A question and a note

Submitted by rw (United States), Apr 16, 2017 at 01:17

I wonder if someone can explain exactly what is meant by "a possible connection between linguistic syntax and web mark-up"? What does this mean?

I am a professional translator, sort of, (published and hopeful of obtaining some remuneration at some point) so the research about translating is of some interest. Anything to do with ideology is necessarily difficult to translate without detailed, thorough, expert knowledge of the area under discussion - which means an ability to empathize to a high degree with your author and probably sympathize as well. A person who can do this in almost field is probably a rarity.

For works that are non-ideological in nature, there are different difficulties. An amusing example is the translation of a novel from English into, as I remember, Czech, which when back translated read, 'A man was digging a hole in the ground with the help of a large black bird.' The original read 'A man was digging a hole in the ground with a crow.'

Translation is a wonderful art. I remember trying to read Solzhenitsyn short stories in translation. The first translation I tried was just about unreadable - the language was a constant stumbling block; then I found a superb translation in which, as well as faithfully conveying the author, the English was enjoyable.

We translators are a hugely undervalued species, and grossly underpaid.

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