Perfect Balance



Translator is the one who achieves
the prowess of being faithful to
the author and to the reader
at the same time. – tj*¬

My Translation of Whisky Classified


     This is a very interesting book I translated about whisky, and it also represented a professional challenge because the author, David Wishart, classifies all kind of whiskies from Scotland, talks about the distilleries, historical places, present day locations and the whole process to produce whisky.

Book Description:
Ten years ago, WHISKY CLASSIFIED revolutionised our appreciation of single malt whisky. David Wishart cut through the confusing jargon often used to describe single malts and replaced it with an objective and easily applied guide to taste using a new flavour profile. Twelve dimensions to the aroma and taste of a single malt whisky were identified: body, sweetness, smoky, medicinal, tobacco, honey, spicy, winey, nutty, malty, fruity, floral. Single malt whisky is the fastest expanding sector of the booming whisky market. In this revised and updated anniversary edition, Dr Wishart has included all the new UK and Irish producers of single malt whisky that have emerged in the last 10 years. The author has also updated the taste profiles for each selected malt and reviewed previous entries to ensure that this book remains the definitive guide to tasting malt whisky. Each entry includes a short description of the distillery, information for visitors, the author's own tasting notes and his flavour profiles according to this innovative classification. The history of whisky-making and production methods are clearly explained, and Dr Wishart also reveals how to organise a whisky tasting. WHISKY CLASSIFIED is for all whisky drinkers, from the novice to the connoisseur.
Extracted from Harper Collins

Whisky Classified
David Whishart
Translation to Portuguese: Tina Jeronymo


Happy Translator's Day!






     The International Translators’ Day is celebrated on September 30th on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is considered as the patron saint of translators because he translated what was recognized as the official version of the Bible into Latin, the Vulgate.




My translation of Weapon - A Visual History of Arms and Armour

     This was one of the most interesting books I’ve translated to Portuguese. Weapon - A Visual History of Arms and Armour (by Richard Holmes) represented a big challenge to me as a translator because it’s a complete guide of weapons through ages and from all parts of the globe. It’s a journey through history, and contains all the technical details and explanations about weapons mechanisms, and I had to research a lot during translation. The book also covers war tactics, talks about warriors and soldiers from all times, and also all kinds of armours. It was indeed a privilege to translate it, and I’ve learned a lot during the whole process.



Synopsis:

A slice of history - the definitive exploration of weapons through the ages, now with a fresh new jacket. An epic 4,000-year illustrated story of weaponry. From stone axes to heavy machine-guns, swords to sniper rifles, discover the innovative design, range, lethal function and brutal history of arms and armour, and meet the warriors who wielded them. Includes all the important arms from the ages, covering edged weapons, clubs, projectiles and firearms from ancient Egyptian axes, through bows and spears of traditional societies in Africa, Oceania and the Americas, to the machine-guns and missiles of modern infantry forces. Key weapons from every era are presented in sharp detail and the mechanisms that operate them are displayed and explained. Top fighting forces, from the Greek hoplite to the Navy Seal are profiled, and the weapons they have wielded and the tactics and fighting methods they've used are revealed.


(Synopsis - from: http://books.google.com.br/books/about/Weapon.html)


- Weapon - A Visual History of Arms and Armour - Richard Holmes
Translation to Portuguese: Tina Jeronymo
- Armas - Uma História Visual de Armas e Armaduras
Editora: Lafonte             

September – Translator’s Month

     The translator not only likes it, but he/she needs to learn more and more about cultures and peoples from all over the world, ancient and new.











Translator's Month

    The International Translators’ Day is celebrated on September 30th on the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is considered as the patron saint of translators because he translated what was recognized as the official version of the Bible into Latin, the Vulgate.





My Translation of Slash’s Autobiography

 

