Translation and Ethics

One of the best things about TEBP is the opportunity it has given me to meet wonderful new people all over the world. I have tremendously enjoyed working on this post with Yigit and hope you'll enjoy reading it too!

1) Turkey has a very rich political history. The predecessor of the current Turkish State, the Ottoman Empire, lasted from 1299 to 1922 when Turkey became an imperial monarchy and that monarchy was replaced in 1923 by the Republic of Turkey. Even though you are too young to have actually witnessed the change from one form of government to the other, you grew up in a country with a vast cultural heritage that goes back thousands of years, but that is very young as a de iure state. How would you describe the political scene in which you grew up?

I always remember the September morning in 1980 in which I woke up early with loud announcements made by the military forces in the street that a coup had been made. I did not immediately realize the situation. I was 10 years old. My mother and father explained to me that the military had taken power and a new political era had started in the country. In fact, this was the third military coup in Turkey. Every ten years, in 1960, 1970 and finally in 1980 we have seen coup’de etats. Certainly, you cannot blame people for expecting another one in 1990. But this did not happen. The military did not or could not intervene democracy again and we have been living an uninterrupted civil life for 29 years.

1980 was an important cornerstone for the country not only in the political but also in the economical sense. Liberalism and free foreign trade had started. Until then, the export and import of goods had been strictly limited, Turkish people were not able to reach foreign markets. But the first civil government after the 1980 coup led by Turgut Ozal changed the situation radically. Now there were plenty of European and American goods in the market and with foreign trade accelerated, many rich people arose in the cities. In the mean time, the political activists of the past were suffering in the prisons of the military, under very unfavourable conditions. The leftist groups in the country suffered a sharp blow but the ordinary citizens were content because the terror in the streets had ended. It was true that the streets were not safe before the intervention. I remember that my mother cautioned me at the time: in case I was questioned by people as to whether I had left or right wing views, I would say that I was only a child and did not know anything about these matters.

In the Turkey of the 80’s, ideals imposed on the younger generation were quite different from those of the 70’s. The revolutionary views and political action were out of fashion. We were supposed to study, get a good job and earn as much as we could. In this atmosphere I chose to study business administration, but it did not take long for me to understand that I was acting very wrongly. I never liked business school and my faith led me to very different paths.

2) In your bio you mentioned how much you loved Ankara, the capital of Turkey, when you were a child but you don’t seem to like it so much today. Why is that?

You know, early childhood is mostly remembered as the happiest period of our lives. In fact, this is a deceptive situation because childhood memories resident in our minds have previously been bent, filtered and distorted in the prism of a child’s brain. This must be the main reason why I used to love Ankara. In fact it was always a dry, tasteless city but I did not know that at the time. Ankara did not get any better. In many years, it completely lost its identity in the coarse hands of a hateful mayor.

3) You mentioned your parents were both intellectuals. Your mother was a radio producer and your father was an actor. You tried acting for a while, but then decided to go with radio production. What made you decide to do that and how did you get started in radio production?

From an existentialist point of view, our lives are determined by our choices. Yet, though I am not a religious person, I cannot help believing that our lives are predestined. Sometimes you cannot open a door, no matter how hard you push. Anyway, I think the wisest thing to say is that acting did not suit me. I did not have the talent. If I did, what would stand in my way? But radio, even though it was my mother’s profession, I never had in mind. I had worked with video for years and it was very distant to my mind to imagine a production without moving pictures. But as I said, I seems to me that I was destined to work in the radio. After a long procedure following my application to TRT, they appointed me to an open position in Trabzon Radio. For economical, psychological and professional reasons, I did not reject it. Trabzon was a small city and I would be away from my family. There was hardship waiting for me and hardship I received, for some time. But today, after 10 years in the radio, I am happy to be in the world of sounds and have no inner wish to make a shift towards television.

4) You’re somewhat of a self-taught English speaker and translator. Tell us a little about how you got started and your dream of reading certain books in English.

I started very young with simplified books. Then came the comics. I do not know why I began to translate my first Asterix in English. What I know is that I always liked the languages and at some point I wanted to have a good command of English. So I began to read and translate. At the beginning, translation was a tool to learn the language. And learning English was half play and half self-competition. I was young and I wished to learn a bit of everything. When one is young, the heavy pressure of time is not felt and life seems limitless. I had to be over 30 to understand that I could not learn about everything, and moreover, I did not need to.

Anyway, with my unfocused hunger I bought books in English, tried to read them and failed. In years, I retried several times and failed again and again. But there was no desperation on my side. I liked to be a learner and had a goal: I would read them some day.

