In this essay, I compare three projects that involve collaboration: 1) what for me is a typical project for a translation agency that deals with legal subject matter; 2) a project that until recently was very atypical for me, i.e. the translation of academic articles on historical cartography for a direct client; and 3) a translation of the synopsis of a dissertation on a legal subject, directly for its author. By analyzing and contrasting these collaborative frameworks, I am able to glean criteria for a successful and desirable translation project, which I describe in the conclusion. I hope that, by illustrating these three projects, despite their problems, I am helping the reader better envision what an ideal translation project could look like and how to pursue it.
- Legal translation for an agency
Among the projects I have most often undertaken in my nine years as a full-time freelance translator are large legal translations that are typically divided among several translators on a tight deadline. The routine is probably familiar to most readers: I am contacted by a client agency, usually solely by e-mail, with the request to take on a segment of a larger text, which could be a contract, legal brief, judgment, or documentary evidence, among other things.
If it appears that I may be available to take on the workload, I quickly review the document to gauge my comfort level with the material and report back to the agency. If the deadline and/or price are negotiable, they will be part of the ensuing e-mail or telephone exchange. If the remuneration is too low and seems to be set in stone from the outset, I will typically ignore the e-mail, unless the offer comes from an otherwise valuable client.
A common form of collaboration with colleagues on the text itself would be a glossary and some back and forth by e-mail, with or without intermediation by the project manager. The responsiveness of the other translators regarding the glossary and consultation on word choice varies, but, given the tight deadlines, tends not to be extensive, because the other translators usually do not respond to all the queries and suggestions from their colleagues. In my experience, project managers seem to prefer to stay out of such linguistic discussions.
There are always new words in any given project, so I will have to do research. This will involve dictionaries—mostly online or on my hard drive—and other internet research. I do my utmost to corroborate any word I choose if I am not already intimately familiar with it. Although this process is not absolutely foolproof, I generally receive no other feedback or consultation from other subject-matter experts. At the deadline, the project ends for me unless I am the unifying editor. Assuming I am not, I generally relinquish the text forever at that moment. On fairly rare occasions, there will be a question on a term or ambiguity in the text from the editor, usually via the project manager.
- The History of Cartography Project
The second project, which is ongoing for me, involves translating articles on the history of cartography from Dutch, German, or Spanish into English. This project, under the auspices of multiple universities, is an encyclopedic survey of global cartography through the ages and involves maps and their development from every corner of the planet.
The History of Cartography Project contacted me via a family member. So far, the project managers have had very positive experiences with the translators with whom they have worked on this significant opus of foreign-language articles. Familiar with the industry, then, they understood the importance and costs of procuring reliable translations. As several languages are involved in their current volume, they are always challenged to find and fund seasoned professionals available in the field.
I have been involved in the venture for nearly a year now. The installments come sporadically but form a helpful supplement to my court interpreting work, which currently takes up most of my working hours. The articles are typically around 1,000 words, but sometimes as long as 5,000 or more. The deadlines are very flexible. I recently worked on a 4,800-word document for which I was able to negotiate a seven-week deadline. This was extremely helpful to me since I was going to be interpreting in court almost all of that period.
Although I have expertise in legal terminology and extensive resources for legal translation—including online, desktop, and paper dictionaries—and know well how to find answers to my queries via the internet, my legal knowledge does not help when translating texts about maps. Even so, the latter terminology is less esoteric than what I encounter in the average legal project.
The History of Cartography Project involves a network of experts in that field as well as linguistic experts, but they do not consult with me on terminology and word choice. I just research and write the best I can and offer comments about any linguistic conundrums I encounter. Even though they do not consult me on terms, it seems fairly obvious to me that their end product will be technically, linguistically, and stylistically superior, since they have the experts and take the time to root out any flaws.
- The dissertation synopsis
An acquaintance who is a PhD candidate in the Netherlands recently contacted me about translating the 4,000-word synopsis of his dissertation from Dutch into English. The dissertation deals with the annulment of contracts under Dutch, German, and Austrian law. I let him know when I would be available and bid a price. I suggested that the best way would be to involve another translator as editor in order to avoid any stylistic and lexical imperfections in my translation. He replied that that was probably unnecessary for his purposes. We agreed that I would prepare a draft, send it to him for his feedback, and he would then return it to me corrected for my final edit.
