Translation of foreign language texts Peter Abrahams Nov. 1999. _The Independent Scholar_, vol. XIII, no. 4, Fall 1999, pp2-3. My field of interest is the history of the telescope and the binocular, an area that is less thoroughly documented in English than in other languages. There are books, papers, and lectures published on binoculars in German, and I have been working with a native German on translating them. Translation is always very time consuming & expensive, and more technical & obscure subjects are far more difficult. In addition to the expected problems with terminology & meaning, a variety of questions arise during this process The general subject of translation of foreign language texts has therefore become of interest, including the issues discussed below. If one has the opportunity to work in a fully cooperative relation with a foreign language author, that certainly tends to give the best results. Given that the majority of published authors are not living; and among the living are the inaccessible and the uncooperative; usually a translator is without the counsel of the author. A translator is therefore a collaborator that is working alone, without the luxury of dialog and clarification, so the major benefit of collaboration is denied the translator. However, many of the disadvantages of collaboration remain, such as permissions, author's errors, and shared fame & fortune. Naturally, it is far better to work alone than work with writers who believe that vocabulary or sentence & paragraph construction should remain identical to the original. Of course, the meaning of a text cannot usually be translated as a collection of words. An understanding of the subject is required, which in turn necessitates research, often to the point where it seems more productive to write an original work, an attitude that is most destructive of motivation. There is no end to the questions that this collaboration produces: Should the original text be treated as a work that stands on its own merits? Or is it better to correct factual errors, and thereby place your authority above the authors knowledge of the facts? One solution is to keep the text as is, and place corrections in footnotes. Likewise, is it best to produce a readable and cogent text, or to keep the flavor of the original? I personally am fond of quaint phrases and the awkward sentences of yore, however they can be very difficult to read (especially with a German original.) It can be possible to write an idiomatic English text that has the same flavor as the original, but it is also possible to commit some hideous errors with this approach, and certainly with an original in technical German circa 1900, an idiomatic translation would be almost incomprehensible. German and other languages use a grammar that is more precise (sometimes) and more complex (always) than English, and maintaining the sense of subject (who is doing what) can be very difficult. Should a very technical work be kept as such, even if the language used is completly archaic? The central question is, should the translator produce a period piece, a historically valid reflection of the time of authorship; or is the goal a useful reference: should one re- write the original? Finally, a finished translation is credited more to the original author. Even without a personal need for recognition, a reputation can allow an author access to libraries & collections; and it is important to cultivate one's reputation if there will be a need to use institutional resources. Translation is probably not a time-efficient way to attain recognition. Of course, the other parties to the business of writing have much to say concerning a translation. An editor can send the work to be proofed by a native born speaker of the original language, who will want to re-work it to the sound & feel of the original (German sentence construction is characteristic even in translation). Publishers can tend to think that a translation can be accomplished with great speed, little research, and no input from the author. Lastly, it takes a dedicated reviewer of a translated text, to correctly attribute the virtues & errors to the author or translator, as appropriate. My original goal was to produce a reference that I could use in my own writing. However, when finished with a translation, I had a work that would be very valuable to others interested in the field. I could not publish it, since the original author had retained rights in all languages. I had a considerable amount of time & money invested in the project, so did not want to give it away. Leaving this information locked in my computer & unavailable to those who need it was unacceptable, but that is in fact the present situation. Translating a work for one's own use means the work can stop when it is in a usable form. If it is going to be published, there is much more work to be done. There is very little glory or pay in being a published translator, and it is hard to justify that amount of work, when one's own projects lay waiting. In my case, translation is also a very expensive project, again hard to justify when alternatives such as travel and books are needed. And last but certainly not least, translation is more boring and tedious than original research. Having described my reluctance to do this type of work, I will conclude by noting that I have found a wealth of fascinating material in German, and am aware of much more untranslated work in Russian and French. Americans are extremely provincial in regards to language. English is the international tongue of science, but to limit one's research to English is like using only the local library, or only the internet, or only popular level books, or only works that agree with your views. There are several companies producing translation software. The Alta Vista search engine (http://www.altavista.digital.com/) is an example of a web server that incorporates a simplified translation function, that will translate a limited amount of text. Depending on the nature of the text, it can work fairly well; and it does give hope that the best commercial software will function effectively. Some software, that translates many languages, has received poor reviews, but I am optimistic about the use of software to reduce the labor involved in translation.