When thinking about translation, our mind instinctually takes on a route that fixes our attention to the meaning standing behind the words; to what is said rather than to how it is said. Which makes sense, of course…
These past few weeks I have been studying works of other translators in my language pair and though I always talk about how important the decisions translators make in their translations are, I never really talked or…
Editing in translation plays a critical role. It is the 'finishing touch' that defines the quality of the final translation and so, chiseling the editing skills in translation as important as chiseling the translation…
Slang is a set of words and phrases used to express thoughts and feelings in a specific, unconventional way. Quite often it is a combination of uncombined, the meaning of which can be specified by context only. Slang can cause a lot of problems for translators since the…
From very early age, we have been taught to be nice to people, to be agreeable, and not cause discomfort to those around us. Be a nice girl, be a nice boy, and behave properly. And undoubtedly, kindness is a great quality to have. World without kindness would be an ugly place…
When one of my clients asked me this question, I had a mini stupor: on one hand, there were all sorts of answers to this question swirling in my head but on the other, I could not fit those answers in just a few words. So hopefully, in this blog post I will be able to give the…
Have you been thinking of getting your book translated? If so, then you must be familiar with an inner dilemma occurring over how to do this and whether it is something your book truly needs right now. Think of…
I was baffled to know that Russian book market has the same reputation as the Russian mafia. This reputation is based on two widely spread myths: rampant piracy and low prices. This is one of the main reasons, why most…
For a long time, only a selected amount of books had the privilege to get translated ever year. I must also add here that only traditionally published books could have a chance to get translated one day. Most did not…
I have read dozens of articles about proofreading and editing in translation but the deeper understanding of what is proofreading of translation came to me only after a year of actively working as a proofreader of translation. On practice, I learned that proofreading of…
Singular ‘they,’ yes or no? It has been one of the main dilemmas in my translation work this year. Especially considering the difference between how gender is used in Russian and English languages. For some, old-fashioned sexists (pardon my French), this question in its…
For me, machine translation and human translation are things of two different worlds. It does not mean that something is generally better than the other. Both have its pros and cons but people started more and more…
As a literary translator, I have a quite interesting hobby, which is to read the same book first in the source language (for me it is English) and then in the target language (for me it is Russian), bit by bit…
How do you learn the mastery of literary translation? By translating. The more you translate, the better you get. But there is a side effect, and I'm just going to call it what it is—overconfidence. In real life…
For years, I was holding any thoughts of becoming a Literary Translator at bay, mainly, because as a writer, I did not want to do anything else but write. But life has its own ways with us and every time I was…
We are living in times when everything has a price, but this price is not always reasonable. Who would not want to save some money if there is a chance to? Especially when we talk about book translation. Don’t get me…
Good translator is not a unicorn. Surely if you know where to look, you will find plenty. The most common way – Translation Agencies. But even though it is one of the easiest ways to find a translator for your book, it…
There is only one way to turn one book into many, and it is to translate. Yet, the amount of books that never get a chance to be translated is enormous. It is even more so in the world of Indie Authors and their baby…
I was born in Russia. How did it happen that almost half of my life I’ve consciously dedicated to learning English I find rather hard to narrate in few words… But today’s reality is that one of the main things I do for…