Comments about Slash’s Book and My Translation to Portuguese

     The autobiography written by Slash, Saul Hudson, born in England in 1965, is a real trip throughout the music world. Slash tells us about his musical preferences since he was a kid and traces an interesting time line since, mainly, the 1970s till present day. This alone, for those who enjoy music (almost everyone, I guess), would turn it into a “must-have” book. In Guns N’ Roses golden days, Slash was (and always will be, of course) an extremely talented guitarist, indeed. But, to me, as a rock fan, at that time he was still someone hidden behind a mountain of hair and a top hat. The curious thing is that this book has been given to another translator who wasn't able to do it because of the deadline, and I ended up having the privilege of translating it.
     Of course, as most fans, I've never really known Slash, nor Saul Hudson, as a person. I only know the things I've read about him, and I love his irresistible rock music and riffs and those incredible songs (Though I was lucky to meet him in a show, as in the picture below.) But it was only after I translated Slash’s book that I came to admire him as a person as well. As I use to say, to translate a book, you have to enter a bit into the author’s mind, to understand his/her ideas to be able to transmit them in the most precise way, while you read the book hundreds of times in the process. But always, as a translator, you have to transmit all this in a detached way, and so, this translation of the book to Portuguese is impartial as it must be.
     As a reader, though, I think Slash revealed himself a generous, gentle, sensible, determined person. Slash talks about his childhood, his friendships, the mischievousness of the youth, of school times, and his fascination for snakes and exotic animals in general. It’s amazing the candidness Slash uses to give us his account, so perfectly transmitted by Anthony Bozza’s style as he wrote the book. As Slash talks with all his heart, we’ve got the impression, throughout the book, that we're in a kind of chat with our idol as readers. (If you want to know it all, his book is really great to read.)
     Another admirable aspect is Slash’s innate talent for music and to play guitar. Without many resources, he learned to play practically by himself, starting using his grandmother’s famous flamenco guitar and reading dozens and dozens of sheet music and guitar tabs, while playing together with his favorite rock bands’ albums. His efforts ended up enabling him to achieve great success in his musical projects. (I went to his shows in São Paulo in 2011 and in 2012 and was amazed to see the energy the man has to play his guitar. We get breathless just looking at him as fans!)
     Naturally, in his book, Slash tells us about his trajectory in Guns N’ Roses, the way the band started, how he met the other members, about ups and downs, the huge success, what he felt becoming famous, the tours, the opening shows to his own idols, like Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe. Like Rome, there was the inevitable decline of the band, and it was a pity because they were perfect together, with an incredible chemistry, as all gunners would agree. And it’s not a report about choosing sides _ in all stories everybody has his/her own version of the facts, his/her points of view. Anyway, I guess certain aspects are all water under the bridge now, and concerning the parts involved. If I had to use a single word to describe the book itself as a reader I would say it’s about “endurance”.
     And my translation, naturally, was totally impartial as translations must be, transmitting all the contents as they are in the original book, though I’m also giving my own opinions as a reader in this article. The translation itself to Portuguese was long and hard with lots of slangs, technical details about music, playing and recording, references to countless people, places, etc. etc., and it demanded lots of researching. But it was very pleasurable indeed. It’s my favorite among all the translations I’ve done. Because when one translates a book, the result is much better when he/she also enjoys it as a reader first. And I’ve been lucky enough to always translate things I enjoy.   
 In the book, there is the somber and dramatic side, the deep darkness to which addiction unfortunately drags human beings sometimes. As a reader, I think this part about addiction/drugs/alcohol/smoke/self-destruction must be faced as a guide about what NOT to do with our lives.
     In his autobiography, Slash tells us how he has gotten his nickname, and also the top hat that would become his trademark when he had to improvise some garments for shows. There we find drama, friendship, nostalgia, a lot about Rock, a bit of something like the “Twilight Zone”, and there’s a lot of sense of humor in the book too, what’s very charming. We can laugh with some of Slash’s mishaps, as he talks about them, including the glam period of the band, or when he had to dress like a woman to go inside a nightclub.

     One of my favorite of those parts is when he jumped straight from the stage during a show and the audience parted like the Red Sea, and he fell hard on the floor _ a kind of miscalculation. Then, as if nothing had happened, he cleaned the dust, went back to the stage and kept on playing. I think that’s a good metaphor for the way he gathered up the pieces of his old life and turned it into a greater success.

Slash With Anthony Bozza
Translation to Portuguese: Tina Jeronymo
Ediouro

*************************************

Show - Nov. 6th, 2012 
Espaço das Américas
São Paulo - SP

To the Translator

This is the most beautiful homage I’ve seen an author paying to the translator.


"When man grew ambitious, God destroyed the
Tower of Babel, and everyone began to speak
different tongues. However, in His infinite grace,
he also created people to rebuild those bridges,
to enable dialogue and the diffusion of human
thought. This person, whose name we rarely
take the trouble to notice when we open a
foreign book, is the translator.”

