Tips for translatiors

Here are a few tips you might find useful, if you are editing/translating for Katha:

1. After you have done the first round of translation, the actual work starts. This is usually challenging and fun. It calls for close reading. And a lot of patience. Take a printout of the first few chapters.

• See if the plot proceeds well and satisfactorily. If you as editor/translator feel you are investing your time and energies well in the act.
• Look for what makes the text special - is it the tone or the nuanced language? Is it metaphor or idiom or a special cadence? Is it something that lights up some special place inside the editor's/translator's mind? If yes, smile! Soon we'll have to consider how to catch this specialness in the translation/editing.
• Read to yourself. See if there is rhythm and is easy on the inner ear. See if the pauses are right. If there is enough time to breathe naturally. [There are more on all these points later in this assay. But please do read on. Indian love repetitions - and there is oftentimes a purpose to the repeat.]
• See if the characters ring true. Finally it is the characters who will make or mar the translation. How well they grow, how well they take control of their lives, how well they bring the story to an end . the writer has no control over this, many say. So how much can a translator/editor have? Slippery grounds to tread :)
• Read for gender/caste/class. Is there any special knowledge you need to translate/edit satisfactorily?
• Next read it aloud. Listen carefully. See if there is enough time to pause. See if the interest holds.
• Poverty. This is tricky in present times when it has gone out of fashion! But writers insist - and some of the greatest literature is still written around human predicaments and poverty. So an important issue for Katha translators/editors. How to give the details and yet not turn the reader away. How to be true to the original and yet not lapse into sentimentality and verbosity. Look carefully at the first sentence. The first para. The first page. Do they build up tempo and want a new reader to keep reading?
• These first chapters are a good guide to the amount of work you will need to do as you go deeper into the mms. And the kind of places you will see as challenges.

2. Read again for language

• Look carefully at the English used. Is it as quick as the original? As immediate and telling? Does it hold the attention of the reader?
• When there is emotion, do you catch it right or is the English sounding sentimental? How are you compensating for the English not changing depending on who is speaking, indicating locale/class etc?
• Does it swing nicely and well when story goes from direct to indirect speech. from dialogue to description? [we realize that English as spoken in India does not have a register. But we need to see how we can compensate for this loss. Pl. do not try to use Saar and stuff like that. These date the text and make it look awkward when printed. Keep to standard good English right through.]
• Is the English archaic? Is it idiomatic? Are the idioms used right and appropriate? Are the sentences varying in length? Do they create monotony because of the way the sentences all begin and end? Do you break the accepted grammatical rule once in a while -- a dangling phrase maybe, maybe a "to always send" in between the prim and proper .. etc. [Pl. do not overdo this.
• Do a Katha style check. Are the commas and "..." in place - double and with punctuation inside etc?

3. Read again for plot

• The original catches our attention, keeps us rivetted to the story. Does the English do the same?

4. Read again for pace

• Is the pace right?
• Does it match the original. Does it keep the reader of the English translation in mind?
• Does the movement match the original? Are there the right amount of swings to keep the reader interested -- slow paced juxtapositioned against something that moves fast and abruptly. Short broken sentences next to rambling ones that break the sentence length and structure.

5. Read again for character

• Do characters grow, hold interest, through the novel?
• Do they appear to be the same people they are in the original Tamil? Analyze their words and actions. has anything changed in the editing of the translation?
• Look carefully at the voice of the speakers. Do the English words match the tone and nuance?

6. Get outsider comments

• Read out to a friend of a intuitive relative. See if their attention seems to wander even as you read. Ask them to be as critical as possible.
• See if you can visit a college and maybe do a reading with some students. Something like this is essential -- audience reaction will tell you if you are on the right track.

7. Now do one more round of serious editing, taking comments into consideration.

• Keep Katha's way of editing in mind. The story not the word. Translating silences. Translating what lies behind the word, beyond the sentence. Catching the flavour and the inner logic/strength of the story. This stage is difficult. But need not necessarily be long winded. Within the first few pages, you will get into the rhythm of it, and then it shd breeze along.
• Ideally you shd be able to do one reading at this stage as if you are coming to it for the first time. As if you have bought the book and are a stranger to the story and its characters. [Try! It's not as difficult as it sounds!]

8. Take editing to the next step