translate from spanish to english: Found in Translation: Win a Signed Copy!

There's no doubt that Found in Translation, written by our friends Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche, is the most anticipated language-related book of the year (perhaps we are a bit biased). We are delighted to announce that we will be raffling off the very first signed copy of the book! Unfortunately, we were not able to get it autographed by both authors, as they live on opposite coasts, so you will have to do with Nataly's signature. We were also able to get a quick Q&A with Nataly, which we hope you will enjoy. Read on for our chat with her and don't forget to have a look at the trivia questions at the bottom so you can win the signed copy! This contest closes on Tuesday, September 25, 2012.

Translation Times: What inspired you to write this book?Nataly Kelly: Translation and interpreting are the inspiration for thisbook. The fact is, these fields enable the entire world to communicate. That’swhy we actually dedicate the book to translators and interpreters. Toomany people are unaware of how expansive and diverse the translation fieldreally is. Even translators and interpreters are not always aware of themany ways their work influences the world! This book aims to change that.

Nataly Kelly.

TT: How did you come up with the title, Found inTranslation?NK: Our editor gets all the credit for it! We didn’t thinkof that title ourselves. One thing we learned in this process is that our viewof a good title has nothing in common with what mainstream readers consider agood title! Because we are so used to seeing titles in the news like“Lost in Translation” and “Found in Translation,” at first we had reservationsabout it. However, I’ve heard from so many people who aren’t in thetranslation field that they think the title is very clever. Since thereaders we’re hoping to reach are people who normally don’t read “translationbooks,” that’s a good sign.
TT: You’re writing the book with a major publisher,Penguin. How did that happen?NK: Well, I basically wrote to the editor and pitched her thebook idea. She liked it and asked to see a proposal and sample chapter.The book originally began several years before as a slightly different concept,with a book idea I developed called FromOur Lips to Your Ears: How Interpreters Are Changing the World. I had nothad any luck finding a publisher, but later expanded the concept to includetranslation too. My editor, Marian Lizzi at Perigee Books (a division ofPenguin) was smart enough to jump on a good idea when she saw one! It wasa joy to work with her and her team. She was so enthusiastic about theconcept and the book throughout the entire process.
TT:How did you end up working with our mutual friend andtranslation technology guru Jost Zetzsche?

Jost Zetzsche.

NK: Even though we knew each other by our reputations, Jost andI had never even spoken before, until one day, he called me to ask me aquestion for his newsletter, the Translator’s Tool Box. We had a greatcall. Then, in a later conversation, he said, “We should write a booktogether!” It seemed like a crazy idea in some ways. However, sinceI had a book concept that I’d been wanting to write for several years, and Ihad already been thinking of writing it with another person, I said, “Iactually have an idea for a book we could write together. Let me get back toyou.” After discussing it with some of my colleagues, I called him backand told him about the concept. He was very enthusiastic about it, and agreedto be involved. I am grateful for the timing of his suggestion to work ona book, because timing is everything! And in this case, the timing wasperfect.
TT: What did you like most about working with him?NK: Jost is extremely spontaneous. I’ll never forget when wewent to interview Peter Less, an interpreter who worked at the NurembergTrials. As a young man, Peter’s entire family was murdered at Auschwitz,yet he had to interpret for many of the masterminds of the Holocaust. While wewere asking him questions, Peter’s daughter Nettie was politely bringing uscoffee and Stollen, which we had bought for Peter in the Christmas market inChicago. As we were asking Peter about how hard things must have been after hemoved to the United States, Jost suddenly turned to Nettie and said, “Whatabout you? What was this experience like for you growing up?” Inearly spilled my coffee! I was so focused on Peter, whom I respect so much,that I had tuned out everyone else. Nettie’s perspective gave us a morecomplete picture, and that is thanks to Jost.TT: That's such a Jost thing to say! Brilliant outcome!

The finished product.

