Saint Jerome in his Study, by Domenico Ghirlandaio

St. Jerome, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1625–1630

St. Jerome’s Oath

I swear to keep this Oath to the best of my ability and judgement.

I swear to be a loyal member of the translator’s profession, respecting its history. I am willing to share my expertise with colleagues and to pass it on to trainee translators. I will not work for unreasonable fees. I will always translate to the best of my ability.

I will use my expertise to maximize communication and minimize misunderstanding across language barriers.

I swear that my translations will not represent their source texts in unfair ways.

I will respect my readers by trying to make my translations as accessible as possible, according to the conditions of each translation task.

I undertake to respect the professional secrets of my clients and not to exploit clients’ information for personal gain. I promise to respect deadlines and to follow clients’ instructions.

I will be honest about my own qualifications and limitations; I will not accept work that is outside my competence.

I will inform clients of unresolved problems, and agree to arbitration in cases of dispute.

I will do all I can to maintain and improve my competence, including all relevant linguistic, technical and other knowledge and skills.

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Western Europe owes its civilization to translators.

Louis Kelly

It is translation that demonstrates most vividly the yearning for transformation that underlies every act involving speech, that supremely human gift.

Harry Mathews

Язык – лучший из посредников для установления дружбы и согласия.

Эразм Роттердамский

Горе кропателям дословных переводов, которые, переводя каждое слово, притупляют смысл.

Вольтер

Topic 1. Translator’s activity

1.1. Profession of Translator

In the profession of translation two types of translators/interpreters –free-lance and in-house ones work. It is a very specific profession, and the people involved in it, both would-be translators and those who work with translators are often interested in how to survive, how to know the criteria of a good translator.

A translator converts written material, such as newspaper and magazine articles, books, manuals, documents, etc., from one language into another. This is not to be confused with an interpreter, who converts spoken material, such as speeches, presentations, depositions and the like, from one language into another. Although there is some vague connection between the two abilities: translators cannot necessarily interpret, nor can interpreters necessarily translate. Moreover, the best translators are not good interpreters and likewise, truly great interpreters are not much for translation. And while many professional training programs require interpreters to develop some skill in translation, professionally trained translators often have no exposure to the skills of interpretation. Four psychological groups of people – sanguines, melancholics, phlegmatics and cholerics – perform in different way depending on their psychological type and knowing this they are more inclined either to translation or interpretation. The most neutral and reserved, balanced and moderately emotional is a sanguine person, able to work in both translation and interpretation. Melancholic and phlegmatic persons, being excessively tranquil and immovable, might make their oral presentation a bit dull and monotonous, though in translation they can show the best of their skills. Cholerics, on the contrary, might undeliberately jesticulate too much, lose control of their voice and body language and make interpretation too noisy and emotional.

We’ll also use the following words in this book. Source text or language will refer to the language which the material first appears in. Target text and language refer to the language that the material is translated into.