_ Paulo Coelho,
“The Other Side of the Tower of Babel”


Recent Translations

     Below, some of my most recent translations. I’ll comment here on the blog about each one of them individually with time, among the other posts about general subjects and the translation area.
     The books I translate are not mine, they belong to the authors, of course. But I translate them as if they were mine, with all my heart and soul. When you translate, you have to enter in the author’s mind, to know what he/she’s thinking, understand his/her feelings so that the book can be perfect. I feel this strong empathy with the author and make all the efforts for his/her book’s contents to be in Portuguese exactly the way they are in the original form in English. Translating is fascinating. Besides the knowledge about languages, I have to research a lot and I end up reading and learning many interesting things. That’s why I’m so proud when I see the result. The book is not mine, but I’ve treated it as if it was my own treasure all the way.
  
- The Book of Why - O Livro do Porquê - Nicholas Montemarano - LeYa
- Weapon: A Visual History of Arms and Armor - Armas - História Visual de Armas e Armaduras - Lafonte
- The World Atlas of Whisky - O Atlas Mundial do Whisky - O Atlas Mundial do Whisky - Dave Broom - Larousse
- Being Wrong - Por que Erramos? - Kathryn Schulz - Larousse
- Evidence of the Afterlife - Evidências da Vida Após a Morte - Jeffrey Long - Larousse
- It’s Your Time - A Hora é Agora - Joel Osteen, Larousse
- Think Smart - Mente Saudável, Mente Brilhante - Richard Restak  - Riverhead Books  - Larousse
- Whisky Classified - Whisky Classificado - David Wishart - Pavilion Books - Larousse
- The Elephant and the Flea - O Elefante e a Pulga - Charles Handy - Arrow - Almedina do Brasil
- Pauline Bonaparte, Venus of Empire - Paulina Bonaparte, a Princesa do Prazer - Flora Fraser - Borzoi Book, Knopf - Ediouro
- My Life as a Traitor - Minha Vida Como Traidora - Zarah Ghahramani e Rober Hillman,  Bloomsbury Publishing - Ediouro
- How the Wise Decide - Como os Sábios Decidem  - Bryn Zeckhauser e Aaron Sandoski - Crown Business - Ediouro
- My Best Friend’s Girl - A Filha da Minha Melhor Amiga - Dorothy Koomson, Sphere (Warner), ARX
- Autobiography - Slash - Autobiografia - Anthony Bozza – HarperCollins - Edirouro
- 81 Challenges Smart Managers Face – Desafios Gerenciais, Tim Connor - Sourcebooks - Futura
- Do it Tomorrow - Deixe para Amanhã - Mark Forster - Hodder & Stoughton - Futura
- Was Your Boss Raised by Wolves? - Seu Chefe Foi Criado por Lobos? -
Gerald M. Groe - Career Press - Futura
- Fat Free and Fatal - Insaciável - G.A McKevett - Kensington Books - ARX
- Mirage - Miragem - Soheir Khashoggi - Forge-Tom Doherty - ARX
- A Dangerous Dress - Um Vestido Perigoso - Julia Holden – NewAmerican - ARX
- Prince of Lost Places - O Príncipe dos Lugares Perdidos - Kathy Hepinstall - Putnam - Best Seller


Some of the translations of Tina Jeronymo to Portuguese.
Algumas das traduções de Tina Jeronymo para o português.

Human and Automated Translation

     Nothing substitutes the flesh and blood translator and interpreter. The professional translator doesn’t use translation machines to perform his work for him. He/she can, however, use the available translation devices to understand a bit the languages he/she doesn’t know and increase his/her knowledge about other peoples and cultures as well, in cases he/she can’t count on foreign colleagues to help him/her. I believe technology serves to help man, never to substitute him. It’s always man’s intelligence that’s behind the machines.
      The “Phraselator” technology mentioned here, from the glorious “Star Trek”, is actually being used nowadays, especially in the military area. Those who are smart enough to use it when it’s strictly necessary, however, are also smart to know they’re carrying a kind of electronic phrase dictionary, not a versatile human translator and interpreter.
      A translator uses a bilingual dictionary (and even consults reliable translation sites) as a mere tool, the same way a writer uses his native language dictionary to elucidate doubts. But there’s a big difference between the human and the automated translation and their respective usages.
     Only the human translation transmits the precise sense of a text in a way that’s completely understandable to the reader. The automated translation, in its turn, has a fantastic comprehensiveness of languages and it’s a useful and valid tool to several kinds of professional in many situations. When there can’t be an interpreter available, the automated translation facilitates the communication between several peoples during trips around the world and the cultural interchange. (I myself, for instance, here on the blog, as I mention on the presentation, have included the Google translator because _ though I never use it professionally as a translator, since translations are too literal and usually don’t “fit” _ I think it’s a very useful tool for any language reader to understand at least the contents of a foreign text).
     Basically, it would be something more or less like this: “Just when the access to a “Personal Human Translator” is not possible for some reason, take your “Phraselator” with you.
     Translation is not a mechanic act. It’s not the transcription of word for word of a text literally. It’s a kind of craftsmanship, even an art. As an example, when we translate a word from English to Portuguese, such as “water”, we have one meaning, but if we add another word, such as in “water clock”, “water closet”, “water mill”, “waterfall”, “waterfront”,  the meaning changes, naturally, and the translator has to know that in order not to translate those words separately and getting wrong meanings. If you take a word in Portuguese such as “água” (water), and add other words such as in “água-viva” (jelly-fish), “água sanitária” (chlorine bleach), água-forte (etching) etc., you have other meanings. In phrases, and, especially in paragraphs and longer texts, the meaning one wants to give to words and to the general context becomes more complex, and so it would be impossible to merely replace words. That is, translation can’t be done word for word, literally. It’s a combination of ideas, a composition elaborated with the knowledge of the origin and target languages and of several cultural aspects, besides other factors.
    The same way an artisan creates a piece with all his/her care, the translator composes a translation by attaining the feat of being faithful to the author and, at the same time, being faithful to the reader.