TT: How long did it taketo write the book?NK: From the time we signed our contract with Penguin and thedeadline for our manuscript, we had just a little over six months to write thebook. However, several of the storiesthat appear in the book had already been written before that, because they werepart of the sample chapter I had written for From Our Lips to Your Ears, an early concept for the book, whichintended to show how interpreters are shaping our world. In fact, the very first story that appears inthe book, which shares my experience interpreting for a 9-1-1 call, was writtenback in 2007. There is a story about an interpreter for NASA, and she hadagreed five years ago for her story to be told in the book. Once we had thecontract with Penguin, she was one of the first people I contacted, to ask ifwe could include her story. Of course, the vast majority of the stories had tobe written from scratch. There are about 90 stories in total in the book.
TT: Can you describe thewriting process?NK: It won’t sound very glamorous, but in my experience, writinga book requires project management skills. The first thing I did was to create a timeline and milestones for howmany words needed to be written by what dates, and I added in time for weavingthe chapters together and editing. Icreated a spreadsheet to track all the stories and word counts, so that at anygiven time, we could easily see how many words we had written, how many storieswe needed, and how much more was needed. Jost and I discussed how many stories we could each commit to writing.We needed to write about four stories per week over a 22-week period in orderto make our deadline. Whenever we would draft a story, we would send to theother person for review and feedback.
TT: How did you decidewhich stories to write?

Judy reading the manuscript by the pool.

NK: For most of the stories, we needed to actually talk topeople. What’s it like to translate Harlequin romance novels? How does a translator end up completelyspecialized in wine-related translation? What really goes on when you interpretfor the UN General Assembly? We ended up doing a large number of interviews inorder to answer these questions. Generally, we would start by picking a subjectarea and then searching for people who might have interesting stories to tellabout translation in those particular areas. We decided to include some storiesthat were based on our own experiences with translation and interpreting.However, we didn’t want to just tell our own stories. We wanted the book to bereflective of a much broader cross-section of the industry.
TT: How did you ensurethat the stories would strike a similar chord?NK: Well, we knew that the style had to be consistentlyaccessible and jargon-free. But beyondthat, we wanted each story to make an impression on the reader. The point ofthe book is that translation affects people’s lives. We did not want to bepreachy, so rather than overtly say this, we tried to illustrate this to thereader in each and every story. We alsowanted to capture all kinds of different emotions in the stories in order tomake the reader feel a personal connection to translation. So, the first storyin the book is a bit of a nail-biter, but there are others designed to make youlaugh, feel compassion, or perhaps even a bit of outrage in some cases. DavidCrystal, who wrote the foreword for our book, described it best, I think. He mentioned that, by the end of this book,the reader discovers that what we find in translation is ourselves. That is precisely the point of the book. Translation isnot some distant activity that is far-removed from everyday life. It affects everything we do – even the air webreathe! Just ask the translators who workon projects for the Environmental Protection Agency. Their website is availablein six languages!
TT: How did you decide onthe story groupings and chapters?NK: This was relatively easy. Just open up any newspaper, and most of the sections are reflected inour book: Politics, Sports,Entertainment, Business, Technology, Religion, and so on. We didn’t use the newspaper to come up withthose categories, but we started out thinking that the book had to cover theareas of life itself that people actually care to read about. Earlier on, we had more than double thenumber of chapters. However, our editorwisely suggested that we group the stories differently. The way we ended up presenting the storieshas a logic behind it. We start out withtopics that are truly life-affecting, like rescuing victims of the earthquakein Haiti, protecting human beings from outbreaks, and other things that trulyaffect human lives. Later in the book, we move into lighter topics, likeentertainment, food, and love. But we don’t shy away from tough topics either,like conflict, politics, and religion.
TT: What did you think when you first held a copy of the bookin your hands?NK: My first thought was, “I cannot wait for translators andinterpreters everywhere to see this!” It is, after all, a celebration of theprofession as a whole. However, I really cannot wait for everyone elseto see this book too, so that translators and interpreters, and the field atlarge, will finally get some well-deserved attention. My mission was not justto write a book, but to create awareness, so I cannot wait to see what happensnext.
Now, here are the trivia questions. The first person to answer at least two of these questions correctly will win the prize....a signed copy of Found in Translation, shipped directly to you by the author!1) How tall is Jost? Hint: it's 6-something.2) What is Nataly's alma mater? Hint: it's an American university.3) What is Jost's dog's name? Hint: Judy's dog has the same name. Copycats?4) What's Nataly's favorite variety of Spanish? No hint here.5) Who is Jost's alter ego? No hint here, either.
Please leave a comment below. There can only be one winner, so if you are online on a Friday afternoon, you might be in luck!

Enjoyed reading? Share this