Primero quiero contarles que este blog nació como un proyecto universitario, pero creo que hay tanto que decir y contar acerca de la traducción que decidí escribiendo, esta vez en mi lengua nativa. Ahora, a lo nuestro. Si hay alguien que no haya visto o llorado con Toy Story 3, les cuento que a mitad de la película Woody le cambia el idioma a Buzz Lightyear, por lo que este juguete empieza a hablar español, para sorpresa de los otros juguetes que hablan en inglés. Esta introducción es a propósito de una pregunta que vi en un foro de Internet, en el cual alguien (un hablante nativo inglés) preguntaba si en el doblaje español Buzz comenzaba a hablar en inglés. Al responderle que Buzz seguía hablando en español, afirmó: “Lo siento por ustedes, pero se perdieron el chiste de la película”. |
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It seems that there aren't many characters that work as translators in TV series or films. One reason could be that interpreting is more popular and dynamic to show and also, neither translators nor interpreters are needed when everyone in every point of the galaxy speaks or understand English! But surprisingly, there is animated sci-fi tv series from the ‘90s that shows quite faithfully how translators are perceived and what people expects from them, even though is set in a dystopian future.
One of the most special things about translation is that there’s no an ideal version of a translated text. If ten people translate the same text, there will be ten different versions, and they can be all great versions. You may prefer one over the others, but it doesn’t mean the others are incorrect. Or maybe you can combine parts of each of them to make the “best version”. That’s why I like comparing my versions with others, and the other versions among them, because it’s enlightening observing how another person solved a translation problem and found a solution you didn't see. For me, it’s a great way to learn and to improve our skills as translators. During a long time I've read stories in translation blogs about how is to work as a freelance translator, how translators deal with their clients and all kinds of awkward situations. At first, some of the stories seemed a bit far-fetched, but when I started translating for direct clients, everything I read -and more-became true. So, if you want to become a freelancer, be ready to hear these sentences and/or face some the following situations: Hello everyone! This is the first entry of my blog and I'll tell you a little bit about it. I'm studying English-Spanish Translation and this blog is a Class Project, and I decided to write about the subject I like the most: that is, surprisingly or not, translation. I've always found that bringing ideas from one language to another, which involves so much more than translating words, is in few words fascinating. This profession, art or technique, or whatever it has been defined, is as old as time, and so essential to human history as the air we breath, and so invisible as the air itself. Most of the things we enjoy -think about music or films-, the knowledge to become a professional -Medicine books, anyone?- or some of the pleasures we enjoy everyday -chocolate, tea, mobiles- are related to translation in one point of their existence. And yet, translators continue being quite unknown for most of people.
In the future entries, I want to share with you little stories about the translation of famous books, such a widely known (well, for us, LOTR geeks) translation mistake in The Lord of the Rings and another not as famous but quite amusing in Twilight. Also, living la vida loca as translators is a infinite source of anecdotes, which I'll refer to in the future. That's all, folks! I hope you enjoy this blog and leave a comment! Cheers! Andrea |