TRANSLATOR’S BLUES

A pleasingly intellectual profession is under enormous pressure

I Read the text. Fill in the blanks with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use. Listen to the recording and check.

crave; work; wages; agency; career; work; freelancers; online; translator; competition; life; redundant; vacancy; living; prices

Translation can be lonely 1)___________, which may well be why most translators choose the 2)___________out of interest, not because they 3)________attention. Until recently, a decent translator could expect a steady, tidy 4)________, too. But the industry is undergoing a wrenching change that will make 5)________hard for the timid.

Most translators are 6)________, and with the rise of the internet a good 7)________could live in Kentucky and work for Swiss banks. But going 8)________has resulted in fierce global 9)________that has put enormous downward pressure on 10)________. Translators can either hustle hard for more or better-paid 11)________- which means spending less time translating - or choose an 12)________that fights for the work for them, but which also takes a cut.

II Read the text above. Find words and expressions that match the definitions. Use three words or words combinations in your sentences.

1.  written rendering of the meaning of a word or text in another language

2.  without companions; solitary

3.  an occupation a person has for a significant period of time and with opportunities for progress

4.  feel a powerful desire for (something)

5.  acceptable, satisfactory, or reasonable

6.  not changing; regular 

7.  of an amount, (especially of money) considerable

8.  experience (something, typically something unpleasant)

9.  sudden violent transformation

10.          showing a lack of courage or confidence

11.          a person who works freelance

12.          very aggressive worldwide process of trying to get or win something

13.          very large

14.          towards a lower  level

15.          push aggressively and with force 

16.          take a share of the money

III Scan the text and try to fill in the blanks (A- I) with the numbers from the list. Compare your ideas with other students. Listen and check.

1,000       50      2015    250      120     600    2017    13-15    2001

1.  But these display the most relentless price pressure of all: fees as low as $A)_______ per B)_______ words translated are not unknown.

2.  Traditionally, something more like $ C)_______  has been the low end, with literary translation at around $ D)_______, and high-end work at $ E)_______ .

3.  For one, literary translation is under no threat. Sales of translated fiction rose by more than F)_______ % in Britain between G)_______ and H)_______, and have been growing strongly in America too.

4.  In Roy Jacobsen’s “Unseen”, which is on the shortlist for the I)_______ Man Booker International Prize (MBIP), the original dialectal island Norwegian has been deftly rendered by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw.

IV Listen to the recording and fill in the blanks with the missing words or word combinations.

The 1)_______ to schmoozing oneself or working with an 2)_______ is to market one’s 3)_______ in online marketplaces. But these 4)_______ the most relentless price 5)_______ of all: fees as low as $13-15 per 1,000 words 6)_______ are not unknown. 7)_______, something more like $50 has been the 8)_______ end, with 9)_______ translation at around $120, and high-end work at $250. Buyers who know little about 10)____    ___ and quality will, in 11)_______ markets, shop almost purely on 12)_______.

To these 13)_______ comes another: the rise in higher-quality 14)_______  _______. Just a year ago, machine translation still 15)_______ reliably rocky results: both 16)_______ as to 17)_______, and often 18)_______ too. Both have 19)_______ dramatically with translation engines based on so-called deep 20)___    ____. Those who offer rock-bottom prices for 21)_______ are almost certainly using translation 22)_______, and then giving it a quick 23)_______ for accuracy and 24)_______. By and large, the big translation 25)_______ are excited about 26)_______ and the 27)_______ of scale it offers them. What worries the translators themselves, though, is that the future may lie in nothing more 28)_______ pleasing than this 29)_______ of clean-up.

Like all incumbents, those 30)_______ are not happy. To avoid being “the coffee-bean 31)_______ of the future”, one veteran counsels improving 32)____    ___ and writing 33)_______ to get high-end work. But not all can do that. Translators in the bulk and 34)_______ markets will inevitably be doing more 35)_______, or will be squeezed out.

What will the rest be doing? For one, 36)___     ____ is under no threat. Sales of translated fiction rose by more than 600% in Britain between 2001 and 2015, and have been 37)_______ strongly in America too, with big 38)_______ like Elena Ferrante conditioning readers in those countries to look beyond their 39)_______ for good books. Nobody thinks a 40)_______ can be translated by a 41)_______. In Roy Jacobsen’s “Unseen”, which is on the shortlist for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize (MBIP), the original 42)_______ island Norwegian has been deftly 43)_______ by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw into a kind of English that carries the same 44)_______: “Hvur bitty it is!” (“How small it is!”). The MBIP 45)_______ that translation is, in effect, a kind of writing by sharing the 46)_______ money equally between author and 47)_______.

