Sometimes, even your native language can be a foreign language. I recently read the novel Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, which is set in New Zealand. It’s a rare beast—a work of literary fiction that becomes increasingly suspenseful and intricately plotted as it develops. As you might expect, since the title is a reference to…
My translation of Color Charts: A History by Anne Varichon is out today from Princeton University Press. In The Art Newspaper, reviewer Jad Adams praised my translation, writing that “translator Kate Deimling deserves a special accolade for translating not only the sometimes technically challenging terms but conveying Varichon’s effervescent enthusiasm for her subject.” In this…
Dictionaries are wonderful tools, and, as a translator, I use them every day. But, although I couldn’t do my job without dictionaries, I also couldn’t do it with dictionaries alone. If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you already know about faux amis or false friends: words that look as if they mean the same…
My translation of Laurence Benaïm‘s joint biography of the two Christians is out today. You probably know one of them, thanks to a multi-million-dollar corporation that bears his name. But what about the other? Christian Bérard was a talented artist who became a renowned set and costume designer. In pre-World War II Paris, he and…
Translation seems to be having a moment—or a series of moments, that could turn into new reading and publishing habits. At least I hope so! Of course there are specific magazines devoted to new writing in translation, such as Words Without Borders, World Literature Today, and Asymptote. But it’s also wonderful to see general literary…
When a series of nouns or adjectives occurs in English, the last one is almost always connected with “and.” But in French, there may be no “and.” I usually add “and” when translating into English. But there are times when it’s better to leave it out. Here’s an example from a novel I recently translated…
Technology is moving at a faster pace today than ever before, and many people are left feeling confused. How will new technologies affect creative fields like translation? The American Translators Association has issued a position paper on machine translation (MT) to cut through the hype and explain the uses and limitations of this tool. Here’s…
A leading translation theorist, Lawrence Venuti, talks about “domestication” versus “foreignization” when translating fiction. “Domestication” means making the foreign familiar, and Venuti rails against it. In fact, many aspects of the text—references, syntax, expressions—need to be made familiar so that the reader will not be confused or alienated, but that’s a topic for another post.…
When The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction by Amy J. Schneider was published this spring, I grabbed a copy as soon as possible. This book came out just as I have been expanding my translation business to provide copyediting services for fiction in translation, and it has turned out to be a very valuable resource.…
If you’re looking for translation services, you’re likely wondering how much translations cost. Whether you need a birth certificate or diploma translation, a translation of documents about your family history, or a translation for business, it’s only logical to ask: what price will I have to pay? There’s no cut-and-dried answer to that question, but…