There were terms in the text that were new to me, but my research proceeded without a hitch. I also had no problem with the initial deadline, which was also much more flexible than the typical agency deadline. He was very happy with the first draft, which he returned to me two days later with numerous comments and corrections. I in turn was happy with his feedback since it enabled me to polish my work to a degree to which I was unaccustomed.
We went back and forth a few more times with edits, suggestions, and other consultations. Since the intense correspondence and assimilation of his feedback was time-consuming, I was able to negotiate an additional hourly rate with him for it. I did feel slightly uneasy about the lack of an editor other than the author with linguistic and subject-specific expertise to review my work with another pair of eyes. Nonetheless, the author’s dissertation advisor responded a few days later with effusive praise of the translation.
The three modes compared
The agency project example has the obvious advantage that such clients are often able to offer a semi-continuous workflow—although nothing is ever guaranteed—and this type of project tends to be sizable. The agency of course takes on responsibility for marketing, charging the end client, and quality control. The pay through a translation company will almost always be lower than through direct clients. It is not viable in my experience to survive in New York City off of translation agency clients alone. The lack of contact with the end client and very limited contact with the colleague linguists involved in the project, as well as the brutal deadlines that occur with few exceptions, may lead to flaws in the end product. Although editors and proofreaders are involved, the lack of feedback and exchange among all the parties to the project may cause a kink in the process. As a translator I would also learn more from more discussions of the subject matter and the text. Fortunately, I have found that on occasion agencies are willing to return my translations with edits so I can see where my work could be improved.
Of these three case studies, the History of Cartography Project seems to have the soundest editing process. The experts who produce the source texts are in contact with the editing staff at the academic institutions involved. This staff comprises cartography experts, linguists, and other highly skilled editors. The end product is a superior, expert published text. One disadvantage for me is that, although this client has expressed plenty of satisfaction with my work, I am not involved in the editing process once I have sent in my translation; consequently I have not learned from any mistakes I may have made. Recently, this client has agreed to send me back the marked-up versions of my translations, which promises to be helpful for the client as well as for me. Since no intermediary is involved, the pay is of course higher than via an agency. In addition to the fact that longer deadlines entail more time to eradicate defects, they mean less stress for me and more ease in combining this translation work with my interpreting. The topic was new to me when I started working on it less than a year ago, but not insurmountable in view of the relatively general nature of the material and my previous general knowledge and translation skill.
The dissertation synopsis was more in line with the topics I usually handle. Some of it involved terminology and concepts I had dealt with in law school in the Netherlands. Inevitably, there were terms and concepts that were new to me, but researching them was straightforward. Furthermore, the author reviewed everything I did more than once and we were able to discuss the gamut of possible word choices when doubt arose. On the other hand, ideally I would have had the aid of another native English speaker with Dutch fluency and legal expertise. The author had initially indicated that he thought an additional editor would have been overkill. It turned out afterwards, however, that my translation of the synopsis was to be included in the self-publication in Dutch of his dissertation and that the translation would not receive the same editorial scrutiny that the rest of the work would. Once again, a direct client, therefore higher pay. I was also fortunate that both of these direct clients came with good references and proved to be reliable payers, which is known to be an issue that is more common with direct clients than with agencies.
I am aware that by citing these two direct projects, I am not offering much insight into where to seek such engagements, since they pretty much fell into my lap. Yet this does not detract from the fact that being active in the profession for an extended period and establishing a good reputation will tend to lead to better and better opportunities.
Conclusion
All of these modes of collaboration are valuable to my business model, but none of them is perfect. This comparative exercise nonetheless enabled me to distil the factors I value most highly in a translation project: a high-quality final product, fair remuneration, a manageable stress level, flexibility, educational value, and customer satisfaction. I would not want to give up any of these clients as each one compensates in certain ways for what the others cannot give me. Not only does this variety make my business model sounder, it makes my life more interesting. One advantage of the cited clients is that the flexibility of our working relationships allows continuous collaboration. It can of course be tricky to stay busy all the time and still work for all of one’s clients enough to keep them coming back. But that’s a topic for another article.
Leonard Morin 