AM Blog

St Jerome, My Mate, and the Reason Why I Translate

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Today, hours before International Translator’s Day finishes everywhere in the world, I’d like to write down some personal thoughts about this profession that I am so in love with.

I like to think of Saint Jerome translating the Bible into Latin because he wanted to bring knowledge to the people. And yes, I know this may or may not be true, as it was Pope Damasus I who commissioned this huge job, but I like to think of Jerome as the essence of what, in my opinion, translation stands for: a bridge between knowledge and people.

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Official Translations into both English and Spanish

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Agustina Marianacci: English Spanish translationsThe New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters has decided I am qualified enough to have a stamp for translation services into both Spanish and English, and I can’t be any more excited!

“Lolita” Book Covers: from Teen Temptress to Symbolism and Suggestiveness

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Lolita book cover by Adonis Durado

Few books have shaken me in the way Lolita did when I read it. Nabokov’s work plays with the reader’s emotions and sympathies, as well as their understanding of sexuality, relationships and love. There is so much going on in the book, that choosing a cover for it should be excruciatingly hard. Yet, based on what I could see in Dieter E. Zimmer’s gallery, entitled “Covering Lolita“, a great number of editions from all over the world have chosen to go with the portrayal of Lolita as a temptress, many of them featuring the iconic heart-shaped glasses which have come to characterise her.

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War as a Business: How Does it Affect Linguists Involved?

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Strēlniekiem 100 bullets
Strēlniekiem 100 by Kārlis Dambrāns

Making money out of war has long been a controversial issue, so much so that terms like “war profiteer” have been coined to refer to individuals or companies getting rich from selling weapons and goods for the troops. And, if you are a linguist, you will surely agree with me in that, if the situation got lexicalised into the language, then it must be real and worth looking into.

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Stereotyping Translators into Empty Vessels

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Lara Dutta in Singh is Bliing
Lara Dutta in Singh is Bliing
Credit: pinkvilla.com

Today I came across an article published in a Bollywood news and gossip website about the character of a female translator in a new movie called ‘Singh is Bliing’. The character’s role is to help the main characters communicate with each other. When describing the translator she is impersonating, actress Lara Dutta stated: “It’s funny but also quirky. I had to make an effort to look geeky and frumpy. My look was decided upon between the director, the producer and me and was executed by the film’s stylist Arun”. No translators involved in that decision, of course.

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A Seal of Approval!—Translations from English into Spanish

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I am now offering sealed translations from English into Spanish thanks to this handsome new stamp I received from the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters:

Agustina Marianacci: Certified Translations from English into SpanishNew Zealand government agencies, for example, demand certified translations of all documents you turn in, which ensures it is not realised by an untrained person, computer translation software, or a friend or family member who is not a professional linguist. These translations should bear the stamp and signature of the translator, which in this case looks like that pretty stamp above, provided by NZSTI.

**Update: I am now offering official translations into both English and Spanish. New seal and all!

A Word against the Evils of Working in your Pyjamas

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Lately, I have been getting many comments about working from home, in my pyjamas. I am often told to grow up, put pants on and actually get some work done. Most of the times, I get this as a joke, but the really funny thing is: I spend a lot of time working, I absolutely love my job and I am very professional about it. I turn in my projects in time, I guarantee quality translations, I work on this blog in my free time.

However, I’ve been reading a lot about the evils of being a freelancer, working from home and never changing out of your pyjamas. The argument is that we associate pyjamas with sleeping and lying around, not work. I am supposed to feel a lot more professional when I put work clothes on, even if no one is there to see me.

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New NZSTI Membership

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I am truly excited after receiving this letter from the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters today saying I’ve been admitted as a member!
NZSTI Membership

NZSTI is the representative body of translators and interpreters in New Zealand, which promotes the professional development of both translators and interpreters, as well as strives to maintain the highest quality standards within the profession. This basically means that they are somewhat of a “translation and interpreting police”, looking after each one of us translators and interpreters, fighting and working for us, while striving to keep order (and quality) in the field.

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