Of course, besides the love of knowledge, I also hoped that learning English would help my professional career in the future. But it was not clear in my mind what career I wished to follow. And of course, I did not know that my future position in the radio would be very local and I would always feel sad that my English knowledge was being wasted.

In this sadness, I felt that I had improved my English to a certain point. My management did not care about this, so what else could I do? I decided to start another self-competition and so began my translation career. Staggering and tumbling, I translated my first book which was an academic compilation of articles. Then came another compilation: Jack London’s compiled writings not previously published in Turkish. After that, I completed a new translation of his “Martin Eden” which is due to be published in 2010. Right now, I am working on Pieter Spierenburg’s “A History of Murder”. I am sure others will follow.

5) How do you juggle translation and radio production?

Translation is both my hobby and my second profession now. It is also my passion. Most of the moments allowed from my work and my family, I commit to translation. This means I spend my night hours translating. I sleep a few hours less for the sake of translating a few pages more.

6) You mentioned in your bio that even though your hometown is small, your personal universe is very big. After reading about you, I got the impression this has a lot to do with your passion for learning. However, I could be wrong. Can you tell us a little bit about your world.

That seems to be quite correct. I live in a small city with limited cultural sources. Without books, writing and translation, the world would be dull. I can’t understand people who keep their profession as the centre of their world. Everyone needs -at least- a second thing to do. For me, that is translation now. Surely there are lots of things I would love to do –travelling, photography, biking, concerts etc. Yet, there is one obstacle: My little children. And do you know, they are the most beautiful obstacles! They make my life meaningful and complete my world. So the basic elements of my personal universe are as follows: The radio, translation, and most of all, my family.

If you would like to contact Yigit, please write to info@tebp.org so we can forward him your request.

You have a very diverse educational background. You studied systems engineering, graphic design, and you have a degree in English. How do you put it all to use in your professional life?

Well, I have always been a curious person. If I could, I would go back to college, learn so many things... But you can learn a lot on your own, even in your daily work; and I have often had to learn to do something to complete a design project; the same is true for translation. Sometimes you even have to do some research to be able to provide a quotation for a specific task.

Now, my background and knowledge allowed me to work in different areas: I have worked as a teacher (and continue to do so), graphic designer, web developer, interpreter and translator. To my partners at Globulart, the design studio where I work, I am a “problem solver”; they even used to call me Mr. Wolf, after the character played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction; it can be an advantage but also very tiresome, as people tend to rely on your abilities rather than learning to do something themselves. Lately I have focused my efforts in the field of translation, although design continues to be a big part of my everyday work.

How did you get started as a translator and graphic designer? What skills are required for the services you provide? What do you like about each one?

When I was a kid I loved drawing, I was happy with a notepad and a ballpen; we had a Commodore 64 with an optic pen and I spent hours drawing on the TV, that was something magical to me as a child. In the late 80s I discovered 3D animation and it got me increasingly interested; years later I started learning to use a program called 3D Studio on my own and, while I studied at the university, I created a 3D animation as an intro for a TV show on astronomy a group of friends and I had started at a local TV station; that was back in 1995, the animation took hundreds of hours to render but it was worth the effort. Flash forward to 1999, I began studying graphic design at the Almería School of Art; those were the best, most interesting two years of my life as a student. I hadn’t even earned my degree—it would have to wait another year for me to deliver the final project—when I started working at a company called Visual Chart Group as a designer, web developer and, eventually, translator.

My translation work began at that company; I had to translate parts of the corporate website as well as marketing materials, and, being the only one in the company who could really speak English at the time, I was the one to call when the bosses needed to contact a foreign provider or client. Another flash forward to 2006, when I started collaborating with the TV & radio news show “Democracy Now!”, translating their daily headlines and the weekly opinion column by the host, Amy Goodman.

In 2008 I definitely started pursuing translation as a career, and during the last year I have translated two books on design, several articles for magazines specializing in design and art, TV ads, essays on marketing, etc... with a short incursion working as a court interpreter. True story: the name of the first person I had to assist as an interpreter at the court was “Innocent”.

I believe creativity is a strong plus in both professions, design and translation. As a designer you have to think about what the client actually needs, and fight your inner desires to do this or that; you have to be analytical, do a fair amount of research and draw conclusions from it and from the interview with your client. Having great drawing or painting skills is not an absolute must to create a good logo, for instance, but you need to understand composition, how to lay out the elements, and I believe you have to love typography; it is a great part of a designer’s work, and one has to appreciate it and learn how to use it.

