The Art of Carrying Words

Over the last week I completed my first translation for TED Translators.

I admit that I did give myself a challenge by translating a 17 minute long video, with over 2000 words of transcribed text. It led me down some interesting paths which, in my opinion, is always the fun part of translating. I researched everything from juggling, parts of the brain to artists and authors, all in one talk.

The interesting thing I also found while translating is the issue of word order. Spanish, as you may know, is an active language where they prefer to say ‘The store sells fruit’ rather than, in English, ‘Fruit is sold by the store’. This led me multiple times to put the end of the sentence in Spanish at the beginning and vice versa. So, arguably, the subtitles are not what was said at that exact moment but they flow better in English.

These issues are always ones that pose extra challenges and take extra time for translators but they inevitably produce a better quality translation and it is always better to try to achieve that than rush through things.

My translation has gone for review and I hope to share it with you soon so please do stay tuned!