Translate_This

Ah, mainly via freelance websites like PeoplePerHour and fivesquid. I've done some translations via personal contacts but those are the exceptions. Thanks for your kind words!

I agree that it depends on the skill of the translator. From what I've seen, the best translators are almost always writers themselves: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar and Rodolfo Walsh, for example, did some very fine translations from English to Spanish. I've also had the opportunity to read a bilingual volume of Shakespeares's sonnets, which was revealing because some of the sonnets were translated by Manuel Mujica Lainez, a very famous and already deceased Argentinian author, while the rest were put into Spanish by Pablo Ingberg. Mujica Lainez was able to translate the iambic pentameters into an equivalent 11-syllable form in Spanish, while Ingberg needed to put his Spanish versions in fourteen syllables, because he lacked the poetic inventive of his predecessor and he had a hard time compressing the language into the needed form. Which is to say that translation is a creative art, not just a technical procedure. So, writers and poets tend to be well suited for the job.

Hi everyone! I am a professional journalist and writer, born in Argentina, and now living in the United States. I do some translations from English to Spanish, and sometimes vice versa, to generate a bit of additional income, and also to practice the Bard's tongue. I'm looking to improve my English. Also I like to discuss language in all its aspects, so I think I'll like this forum. Woohoo, let's have a good ride!