I love design, and I love translation. I believe this is so because I am a creative person, and both activities “tickle” my brain the proper way. Both challenge me, help me learn new things, and in part that’s what life is about. And, as geeky as it may seem, computer games had a big part in my learning English. See, during the 80s and part of the 90s, games were seldom translated; I loved graphic adventures (the likes of LOOM, Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, etc) and interactive fiction games, and I had to improve my English if I wanted to know what was going on in the game, so I played with a dictionary next to the mouse. It may seem silly, but that’s how I learned to love the English language. An early start also helped, as I started learning English at school when I was 7; I am thankful for that.

Translation can be quite a competitive industry. Yet your blog displays many beautiful logos that you designed for other translators and which are clearly intended to help your colleagues improve their professional image and promote their own services more effectively. What inspired you to provide design services to translators?

At first it was the other way around; a translator from the UK contacted me via twitter and asked me if I could redesign her website. I saw she needed a proper visual identity before a website could be created, and she gave me the green light for a new logo and business cards, which you can see in my corporate blog at Globulart.

A month after that, another fellow translator contacted me with a similar proposal, and after designing her logo, CV and business cards I am finishing her website.

What I could see is that many translators and agencies have no visual identity, or the one they have leaves a lot to be desired, looks like a template, or just needs more work. A client makes assumptions about you when he or she sees your website, your logo, you business card, your photograph, and so on... so, a good visual identity is a real asset and it can make you stand out from the competition. I am planning to be more active promoting design services to translators (may this serve as a token of my offering these services).

When creating a design, what are your sources of inspiration? How do you make designs that are creative, but at the same time limited to your clients needs? How do you approach designing?

The client is the main source of inspiration; I usually do an interview and try to gather as much information as possible about the target audience, the product or service, the functioning of the company or professional... Add to that a good amount of research on the business of the client and his/her competition, visual style, language, etc... Once you have absorbed all that information it is so much easier to create something that is right for the client in question. Creativity is the X factor, I have to say that I have been surprised by some of the designs I created, and it is hard to tell where this or that touch came from.

I always try to go through those steps; following them is time consuming but extremely important. When I feel I know enough I start doing some rough sketches, with pencil and paper or directly in the computer; when I find a promising concept, then iterate, iterate, iterate... to just get it right; some of my designs, especially logos, can look simple and easy to create, but you would have to see the Illustrator files... lots and lots of versions to come up with the right one; it pays off to take all that time polishing a design, that way it will be much more robust and usable.

Where do you see yourself and your business in the next few years?

I would like to say that I will become a successful translator, which is my goal now and I am working hard to accomplish it. So yes, I have faith in my possibilities, I believe it will pay off. If I start to fantasize, I would have loved to do the Spanish subtitling for the documentary “Helvetica”, or the upcoming “Objectified”, both by Gary Hustwit. I tried to contact the director but got no reply, perhaps some other time.

I don’t think I will stop doing design work; I offer DTP services and that has brought work from time to time. What I would like when it comes to design is to do more creative work—I feel there is still too much technical stuff in my everyday work.

Aside from graphic design and translation you are also a musician. Tell us a little bit about that. How did you get started? Why? What kind of music do you make?

I would say it was at school that I started loving to play music; I remember we had a great music teacher; he challenged us, taught us how incredibly interesting and beautiful music is. We learned to play the recorder, and I remember I was quite good at it (I have a small collection of tinwhistles and I still enjoy playing them). At the age of 12, I convinced my grandmother to get me a keyboard for my birthday; it was a polyphonic keyboard... God, I’ve spent hundreds of hours on it, learning how to play. I could read a musical score, so I bought several music books and slowly learned to play, also playing many songs by ear, mostly by Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis; that helped a lot to improve my skills.

The biggest thrill probably was when I first played a song using both hands. It may seem trivial, but at the time I was blown away, and I have to tell you it feels GREAT when you are inspired and play with the heart; and it’s a very weird and special sensation when each hand moves independently. So, I was about 15 years old when I started making small compositions; Steven, my best friend at the time, also played the keyboard, and had a Roland synthesizer (D10) as well as a Yamaha MIDI sax (WT-11 & WX-11); I wrote and recorded a couple of interesting songs with those pieces of equipment. Me, I was struggling to save money to buy my own synthesizer, something my father didn’t like; that was a cause of confrontation and, long story short, it took me almost 5 years to get the money, and even when I bought it, the synth was kept away for some time, so I had to wait until 1997 to actually have my hard-earned synth, my faithful Alesis Quadrasynth, in my hands. Most of my songs available at Soundcloud were composed during that time, from 1997 to 1998.

