[Herr Brent]

Hello there,

I work as a freelance translator and am available to help you translate your manuscript to or from German.

I am a native speaker of English. I have lived in Germany for seven years and have achieved fluency. I am also quite familiar with colloquial language and slang.

I use translation software, but do not rely on machine translation. I also consult with other German speakers if I have any doubts.

I would also be willing to translate erotic works.

Please contact me if you are interested. I can offer you a competitive rate and provide you with a small translation sample.

I look forward to hearing from authors.

 

[P.C. (Peter) Anders]

Hi,

I cannot afford it for now, but i would like to ask you a question: Does English humor translate reasonably well into German? As I assume humor in the English language is often dependent on the peculiarities of the language itself, I would assume that even a 50% translation would be successful.

What is your experience, of the authors/translations you have read?  Martin Amis, Evelyn Waugh, for example?

 

[AmsterdamAssassin]

I'm Dutch, fluent in English (d'uh), and pretty good in German and French. I'd venture that translating humour is the most difficult thing in any translation. I use dry humour in my books, but not everyone picks up on it.

 

[Kate Argyll]

I translate too, and although humour can be very elusive, unless it is something very topical or dependent on local knowledge, you can usually work it out. For an example of brilliant humorous translation look at the Astérix
books where even puns are successfully translated. I met someone once who translated Finnegan's Wake into Catalan - now there is a challenge!

 

[JadeLogan]

I think translating Germanic and European languages, there is not much lost in way of the actual words translated, may be a few stray words and misunderstandings but fundamentally a good translation can be well received.

Have had some of my books translated into Japanese - now that IS a challenge!

I speak fluent Japanese and translated what i could but some words simply don't exist in the East, that's the difficulty, especially with slang.

Anyhoo - PM sent!

 

[Herr Brent]

I think it really depends on the particular piece of humour.

Obviously you can't always play with words in the same way. It will often seem forced and won't have the same effect.

Also, the Germans have a different sense of humour than North Americans or the British.

It's certainly possible to include humour, but it involves taking a bit of artistic license.

 

[Lissie]

I'm interested but I'd be more likely to contact you if you had some details about your website and experience in your sig line.

 

[P.C. (Peter) Anders]

I translate too, and although humour can be very elusive, unless it is something very topical or dependent on local knowledge, you can usually work it out. For an example of brilliant humorous translation look at the Astérix
books where even puns are successfully translated. I met someone once who translated Finnegan's Wake into Catalan - now there is a challenge!

That's surprising. I'm amazed that someone had the b***s to translate "Finnegan's Wake" into any language at all.

I guess the most difficult humor to translate would be puns and slang--double meanings are rich humor in the English language ("I have Sind" the famous telegram from the British conqueror who "took" Sind in present-day Pakistan and that also meant "I have sinned"), but would not make sense unless the same word had the same double meaning in the language it was being translated into.