My humble tribute to the brilliant “Star Trek” which I was be able to
 watch in Brazil (among countless people), when I was a kid, thanks
 to the talent and dedication of several professionals,
including the translators.

Translators



Translators are paths that lead from one
place to another without letting the reader
get lost in the middle of the journey.

Happy World Book Day!


     On April 23rd, World Book Day, through the Translating with TJ Blog, where I write _ one thing I’ve been improving also through reading, among other things _ I congratulate this priceless companion, the book. The time we can dedicate to read a book is totally enjoyable. We can’t forget, though, that millions of people in the world don’t have access even to printed books much less to ebooks. We can never consider libraries or used books stores outdated. We have to divulge projects and initiatives such as itinerant libraries, book sales on bookstores and the books donation campaigns, also donating books when we can. Happy World Book Day!

Books are some of our best friends and
companions for a lifetime. They are
always there for us, no matter what. tj*¬


Blog's Presentation

 

     Hello, I created this blog on 03/30/2014, as a record of my work as a translator and also to post about general subjects on it. The “Translating with TJ Blog” is destined to visitors who want to entertain themselves with its contents and extract something that might be useful in professional and personal terms.
     I’m going to comment here about the books I’ve been translating through the years; I’ll post translation and version tips and texts about the area and other subjects as well, such as peoples and cultures in general, curious things, nature, sense of humor, etc.
We all have to translate things here and there, whether is something for a school term paper, homework, an email or work report, that kids’ toy instructions manual, some lyrics… So, the tips I’ll post here are destined to everyone. As a professional translator, I work with English and Portuguese and, for this reason, these are the languages I mention here, but the comprehensive translation method applies to any idiom.
     I’m a translator graduated from the Brazilian Anhembi-Morumbi University, and I've been working for more than 20 years in the area, specially with Literary translation, translating more than 190 books among novels, business books, biographies, self-help, guides, and working as a freelancer for renowned publishers. I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve translated not only as a translator, but also as a reader. They’re all very interesting books, and I recommend them (according to each reader’s literary preferences). When publishers select books for translation, there’s a criteria that takes the original books quality into consideration.
    On this version of the blog in English, I recommend these books in the original form in English, because I’ve translated them to Portuguese. (And recommend the translations to those who know this idiom too.) Anyway, the comments about the translations themselves apply to any language. I don’t earn with book selling. I’m just paid by the publisher once for the translation itself. This is a free, non-profit blog, and its objective is just to share a bit of that work, among other subjects.
     I’ve got other blogs (in English/Portuguese) about several themes, including writing and reading, and where I write varied texts, besides a bilingual facebook page, called Escrita_Writing, and another similar one in Twitter. If you wish to know them all, after your visit here, their names and links are on the left side of the blog layout. This blog also has a version in Portuguese, called “Traduzindo com TJ”. The link is on the left with the other ones.
     I added the Google translator here because, even thought I don’t use it professionally as a translator, since translations are too literal and usually they don’t “fit”, I think it’s a very useful resource for any language reader to understand at least the contents of a foreign text.
     Be welcomed! I hope this is a blog as enjoyable to visit as I think it is to post on it. I reiterate here a phrase that I put in all my blogs because it’s truthful.

    Wherever you are, feel at home here! tj*¬



 
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