I decided: stop chasing projects, have a break to think things over, follow your instinct and the rest of your life chase your dream.  I am approaching a definite age when people are supposed to be good at what they do or at least came to a point to change their lives.  I definitely have experience (negative and positive), I am curious and open-minded for possibilities.  As a matter of fact I have even more ideas than I had before. All kinds of good deals in software programmes will make my work easy and pleasant, memberships will open all possible doors to me and so on and so forth. But dear me, is it what I want? Few respectable translators give the rest of us their valuable advice, first, to find out what we want, second, have a good look around and set all your ability of research and good luck  to find a right employer.  And the world is hard. You are alone. The more experience you get under the supervision of an experienced partner the better.

What is quality? Honesty, communication, good timing, respect. Hard work. Art work.

It is good to believe that you are one of a kind.

I do believe in beauty of the language. So I work on translation of a book I loved when I was at  school. It is getting better now. I do not think it will be perfect because people will always look for mistakes or think different about the same thing. My goal is to deliver a message without naming it.

I also believe that my goal to find a mentor and like-minded person for future big and exciting projects will come true. I am looking for an employer who will trust me and will give me some space to develop into a good in-house translator.

Copy writing in English, Russian and Dutch is another option. I have accumulated heaps of written materials in Russian and English.

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As soon as you start translating on a regular basis it is not a bad idea to start collecting interesting idioms in case that you do not use translation memory. “Idiom” comes from the Greek word idios, meaning “one’s own.” An idiomatic expression is one that “we understand among ourselves”.

The idios root shows up in idiosyncrasy, and, of course, idiot: one who keeps to himself, not quite ready for prime time or the public square.

Let’s take a few examples. If you translate from English into Russian “out of sight, out of mind” you will probably end up by “с глаз долой, из сердца вон”. If you try a computerised translation it could be something like “invisible idiot”. No comment is necessary.

Russians often say “как по маслу”, which means something like “easy going” or “going smoothly”, “without any problem”. If a business runs как по маслу, there is no need to worry!

Sometimes the language itself and its flow are important. You lose it and your translation work would be compared to inhaling a scent of a tea rose through a gas mask.

Sometimes the meaning and importance of words can be changed in translation; when a language itself is insignificant because a writer wants people to be attracted to the content of his or her work.

In this case a translator is a co-writer and is free to use his or her language means in order to convey the content in the best possible way. I had a smashing experience of being a part of a translating team working on a translation of a philosophical novel. Quite a reserved 3^rd person narration is fully focused on philosophical issues you should be fluent in and be able to render them in the target language using the right means. It is very easy to start just translating facts, events and consequences but it is not good enough… There are plenty of tiny details which help you to make it work, to make it look and sound as genuine as a source.

There appear to be some things that are untranslatable, and when converted to another language they seem kind of weird sounding, and because of that, they attract attention.

But let’s come back to idioms. Sometimes one little phrase gives translators trouble.

In Russian, English and probably every other existing language, physical gestures and facial expressions – sometimes metaphorical, sometimes actual – are used to convey emotional states. When English speakers use the similar expressions to convey the same emotions, translation is easy. Он почесал затылок (He scratched his head; he was puzzled). Он навострил уши (he paid close attention to what was being said).

Americans puff out their cheeks and expel air as a sign of exasperation, denoted by the words “whew” or “phew.” They also pout. In Russian, this is надувать губы (literally, to puff out one’s lips).

Надувать щёки is a pose of proud self-importance. In English, we’d probably say: to be high and mighty. If we were to convey this by a physical gesture, we might say: to puff out our chests. Or:  be puffed up. Or maybe even: swagger.

It’s a mysterious craft… It emerges from so many things…

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