Spring 2005 Vol. 14, No. 2 SLAVIC LANGUAGES DIVISION AMERICAN TRANSLATORS ASSOCIATION SlavFileSlavFile www.americantranslators.org/divisions/SLD The Passing of the Old Time Translator Kim Braithwaite Editor’s note: Who knows what treasure lurks in ATA publica- tion archives? Kim Braithwaite sent the following article, origi- The Ballad of John Henry the Translator nally published in the ATA Chronicle in 1976, and we immediately A Contest of Man Versus MT begged (demanded, actually) permission to reprint it in the Slav- When John Henry first started Russian File. A very small number of editorial changes were introduced to He picked up a gloss-ar-ee update this masterpiece. “This strange lookin’ text has got me perplexed But I’ll whip it if it don’t whip me (Lord Lord) Preface: Let us reflect upon our country’s folk heroes. They I’ll whip it if it don’t whip me” appear when history summons them, they strive and strut and struggle for their time, and when that time is done they fade John Henry said to the Editor from real life to become the stuff of legend. Consider the trapper, “No Russian can puzzle my mind the frontier fighter, the early steel worker, gold prospector, From fairy-tale books to gobble-de-gook riverman and mule driver. Consider the outsized myth of the I’ll make it talk English mighty fine (Lord Lord) I’ll make it talk English mighty fine” American cowboy, whose fame or infamy will ever endure. Con- sider if you will the shortlived heyday of the pony express rider, The Editor said to John Henry until the telegraph and railroad relegated him, too, to memory “Human translators is goin’ outa style and folklore. ‘Coz this language machine prints tidy and clean So it was to be with the Old Time Translator—that rough- And its speed got you beat by a mile (Lord Lord) MT got you beat by a mile” hewn flesh-and-blood wordsmith who, pounding his clunky manual typewriter and thumbing his dog-eared dictionaries, John Henry said to the Editor hacked his way through the guttural underbrush of alien prose “Well a linguist ain’t nothin’ but a man on nerve and brute intellect, long before there were multi- But if I can’t win ‘gainst wires and tin gigabyte hard drives, sophisticated software, OCR scanners, Web I’ll die with my Katzner in my hand (Lord Lord) resources, color monitors and printers in this land of ours. In I’ll die with my Katzner in my hand” time, the hardships and dangers he endured would be dim recol- They selected a book writ by Brezhnev lections: rendering an article or chapter into English would no On the Sino-Soviet split longer take weeks or months but mere days and even hours, and Full of twisty phrases and logical mazes those who came later would translate in ease and comfort. And what passes in Moscow for wit (Lord Lord) Inevitably the day would come when the Old Time Translator, What passes in Moscow for wit. like so many other stalwarts of simpler times, would look up from The IBM blinked into action his proud craft to find himself made obsolete by technology, sup- And the disk spun round and round planted now by the wizardry of Machine Translation (MT). Speed But the freaky semantics drove the proofreader frantic would overwhelm all else, and progress would have its way. And the syntax was upside down (Lord Lord) Hats off, then, to the pioneers who blazed the trails and The syntax was upside down tamed the wilderness. All in turn have succumbed to the tide of John Henry sat down at his typewriter higher and higher tech. Yet they live on in song and story, in the With his Katzner by his side tales that are told and the ballads that are sung around innumer- And his keyboard broke and his ears emitted smoke able campfires. Let us pause a moment to honor the real and the But the phrasing was smooth and precise (Lord Lord) mythical exploits of the Old Time Translator, one more departed His phrasing was smooth and precise craftsman whose like we may never see again. They carried him down to the clinic Sung, of course, to the traditional tune. And the nurse took him by the hand Kim Braithwaite, [email protected], translates from Russian and Geor- When John Henry came out you could hear folks shout gian, also Ukrainian and Belorussian. He worked for the Voice of “There goes a translatin’ man! (Lord Lord) America (Georgian), later taught English, linguistics, and ESL, and There goes a translatin’ man!” then went freelance. For a while he “post-edited” machine-translated Russian documents in the old mainframe days. SLAVIC LANGUAGES DIVISION Officers Administrator: Alex Lane 63 N. Pagosa Boulevard, Suite B-3 2005 is an SLD Election Year Pagosa Spring, CO 81147 This year the SLD will need to elect new officers-neither Administrator Alex Tel.: 832- 444-4555 Fax: 209-391-9931 [email protected] www.galexi.com/alex Lane nor Assistant Administrator Nora Favorov will be running for re-election. By the time you read this, a Nominating Committee will be in place looking for Asst. Administrator: Nora Seligman Favorov Tel.: 