LawPundit blog where Blawg Review will appear, perhaps in a later time zone than CET.

The host of Blawg Review in this case is Andis Kaulins, an American lawyer who has taught American law, legal writing and legal research at Trier University and also translates. I imagine one has to hope that Andis will showcase one’s submission.

You will note that LawPundit blog offers Google automatic translation into German, thus:

Bavarian State Elections Point to Populist Turmoil in German Politics : Free Voters Coalition Comes out of Nowhere to Win 10% of the Bavarian Vote
Bayerische Staatsoper Wahlen Point-to-Populistische Turbulenzen in der deutschen Politik: Freie Wähler Koalition kommt aus dem Nichts zu Win 10% der bayerischen Abstimmung

The populist emergence of Sarah Palin of Alaska as the Vice-Presidential nominee of the Republican Party in America is not an isolated phenomenon of the USA.
Die populistische Auftreten von Sarah Palin von Alaska als Vize-Präsidentschafts-Kandidat der Republikanischen Partei in Amerika ist kein isoliertes Phänomen der USA.

I think I might take Gabriele Pauli over Sarah Palin.

The funny thing is, lots of German blogs appear in English, or a form thereof, but those are directed at readers outside Germany, whereas German law blogs tend to be in German – it makes sense to me!

But Blawg Review would be glad to have more German law blogs linked.

(Entry corrected after publication on account of a number of errors)