Why doing it? Music is a great way to express yourself, writing it is stimulating and rewarding; of course I’d love to make a living creating soundtracks for videogames or movies, but you know, I really think it doesn’t matter all that much. I am happy if a bunch of people listen to my music and it actually makes them feel something. But there was an instance in which I got paid for my music: back in 1999 I composed two 10-second jingles for a local TV station from Granada.

I suppose I could label my music as “New Age”. Everything I have composed is instrumental; many of my songs are evocative, with dream-like passages of strings and tinkles. I say: listen to it, you tell me what you would call it.

Do you feel language, design, and music share common characteristics? Why or why not?

Latest tracks by ahe

They are all creative processes, and they all have their own rules and structure... Music is mathematics, and so is design; math is everywhere: in the tempo, the beats, the chords, the silences and the repetitions... and also in the shape, colour, proportion, balance, etc. The same happens with language, it has its own rules and there is rhythm in it.

As to why this is so, I’m not completely sure, but my guess is that contrast is the key. The human brain likes contrast; when you hear a song, the changes in chord are what stimulates you the most, what uplifts you or makes you feel melancholic. In design, the right contrast between colors or shapes is what catches your eye; with language it may be more subtle, but I think the same thing happens.

Have you always been interested in the arts and language? Do you have any other interests you would like to share with us?

I have! And I remember how, as a child, I thought a lot, and I mean A LOT about words and how they were made, how you could transform one word into another just by exchanging letters or syllables... I played with words in my mind. And I still do, actually.

My other interests include photography, art and film. I collect old computer animations; I have a nice collection of computer animation clips from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I love science-fiction; currently I am reading “Neuromancer”, by William Gibson; I especially like the first sentence in that book: “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

I have always liked photography; lately I’ve photographed a lot of fireworks, though portraits are usually much more rewarding. During my studies at the school of art, we learned traditional photography techniques... you know, dark room, red lights, developing liquids, etc. I enjoyed that so much, I loved every minute of it. You can see some of my photos here.

I enjoy writing; I have written a couple of short sci-fi stories, one of which was chosen by a popular radio show here in Spain, called “La Rosa de los Vientos”. They recorded and aired a dramatization of that story in May 2005. You can listen to it (in Spanish) here (it will soon be available in my Soundcloud page).

Finally, my translation work for Democracy Now! has made me aware of many things that happen in our world, it is a great source of news. But it hasn’t really changed dramatically my view; if anything, now I have a stronger political conscience.

I would like to thank you for your interest in my opinion, and hope some of your readers find my responses a good read. Regards from Spain!

To learn more about Angel you can view his professional profile on Proz or LinkedIn. You can also see his pictures on Flickr and enjoy his music on Soundcloud.

This week on Translation and Ethics we're interviewing

Paulette Alexandra Pagani Masson (also known as Alexandra Masson).

Paulette is a professional translator, interpreter, artist, and Member of Translators for Ethical Business Practices. As someone who is deeply concerned about the environment, she has managed to find a beautiful way to approach recycling and create awareness about environmental protection: by turning trash into art!

Q: You’re originally from England but moved to Latin America at a very young age. You lived in several Latin American countries and moved to Venezuela in 1974. Living abroad is usually a very enriching experience. Could you share a little bit about your family life and childhood with us? What did you like best about each of the places where you lived?

A: Generation after generation of my ancestors has moved around the globe, beginning with a great-great grandfather whom I´m told used to be some sort of pirate captain of the seas. I have family members in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S., England, Wales, Ireland, Italy and Australia. We have always been quite an international melting pot in my family. I absolutely love beaches, so I would say the best thing about living in Trinidad and Venezuela are the beaches. Buenos Aires is a fascinating cosmopolitan city; I love its French-inspired architecture and well planned-out streets and broad curbs to walk on, apart from the delicious food (the hand-made ice cream is superb, not to mention the pizzas –something to do with the water I guess). Each culture has its positive and its negative traits and the good aspects of one culture balances out the not-so-good of the other, so I believe it has made me a well-rounded individual: I have the sense of responsibility of the European cultures and also the sense of fun of the Caribbean and Latin American cultures and am also able to feel at home in almost any place and enjoy the cuisine of many lands, which is always enriching. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life!

Q: Do you visit the UK often? How do you like living in Latin America?

A: I don´t visit the UK often but I hope to in the near future because an art gallery in Camden town is offering me exhibit space next year. I am also actively seeking sponsors to help me exhibit my art in other European cities such as Milan. Transporting art is rather costly.

