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31st translation contest: "A translator's life" » English to Tetum » Entry by Octaviano Gomes


Source text in English

Translation by Octaviano Gomes (#36395)

[...] Translators just didn't get recognition, they didn't expect to make much of a living, just get by. Very few people were actually trained as translators, but most had a solid college education and a solid knowledge of languages, at least their own language. I had a friend who fell exactly into that category and my circle of friends expanded to include other translators. I found them to be much more interesting as people, and discovered that we often had similar life experiences. I never had trouble making friends, but I always felt "different" and I'm sure they felt it too. When my friend retired, she recommended me as her replacement. I now entered the realm of Reinsurance, of which I knew nothing. I was also the only translator there, and didn't have much to fall back on. However, it was another notch up....

On my new job, I started looking through the files, asking questions and got the company to enroll me in Insurance courses. The College of Insurance was across the street, and I consulted fire codes, insurance policies and fire extinguisher catalogs in their library. I was learning what I had never had the luxury of being able to do before: research. The first time I had to translate a proposal for purposes of insurance of a nuclear plant, I got a call from the head man in that department, congratulating me on the job I had done. "Compares favorably with what we are used to," he said. What an upper! What happened was that I consulted a document in the files similar to the one I was tackling for guidance, but when I saw that my predecessor had used the word "nucleus" instead of "core", I realized that the files were useless to me. I went across the street to the library and looked up "nuclear plants." I immediately found all the terminology I needed.

It takes a great deal more than that to be a good translator these days, of course. [...]
Tradutór sira la hetan rekoñesimentu, sira laiha espetativa atu hetan osan barak, maibé sira kontinua sobrevive. Ema uitoan deit mak treinadu hanesan tradutór, maibé sira ne’e maioria hetan ona formasaun universitária no linguístika ne’ebé forte, pelu menus iha sira nia lian inan. Hau iha kolega ida ne’ebé fiar nian aan katak nia tama iha kategoria refere no nia hanesan ema ne’ebé haluan ha´u nia amizade ho tradutór sira seluk.Interresante tebes mai ha’u hasoru ema hanesan sira no desekobre katak dalabarak ami iha esperiénsia moris ne’ebé hanesan.Ha´u nunka hetan problema bainhira halo belum ho ema seluk, maibé ha’u sempre senti ha’u nia aan “diferenti” no ha’u garante katak sira mos senti ida ne’e.Bainhira ha’u nia kolega reforma tiha husi nia funsaun, nia rekomenda ha’u atu troka fali nia fatin.Agora ha’u hola parte iha setór ida seguro tebes, iha ne’ebé ha’u la hatene buat ida.Ha’u mos hanesan úniku tradutór iha área refere no ha’u laiha rekursu barak mak atu rekore ba, bainhira ha’u iha dificuldade.Maibé, ida ne’e hanesan passu ida atu avansa mesak…
Iha ha’u nia kna’ar foun, ha’u komesa konsulta fixeiru sira ne’ebé ha’u iha, halo pergunta no konsegé hetan empresa ne’ebé fasilita ha’u liu husi seguru kursu nian. Kursu fatin lokaliza iha dalan ninin, iha ne’eba iha mos biblioteka iha ne’ebé ha’u uza hodi konsulta kódigu inséndiu sira, kontratu seguru nian no katalogo sira konaba extintor sira nian.Ha’u apreende sa ida mak ha’u seidauk kompreende, no hetan maneira apreendisazem ida ne’ebé luxu teb-tebes oinsa atu halo peskiza.Ba dahuluk ha’u tenki traduz proposta konaba seguransa sentral nuklear nian, ha’u simu kontaktu husi Xefi Departamentu, nia kongratula ha’u ba serbisu ne’ebé ha’u halo tiha ona. “Halo komparasaun ida diak los ho sa ida mak ami uza iha ne’e”, nia dehan. Ida ne’e furak los!Maneira ne’ebé mak ha'u uza hodi hamosu resultadu tradusaun ida ne’e maka liu husi halo konsulta ba dokumentu sira iha ha’u nia arkivu ne’ebé hanesan ho dokumentu sira ne’ebé ha'u uza hodi hetan orientasaun,maibé ha'u deteta katak ha'u nia predesessor antes ne'e uza tiha ona liafuan “nukleu” ein ves de “sentral", ha'u hatene arkivu sira antes ne'e ha'u iha mesak la útil deit. Ha'u tenki hakat liu fali ba dalan sorin, ba liu to'o iha biblioteka hodi buka hatene konaba liafuan “sentral nuklear sira". Ha'u hetan kedas terminologia sira ne’ebé mak durante ne'e ha'u presiza.

Atu sai tradutor ida diak iha loron ohin, ita tenki esforsu maka’as liu ida ne'e.


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