Language breakout: interactive translation session (ES<>EN)

This year’s “snippet session” for Spanish and English was hosted by Aída Ramos and Kate Major Patience.

The big novelty was that the selected texts tested our translation skills not only from Spanish into English but also from English into Spanish. This was a welcome development, as it levelled the playing field between those with English and those with Spanish as their first language.

While true that most attendees were used to translating into English, inverse translation proved to be a stimulating exercise. Incidentally, this also tied in well with Jacqueline Lamb’s talk on Raising your game with inverse translation as CPD.

Kate and Aída separated us into small groups of three to four translators and the texts were projected onto the screen. We had around five minutes to discuss each snippet within our group and write down our ideas, plus about five minutes for the groups to share and compare solutions.

The snippets themselves were varied and challenging – a real test of our creativity. Our hosts had selected six texts in total: three to be translated from English into Spanish, and three from Spanish into English.

We applied ourselves to various tricky conundrums during the session. For example, making a headline about Spanish politics understandable to an English-speaking reader while keeping it snappy, making sense out of a long paragraph of corporate jargon, and finding the right tone of voice when translating copy for a luxury cosmetics brand.

Attendees got to show off their witty wordplay when working on the headline Misifús en escabeche, offering suggestions like “Tabby tartare”, “Kitty kebab” and “Marinated moggy”. However, “Pickled pussies” stole the show, combining alliteration with a reference to Trump’s infamous “Grab ‘em by the pussy” quote.

Another highlight was translating an ad for gourmet food from Aragón. Here, it was important to strike a balance between elegance and authenticity, capturing the down-to-earth character of this region. Solutions included “What you see is what you get”, “The genuine article. WYSIWYG”, “As good as this” and “Tastes as good as it looks”.

We encountered several thorny words when translating from English into Spanish. For instance, it’s always tricky to convey “insight” in Spanish – we have options like conocimientos, perspectiva experta or aportaciones, but Spanish speakers will often borrow the English word. Equally, “supercharge” is a false friend that can’t be translated as sobrecargar; better to find alternatives like poner a tope, dinamizar, potenciar or optimizar.

The final text on fashion was fiendishly difficult. The word “gorpcore” had many of us scratching our heads. Even when it’s your first language, highly specialized texts can easily leave you at a loss if you’re not familiar with the subject matter.

It was a treat to work with other language enthusiasts in real time and fascinating to see how others approach the same texts so differently. It was also a good reminder of how vital the human element is in language.

This METM24 session was chronicled by Rebecca Porwit.

Featured photo courtesy of MET. Slides reproduced with presenters’ permission.