Finishing a job

When you're a translators, one thing is certain - all books are not created equal. And By equal, I mean equally hard to translate.

Some books are difficult for all translators. Terry Pratchett and Tim Powers, for instance, clearly hate all translators with a great passion. Possibly a translator stole their lunch money at school, I don't know.

Some books are hard for some translators, and easier for others. I have a hard time with books that are heavy on the descriptions. I think I do good work, but it takes longer, as it does not come naturally to me. I know some translators would have a hard time with Steven Brust's Vlad novels, as getting quips to "pop" in Hebrew as they do in English can be difficult. For me, Brust is easy. I couldn't come up with most of the quips and clever bits in his books, but translating them comes naturally.

I just finished a book that is quite description heavy. It was a very good book, and one which I mostly enjoyed translating, but it took a long time and a lot of work. I also had a really long flu in the middle, which completely threw me off my groove.

So it's good to be done with it. And as it was a pretty big book, it'll be damn good to get paid for it :)

Now, a day or two of rest, and it's back to those salty, salty mines.