What I like about living in Latin America and in particular in Caracas first of all is the climate (a mild 23° C almost all year-round) and the gaiety of the people (Venezuela is the place with the happiest people on earth, according to the Guiness Book of Records). They are always up for a party. The downside is that they are so happy-go-lucky that they sometimes border on being irresponsible. Unfortunately, there is a big drug-consumption problem among the young and not so young, so insecurity in the streets is a big issue, since a young delinquent drug addict is capable of killing you just to take your cell phone or shoes in order to get quick money for a fix. So despite the weather being so benign, which would be conducive to being out in the streets and enjoying the night life until late, this is not the case due to the insecurity in the streets.

Q: You changed majors in college. You started studying biology and then switched to interpretation. What motivated that change?

A: I really and truly wanted to study psychology. At the time, the state university offering that career had limited places for foreigners and no place was left for me the year I graduated from high school. I had always been good at biology, so I decided to present the exam to enter into a very prestigious state-owned university where only brain boxes are admitted, in order not to waste a year at home. I passed the test and was accepted but after two years I realized it was not really the career I wanted to work in for the rest of my life. Ever since I was a little girl, family friends would tell me that I had a flair for switching from the English language to the Spanish language and vice versa so I decided to study translating and interpreting. It really comes naturally to me. I really was born with a talent for simultaneous interpretation. I enjoy it very much because I have the chance to work in all manner of topics. It´s the best career for someone who gets easily bored and who loves to read and find out about new things. This career has also enabled me to travel to places I would not ordinarily have gone to, with all expenses paid PLUS fees!!

Q: Tell us a little bit about your professional background.

A: At the beginning of my career I was in high demand by the oil industry, so that led me to become specialized in that subject matter. I used to accept the first job I was offered. In retrospect, that was a mistake, because now courses for the oil industry have dried up due to internal political decisions by the current government and many of my colleagues have segued into interpretation for medical conferences. I also work sometimes in these but lost many years in which I focused only on oil. I like (most) medical subjects and actually find it more interesting than finding out how to extract more oil from the ground… but by now my colleagues have monopolized the market of medical simultaneous interpreting and only call me as a last resort. Unfortunately, there is a lot of backstabbing and blind ambition and greed in this profession in this country. An older, not-so-pretty interpreter will think twice about calling in a younger, more attractive colleague who is good at her job, because there is much fear of losing the customers… In this country, good looks sometimes opens lots of doors.

Q: In your life summary you mention that your career in translation facilitated your artistic development. How was that so?

A: The main reason my career in translation has facilitated my artistic development is due to the financial security it has provided. I am in touch with many up-and-coming artists who have chosen to study and work in only art-related jobs and they are all suffering from a serious lack of money, to the point of not having monetary resources to buy even paints. I feel very sorry for them. They are really struggling. In this country, a lot has to do with getting a curator to like your work and back you and help you get exposure and that is extremely difficult some times. Making a living solely as an artist is extremely difficult in this country.

Q: As someone who is very concerned about the environment, you have managed to come up with a very unique way of creating awareness about environmental issues by turning trash into art. Can you tell us about the concept behind your art? What inspired you to do this?

A: In his book called ¨Peace is the Way¨, Deepak Chopra states that the inner is reflected in the outer. This thought has moved me profoundly and has led me to countless hours of daydreaming trying to elucidate the ramifications and repercussions of such a simple but mind-blowing statement. The rubbish we see outside of us is a reflection of the rubbish inside. We humans are torn by two conflicting forces, eros (the life-affirming force) and thanatos (the death and destruction-seeking force). I know it because I see it in my family, in my friends and in myself. Creation and destruction are always present, inside and outside. When we manage to turn our destructive impulses into creative ones, we will all be better off, because we will have attained unity within ourselves and therefore outside of ourselves. Nature mirrors this conflict that is inside of us.

Turning trash into art is my personal way of trying to turn my trash into something beautiful, as my tiny contribution or grain of salt towards living in more harmonious surroundings. Perhaps it is also a way of domesticating the beast, the beast meaning the dark side in me… Beauty has always been important to me. A great philosopher once said that beauty is truth. I would like to explore that thought more deeply and really understand what it means. I want to create art from things that already exist, by transforming them and revealing what is hidden from others. My astrological sign is Sagittarius, a sign of fire. Fire destroys in order to clear space for creation. Fire also keeps us warm and cozy. Fire kills germs and bacteria, thereby protecting us from unseen threats. Fire has a dual nature, so to speak, the creative and the destructive sides.

Some of the themes for me to study in more depth in the future are precisely the theme of beauty and the beast, the theme of how to conquer the beast and let beauty flourish, the dual nature of fire, the re-inventing of oneself (which happens to so many people during their lifetimes) and rising from the ashes like the Phoenix bird of mythology… so many things to do and to explore and to learn and so little time in the span of just one lifetime…!

Click here to view Paulette’s professional profile.