Translations translations and then some...are they reliable or biased?

[AnneGuedes]

This translation issue is basically a question of confidence.
Mrs B believes the Fund paid translation of the final report is better than Astro's. Why ? She doesn't know Portuguese. Ah, those who did it are "professionals" (not identified).
I compared the two translation : Astro's and the paid one. There's a mistranslation in the second, and this is serious since the translation was used by the court that judged Mr Bennett.
I beg from now on that whoever cites a translation made by Astro, Ines, or any other to be aware he/she uses the work of someone who generously did it to inform and to indicate the name of the translator.
Please.

[Carana]

This translation issue is basically a question of confidence.
Mrs B believes the Fund paid translation of the final report is better than Astro's. Why ? She doesn't know Portuguese. Ah, those who did it are "professionals" (not identified).
I compared the two translation : Astro's and the paid one. There's a mistranslation in the second, and this is serious since the translation was used by the court that judged Mr Bennett.
I beg from now on that whoever cites a translation made by Astro, Ines, or any other to be aware he/she uses the work of someone who generously did it to inform and to indicate the name of the translator.
Please.

I'd have to find the original thread about that... wherever that was.

Two instances of what I found to be odd translations were the two that DCI mentioned earlier.

[Chinagirl]

This translation issue is basically a question of confidence.
Mrs B believes the Fund paid translation of the final report is better than Astro's. Why ? She doesn't know Portuguese. Ah, those who did it are "professionals" (not identified).
I compared the two translation : Astro's and the paid one. There's a mistranslation in the second, and this is serious since the translation was used by the court that judged Mr Bennett.
I beg from now on that whoever cites a translation made by Astro, Ines, or any other to be aware he/she uses the work of someone who generously did it to inform and to indicate the name of the translator.
Please.

Given the poor quality of your own English, it is extraordinarily arrogant of you to suggest that Astro's translation is superior to that done by a professional translator which formed part of Mr Justice Tugendhat's judgment.  What is this "serious mistranslation?"

I repeat what I have said more than once in this forum:  the translations undertaken by Astro, Ines, et al. were adequate for the various forums and blogs interested in this case, but nowhere near good enough for the SY investigation or for the court.  To suggest otherwise is arrant nonsense.

[faithlilly]

Given the poor quality of your own English, it is extraordinarily arrogant of you to suggest that Astro's translation is superior to that done by a professional translator which formed part of Mr Justice Tugendhat's judgment.  What is this "serious mistranslation?"

I repeat what I have said more than once in this forum:  the translations undertaken by Astro, Ines, et al. were adequate for the various forums and blogs interested in this case, but nowhere near good enough for the SY investigation or for the court.  To suggest otherwise is arrant nonsense.

And as, I assume, you don't speak Portuguese, how on earth are you able to judge that ?

[Eleanor]

This translation issue is basically a question of confidence.
Mrs B believes the Fund paid translation of the final report is better than Astro's. Why ? She doesn't know Portuguese. Ah, those who did it are "professionals" (not identified).
I compared the two translation : Astro's and the paid one. There's a mistranslation in the second, and this is serious since the translation was used by the court that judged Mr Bennett.
I beg from now on that whoever cites a translation made by Astro, Ines, or any other to be aware he/she uses the work of someone who generously did it to inform and to indicate the name of the translator.
Please.

Mr. Bennett paid for a translation?  I find that hard to believe.

[stephen25000]

Mr. Bennett paid for a translation?  I find that hard to believe.

Yet you believe all the tosh from the Mccanns.

Now thast says it all. 8-)(--)

[AnneGuedes]

Just the fact to pay for a translation makes people think it is better !
I maintain that Astro's translation of the very short extract sent by Mrs B is perfectly accurate. The unsigned translation, paid (I guess by the fund) and used by the UK Court, remarkably manages to include :
1 omission
1 inaccuracy
1 mistranslation.
With Latin Chinagirl would have understood what was mistranslated.

[Chinagirl]

Spell it out, for goodness sake - spell it out!  Stop indulging in pretentious "With Latin Chinagirl would have understood what was mistranslated."