V Match the words from two columns to make collocations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	market	A.	translation
2.	online	B.	translation
3.	price	C.	prices
4.	literary	D.	on price
5.	foreign	E.	out
6.	to shop	F.	engine
7.	machine	G.	software
8.	to  improve	H.	marketplaces
9.	translation	I.	their borders
10.	deep neural	J.	pressure
11.	rock-bottom	K.	shortlist
12.	translation	L.	one’s skills
13.	to edit for	M.	languages
14.	by	N.	networks
15.	specialist	O.	accuracy
16.	writing	P.	work
17.	high-end	Q.	knowledge
18.	to be squeezed	R.	skills
19.	to look beyond	S.	and large
20.	to be on the	T.	dramatically

VI Read the text above. Find words and expressions that match the definitions. 

1.    one of two or more available possibilities

2.    to talk informally with someone, especially to win some advantage for yourself

3.    continuing, not stopping

4.    a payment made to a professional person in exchange for services

5.    translation of poetry, plays,  novels

6.    the use of software to translate text or speech from one language to another

7.    not steady or stable

8.    not completely correct or exact

9.    not clear enough to read

10.a computer system modelled on the human brain and nervous system

11.at the lowest possible level

12.prepare (written material) for publication by correcting or modifying it.

13.the quality or state of being correct or precise

14.of the most expensive of a range of products

15.literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people

16.a list of selected candidates from which a final choice is made

17.in a clever way

VII Listen to the recording and fill in the blanks with the missing letters.

Most work is in c_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _l translation, but that is a kind of writing too. E_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _s sometimes r_ _ _ _t a translation of a speech or a letter because it doesn’t look e_ _ _ _h like their o_______. But a good translator needs to r_ _ _ _ _ k a text, r _ _ _ _ _ _ _ g important p _ _ _ _s, breaking up or m _ _ _ _ _ g sentences, and so on. Translation s_ _ _ _ _ _ e can be a _ _ _ _ _ _ e, but it translates sentence-by-sentence. Since languages have different r _ _ _ _ _ s and different expectations for what c____ as a good sentence, that a______ can result in a m____. So it is often best simply to rewrite after thinking about the i______ meaning.

Another market is “transcreation”, in which a translator - often in advertising -  is expected to rethink a m _ _ _ _ _e, making sure that the v _ _ _ _ _ n in the new language has the right cultural r _ _ _ _ _ _ _es, jokes and suchlike to recreate the i _ _ _ t, without the wording, of the original. In this case, the “transcreator” is even more of a w______ than most translators.

Translation is hardly alone in being s______   up by technology. The legal industry, a _ _ _ _ _ _ ing and many other v _ _ _ _ able professions are seeing repeatable k _ _ _ _ _ _ ge work done p _ _ _ _ _ _y by machines. The translators of the future need not only language and writing s_____. They must, like the partners at a law or accounting firm, g _ _ n clients’ trust and learn their minds in order to do t _ _ _ y good work. The l_____ of the field, in other words, may find it hard going.

VIII Listen to all parts of the recording and answer the questions.

1 What are characteristics of translator’s work today? What threats does going online present for the translators?

2 What is the role of translation agencies?

3 What are the alternatives for the translators willing to keep their jobs in the new market?

4 What are the most common fees for translation? How have these fees been changing?

5 What is machine translation and what benefits and drawbacks can it have for translator’s work?

6 What is the quality of machine translation?

7 How are the changes in the industry affecting literary translation? Is it under any threat?

8 What are the examples of creative translators’ work in literary translation? Is the work of translators of fiction recognized and appreciated when  authors are shortlisted for literary prizes? 

9 What skills do translators need today?

10 Why cannot (translation) software always produce a correct and accurate translation?

11 What is transcreation? Where is it used?

12 What are the prospects and predictions for the translators in the future?

IX OVER TO YOU. A) What are the average fees for translation in your country? What is the difference between the fees for commercial translation and literary translation? How are the fees changing (describe the trends)?

B) What software can translators use in your country? What is the quality of translations produced using software?

C) What are the most well-known contemporary translators of fiction in your country? (Translators who translate from English into your native language). Who are the most well-known contemporary translators of works of fiction from your native language into English?