919-960-6871 Fax: 919-969-6628 candidates. If you are willing to run for either position, please contact members [email protected] of the committee (if you missed the email announcing the members just contact Membership Nora or Alex). Look for candidates' statements in the summer SlavFile. If more than one candidate is nominated for either position, the actual election will take $15 addition to ATA membership fee and designation of Slavic Languages Division place at the division's annual business meeting during the ATA Conference in membership on application or renewal form Seattle (November 9-12, 2005). provides full membership. Serving as division officer is a personally and professionally rewarding Write to ATA, 225 Reinekers Lane experience. Division officers must be Active members in the ATA. This means Alexandria, VA 22314 that they must be either certified in a language pair or have undergone Active SlavFile is published four times yearly. Membership Review. Associate members should not be discouraged: Active Letters to the Editor, short articles of interest, and Membership Review can be a quick and painless process. information for the calendar are invited. Duties of the administrators (any of which can be delegated) include Submissions become the property of SlavFile and overseeing the division budget, facilitating communication among the are subject to editing. membership (primarily through the SlavFile and the SLD website), encouraging Opinions expressed are those of the authors the submission of quality proposals for conference presentations, arranging the and do not necessarily represent annual banquet and Susana Greiss lecture and, where necessary, representing the the views of the Editor or of the Division. views of the SLD membership to the ATA Board of Directors. Translators and Editor: Lydia Razran Stone interpreters of Slavic languages other than Russian are particularly encouraged Tel.: 703-768-5441 Fax: 703-768-1889 to step forward. Alex, Nora and ATA Headquarters will, of course, assist the new [email protected] officers in any way they can. Please consider running for office or suggesting Associate Editor: Nora Favorov someone you think would do a good job. Associate Editor (Russian and Technical Material, RUN FOR SLD OFFICE Layout and Typesetting): Galina Raff Tel.: 704-849-8200 Fax: 704-296-2994 ENHANCE YOUR SELF-CONFIDENCE [email protected] ENHANCE YOUR VISIBILITY Contributing Editor (Ukrainian): Vadim I. Khazin ENHANCE YOUR PROFESSIONAL CONTACTS Tel.: 212-650-8094 Fax: 732-866-4372 [email protected] Contributing Editor (Polish): Urszula Klingenberg Tel.: 651-649-0277 [email protected] Inside: Contributing Editor (South Slavic Languages): Paula Gordon More Obscure Russian (Â) ....................................................... 3 Tel. & Fax: 836-236-7591 [email protected] Conference Presentation Reviews .....................4-7, 10-11, 14 Contributing Editor (Czech and Slovak): Judith Yeaton Internet Resources for Payment Problems ............................. 8 [email protected] Copy Editors: SlavFile Lite ............................................................................ 12 Jennifer L. Guernsey and Christina Sever Subscription to SlavFile More Feisty English ïî-ðóññêè .............................................. 13 without other membership benefits: $15 in USA and Canada Poland's Sworn Translators .................................................. 15 and $20 elsewhere. Write to Nora Favorov at above address. Mistakes of Non-native Speakers of Russian ....................... 17 Personal Search Engine ........................................................ 19 OFFERS OF WORK FROM EMPLOYERS AND CLIENTS ARE PUBLISHED FREE Page 2 SlavFile Spring 2005 V is for Âîçâðàùåíèå Âàëà SlavFile is delighted to welcome back Valeriy Shcherbakov and his very valuable dictionary, Obscure Russian Made Clear. Here we present some excerpts from the first part of the letter V, or rather, Â. The full entry will eventually be available on the SLD website (www.americantranslators.org/divisions/SLD/slavfile.html). Val himself, of Tula, Russia, may be contacted at [email protected]. 1.  ãîëîâå âåòåð (â æîïå äûì). (Wind in the head) Said of 12. Âåùäîê. An abbreviation for âåùåñòâåííîå someone unpredictable in behavior or flippant and frivolous— äîêàçàòåëüñòâî, i.e., material evidence proving somebody’s an airhead. This rather neutral phrase can be made vulgar by guilt. adding to it â æîïå äûì (smoke in the ass). 13. Âåùü! As an interjection and pronounced with delight, this 2.  ìåðó ñâîåé èñïîð÷åííîñòè. Usually used in the expression conveys in colloquial speech the highest possible assessment of Êàæäûé ïîíèìàåò â ìåðó ñâîåé èñïîð÷åííîñòè. This is the anything under discussion, except human beings. “Ìåðñåäåñ - rather touchy response of someone who has said something he ýòî âåùü!”—“The Mercedes, now that’s a car!” thinks or pretends to think is absolutely innocent that some- one else interprets as an obscenity or indecency.