Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Difficult translation of a traffic accident

A recent job was sent to me regarding a traffic accident. The text is hand written (almost undecipherable) .  The difficulty lies not on the handwriting but on the lack of punctuation marks, no commas, no periods! So the sequence of action was a bit blurred when I started to read the whole text. I only got the whole meaning when I started to sort of cut the long phrases and put commas and periods where they are needed. The document was like a spoken version of what happened. My duty was, as a "bearer" of the message, to get the message across being sure that the reader really understands the flow as much as the intended meaning of the one reporting the accident.

The manner of writing was hastily done due to the state of the person after the accident occurred and it was not a matter of style. He could be very angry and nervous at the time and was only thinking of getting out of the police station and fixing his broken mirror fast. I took that into consideration and analyzed thoroughly the meaning of the written words and tried to express that message in a more organized and understandable way. Of course, to tell the true account of the accident it must be "well-phrased" and intelligible to the authorities who will examine it so they can make proper decisions concerning the matter.

I think these justify the final translation of that accident.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi. I am AnP of PINOYexpats, an ezine for Pinoy expats. Can you mail me? I have a few questions which I would like to send your way.

melissa.atienza@gmail.com
http://pinoyexpats.org

4:55 PM  

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