Daisy's Blog

Through our regular newsletter we recently launched a translation competition to which more than a hundred readers took part: they had to translate the beginning of The Auction, the first story of a new series called The Arranger on our English Gratis website.

Translating is like reading a detective story being very careful not to miss the clues. For instance, in English we just have the you pronoun but in Italian there is the tu form, used amongst friends, or the Lei form, used as a sign of respect.

So, when you have to translate the English you, it’s necessary to gather from the text whether the two people having the conversation are friends and consequently use the tu form, or whether they don’t know each other very well and therefore use the Lei form. Many of our readers didn’t read the signs correctly and had Sir Ian and Lady Sylvia treat each other as perfect strangers!

You may say these things are obvious but I notice that they are very easily forgotten in translations.

Another example is when Sir Ian says, “Can I get you something to drink?” Some of you imagined that the story takes place at Sir Ian’s home and translated “Posso versarti qualcosa da bere?” but if you read the story carefully, you’ll know that it takes place at the Children’s Hospital, not at Sir Ian’s home, and at a cocktail party organised by the charity of which Lady Sylvia is a member, exactly as Sir Ian is. Consequently, he suggests getting her a drink and not pouring her one, as there are waiters whose job it is to do this at the cocktail party.

My final advice for today is to read all the story before starting to translate so that you have a complete picture of what it is all about.

DAISY STORIES - The Oak
by Crystal Jones © 1995-2007

Chapter 6

“Please give me a glass of water, Miss Hamilton.” The Russian drank thirstily. “Valentina must have suffered a lot, but she could have told me. Many girls have made the same mistake.”

Mr. Zubkov thought for a few moments. “I will be frank with you yet again Miss Hamilton. I imagined the worst, that she had met a much younger man,” Mr. Zubkov looked down at his clothes, “an attractive and smarter man.” He cleared his throat, “What happened before my wife and I met, has nothing to do with me. I am willing to help her in any way, now and always. I will tell her this one day.”
“But I hope you are not going to tell her you employed a private detective to spy on her...”

“No, certainly not, Miss Hamilton. I will say nothing to my wife until she comes and confides in me. I know my appearance and manner is rather imposing but I’m a little different to what people would imagine.”
Daisy was quite moved.
“Thank you Miss Hamilton, I will always remember your kindness.” The oak took Daisy’s hand and kissed it, then disappeared out into the darkness of the night.

Months later, Daisy was sorting through society magazines trying to find out more about a new client of hers, when she came across an article about a magnificent reception given by the Russian embassy and a list of illustrious guests. One guest in particular Daisy found very interesting: Lord Paul Valentine Fitzgerald. There was also a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Zubkov smiling and talking to the young green-eyed Lord.

THE END

Se non hai capito qualcuna delle parole o espressioni che ho usato, chiedimi cosa vogliono dire! Se vuoi che ti corregga qualche eventuale errore di inglese nel tuo commento, aggiungi alla fine del tuo testo la sigla RCE (ossia, richiesta di correzione errori).