Famous translation quote(s)

I was looking for a famous quote about translation work but couldn't find it. Instead I found a whole list of other quotes here: http://wiki.proz.com/wiki/index.php/Famous_quotes_about_translation#Quotes_about_Translation.

What's not on Wikipedia by the way?

What started out as a source of information gathered by 'amateurs' has grown into a reliable source for the whole world. I have to say Wikipedia is most of the times my best friend when I have to research a certain term very quickly.

However, this post was meant to be about a famous quote I can't find. There are some very good ones in the Wikipedia list to my opinion, I especially like "What is lost in the good or excellent translation is precisely the best" by Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, "When I think of this profession I think of priestly, tireless dedication to getting it right" by Emma Donoghue and "Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. I think I mostly like them because they are not pretentious.

And that is also exactly at the core of the quote I can't find. In the meantime I was hoping I could find it - but unfortunately no luck so far. Well, let me try to convey the message of what I remember from that particular quote, or paraphrase it: "Translating is writing without the horror of inventing something new". I think this is well said. The other side of the coin is of course that it is not seen as art.

But who cares?

If you want to make art, you just don't become a translator - I think it's that simple. Translating is simply not art in my eyes, and I can't really understand why people have another opinion about this. Art is creating something new, a whole new process, often of course with seeds from other forms of art, examples etc., but it is simply not copying somebody's work or in other words translating it.

For that reason I am pretty happy that I have been inventing new things, or at least tried to, while learning from other authors, reading hundreds of books, all kinds of fiction, non-fiction, poetry. I am happy for this because I don't feel a huge need (anymore) to express myself otherwise, even though I'm writing this post.

There is creativity in every human being, although you sometimes wonder if that is true, talking to a boring accountant, business man or anybody alike.

But I think it is always in there, it's part of us humans, only some people never really find it, or just haven't learned how to express themselves, or simply didn't have the guts, or just don't want to because they find it silly.

But some of us only show their creativity and flourish when they get older, without the constraints of working life, the pressure of making money, bringing up children, simply becoming somebody or just keeping up with life.

For me creativity has always been in words, rather than music, painting or making sculptures. I sometimes hated it, because wouldn't it be much easier to just take a quitar and play something? Probably not.

Then, last but not least, must be said that most translators don't really choose the profession, that I know of anyway. They end up doing it because of their circumstances, living abroad, having difficulties making enough money with writing, journalism etc.

For me this certainly was true. I emigrated to Finland and left my job as a librarian behind. I have been in journalism and copywriting on and off before and next to it, but I needed my job as a librarian to pay the bills. I had zero plans arriving in Finland except taking care of our then still very young children. My lovely wife then was the one who was paying the bills.

After a while I needed to do something else besides changing diapers and did some research on the internet to see what was there for me. It was obvious it should be in writing. I applied to some editing jobs on freelancer websites but didn't have much luck. Then I noticed quite a lot of translation jobs and decided to give it a try - and things started rolling.

I applied at agencies and got more and more work, sometimes so much that I forgot to change a diaper! I don't have that problem anymore. Now I am a professional, experienced English to Dutch translator for quite some years already, but still learning and growing every single day. Yep, just like (my) children.

#translation #quotes #creativity