And incidentally, one doesn't have to have knowledge of the foreign language to know when something rendered into one's native language (in this case, English), is poorly translated, or inadequately presented.  I have spent the last ten years of my life preparing and polishing academic work in English for PhD candidates, and papers for publication in various scientific journals for Chinese speakers.  My ability to speak and read Chinese is nowhere near good enough for direct translation, but my English language skills are high.  I spend hours with each Chinese author, and I draft and re-draft and re-draft phrases, sentences and paragraphs until I am sure that I have accurately rendered exactly what it is the writer wanted to convey.  I have never had a paper returned for unacceptable language presentation.

It is not a quick or easy task to take something from one language and put it into another so that the MEANING of the original is accurately portrayed.

[Mrs. B]

Spell it out, for goodness sake - spell it out!  Stop indulging in pretentious "With Latin Chinagirl would have understood what was mistranslated."

And incidentally, one doesn't have to have knowledge of the foreign language to know when something rendered into one's native language (in this case, English), is poorly translated, or inadequately presented.  I have spent the last ten years of my life preparing and polishing academic work in English for PhD candidates, and papers for publication in various scientific journals for Chinese speakers.  My ability to speak and read Chinese is nowhere near good enough for direct translation, but my English language skills are high.  I spend hours with each Chinese author, and I draft and re-draft and re-draft phrases, sentences and paragraphs until I am sure that I have accurately rendered exactly what it is the writer wanted to convey.  I have never had a paper returned for unacceptable language presentation.

It is not a quick or easy task to take something from one language and put it into another so that the MEANING of the original is accurately portrayed.

 

It's painfully obvious which translation is the professional one, it's the one that reads like ENGLISH written by an ENGLISH person. The other version is stilted, clumsy & very obviously translated by someone who doesn't have a very extensive vocabulary.

[AnneGuedes]

How extraordinary the insistence of posters without any knowledge of Portuguese (and/or Latin) to claim categorically, as if they were specialists, that an inaccurate translation (betraying the original text of Magalhães e Menezes) is good just because it is professional. Who did this r...btw ?

[Carana]

Mrs. B, I don't know who and under which conditions the translations financed by the Fund were done, but all I can tell is that the extract you sent is worse than Astro's translation. Seing only that extract I'll not risk saying it is biased, but I confirm Astro's translation is the only rigorous one.
The non-involvement of Madeleine's arguido "person of interest" is missing parents  in any criminally the original says "penally"* significant action is apparent this is wrong : seems to result (I admit the PGR is not well at ease and his syntax betrays it) from the fact that they were not in the apartment at the time of her disappearance, their normal behaviour up to that moment and afterwards, as witnessed by the statements of the witnesses, the analysis of the telephone communications and the conclusions of the experts reports…namely the Reports from the FSS and from the National Institute for Legal Medicine (missing ?)
* For instance, if they concealed their daughter's body, it is not penally relevant, whereas if they'd killed their daughter, that would be "criminal".
I just hope that the SY's translations are better than the McCann's ones.

I'm not sure what you mean.

Wouldn't concealing a corpse be a penal offence under PT law?

[Mrs. B]

Quite extraordinary for some posters here to think they're the only ones in the universe who speak Latin based languages. Most people in Europe can express themselves quite confidently in at least a few IMO.

[John]

Yet you believe all the tosh from the Mccanns.

Now thast says it all. 8-)(--)

There is a difference between pure tosh and corroborated tosh.  The latter is admissible in court.

[Carana]

How extraordinary the insistence of posters without any knowledge of Portuguese (and/or Latin) to claim categorically, as if they were specialists, that an inaccurate translation (betraying the original text of Magalhães e Menezes) is good just because it is professional. Who did this r...btw ?

Magalhães e Menezes didn't actually write that summary, did he?

Wouldn't it have been written by the DA who signed it? João Melchior Gomes, with the AG's approval?

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/P17/17_VOLUME_XVIIa_Page_4649.jpg

[John]

How extraordinary the insistence of posters without any knowledge of Portuguese (and/or Latin) to claim categorically, as if they were specialists, that an inaccurate translation (betraying the original text of Magalhães e Menezes) is good just because it is professional. Who did this r...btw ?

I have stated this before and I will state it again.  It is possible to change the entire meaning if a paragraph by purposely or otherwise misinterpreting a single word when translating Spanish or Portuguese into English.