Rate this translation (please comment and critique)

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ab2
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Rate this translation (please comment and critique)

Postby ab2 » Sun May 08, 2022 8:29 pm

Excerpt from a book about the political history of Paraguay. I'm wanting a criquite overall, but definitely wanting clarification about the parts in bold.

Spanish (original):

"Para mi detractor yo era un agente del Kremlin devorador de niños de pecho. De ahí se seguió una polémica en el Boletín en que intervinieron varios historidades, menos el suscripto, que haciendo gala de su afección por la libertad de expresión, el Instituo vetó la publicación de una respuesta por mí solicitada. De esa polémica participó Fermín Chávez, que estampó lo siguente" end.

English:
"To my detractor, I was a Kremlin agent devouring infants / To my detractor, I was an infant-eating Kremlin agent. From there, a controversy sparked in el Boletín in which various stories, excepting el suscripto (excepting the undersigned? Is "menos el" is "not including" / "except for" or is it "including"? also "el suscripto" -- que significa? Help with the whole "menos el suscripto" statement lollllll), intervened and made a peanut gallery (?) of freedom of speech (Have you ever heard of "gala de su afección"? Is that intended to be a direct translation for "gala of their affection" or is "peanut gallery" accurate?), the Institute vetoed the publication in response to my request / the institute vetoed the publication as per my request. Fermín Chávez participated in this controversy by printing the following/who printed the following:" end.

//

What Google says lol
"To my detractor, I was a Kremlin agent who devoured infants. This was followed by a controversy in the Bulletin in which several historians intervened, except the subscriber, who showed his affection for the freedom of expression, the Institute vetoed the publication of a response requested by me. Fermín Chávez participated in that controversy, who stamped the following" end.

//

Thoughts, comments, critiques, explanations for the terms in bold, outside perspective to see if the translation makes any sense at all, what ought to be done, please help. Lol. (this is not a homework assignment I'm trying to cheat on, this is me trying to improve and become a Spanish interpreter and translator lol).

Thanks~
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Re: Rate this translation (please comment and critique)

Postby luke » Sun May 08, 2022 11:29 pm

ab2 wrote:"Para mi detractor yo era un agente del Kremlin devorador de niños de pecho. De ahí se seguió una polémica en el Boletín en que intervinieron varios historidades, menos el suscripto, que haciendo gala de su afección por la libertad de expresión, el Instituo vetó la publicación de una respuesta por mí solicitada. De esa polémica participó Fermín Chávez, que estampó lo siguente"

Like you, I'm just learning Spanish.

It's an interesting and complicated passage. A literal translation of the first part strikes me as more forceful and what the author intends:

To my detractor, I was an agent of the Kremlin, a devourer of suckling infants. From there followed a polemic in el Boletín...

making a show of its affection for freedom of expression, the Institute vetoed the publication of a ...

There it seems the author's using irony.

I like starting with Google and Yandex and seeing if I can improve on what they came up with. If you are really, really serious about it, you could create a 3 or 4 column spreadsheet and split it up sentence by sentence:

Original, My, Google, Yandex

Then keep refining the "My" column as you became more familiar with the work.

Or you could just have 2 columns and continuously tweak the My column with feedback from other sources.

I'm definitely in the camp that a translation should sound close to the original, even if it's somewhat stilted.

But it depends on your purpose.
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Re: Rate this translation (please comment and critique)

Postby Iversen » Mon May 09, 2022 1:40 pm

"el Instituo vetó la publicación de una respuesta por mí solicitada."

I may be wrong, but to me the meaning is that the institute vetoed the answer I had asked for, not that it vetoed the answer because I asked for it ("as per my request" in your translation) - so I am with Google here. But the answer which I had asked the institute to publish could have been written by me, which makes matters slightly more complicated since the text also denies that I had participated in the discussion ("menos el suscripto").

By the way the history of Paraguay is quite interesting. First the country was governed for 26 years in a the 19. century by an ascetic control freak (José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco, "El Supremo"), and then it was governed by a raving luntic madman (Juan Solana Lopez) who declared war on three neighbour contries simultaneously - only the intervention of American president Rutherford B.Hayes saved his country from being divided between those three (Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil). And as if that hadn't been enough it was governed by a fascist dictator A.Stroessner for 45 years in a row in the 20. century...

Juan Solana Lopez.jpg
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Re: Rate this translation (please comment and critique)

Postby zenmonkey » Mon May 09, 2022 1:51 pm

should be "intervinieron varios historiadores" "suscrito" , etc. in the original.
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Re: Rate this translation (please comment and critique)

Postby BeaP » Mon May 09, 2022 2:56 pm

According to my adversary I was an agent of the Kremlin, capable of any brutality (like killing new-born babies - someone without inhibitions or morals). There was a debate in the journal titled El Boletín, which featured many historians. I / He (who signs this piece / who was subscribed to this journal - as the only one among historians?) couldn't participate. The Institute didn't publish the reply I asked for, although they always preached the freedom of speech (they emphasised that it's an important value for them, and they did it loudly, they were proud of it). Fermin Chavez also took part in this debate, and wrote the following ...

'suscripto' is probably the person who signs this and not someone subscribed to a journal, but I can't rule it out
I don't know the Spanish of Paraguay (anyway, suscrito is suscripto in Paraguay according to the DLE - RAE)

That's a very hard text, especially without a deep knowledge of the context. Looks like a transcription of an interview, an oral account.
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Re: Rate this translation (please comment and critique)

Postby mrwarper » Mon May 09, 2022 6:04 pm

There are a few typos in the "original", so I wouldn't feed that to any automated translation engine:

seguió -> siguió (followed)
historidades -> historiadores (historians)
Instituo -> Instituto
siguente -> siguiente (following)

ab2 wrote:definitely wanting clarification about the parts in bold

Mostly, what BeaP said.

niños de pecho -> infants, babies
menos el suscripto -> except for yours truly = everyone mentioned but the person telling the story (the usual form is "el que suscribe"; to translate that as "undersigned" would be probably a bit daring, as the term "abajofirmante" is nowhere to be seen in your quote).
haciendo gala de su afección -> hacer gala de algo = to make a public display; making public display of their affection/love for freedom of speech (an obvious sarcasm)
Boletín must be the name of some periodic publication (possibly a specialized magazine) run or otherwise controlled by the Institute in the story.

The response / request / publish / veto sentence in the original is "sub-optimal" prose, by the way -- it's hard to tell whether the Institute vetoed a request of his to publish a response, or a real response that he submitted, and requested to have published. One way or the other, the guy requested to publish a response of his on an equal footing, and the Institute vetoed him. In case you want to compare, I'd translate it like this hoping to capture the ambiguity:

"To my detractor, I was an infant-eating Kremlin agent. From there, a controversy followed in the Boletín in which several historians intervened, but not yours truly; the Institute, exhibiting their affection for freedom of speech, vetoed publishing a response that I had requested to make."

If you need any further clarification, just ask.

It is not a good idea to start translating before you're quite sure of the meaning (which is why being an interpreter is so difficult), so I won't "rate" your translation. However, it's good that you realize you still have to improve before thinking about becoming a translator and interpreter.
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