Stray thoughts, tamed.
Given the recent punishing work schedule I imposed on myself, I may be forgiven for thinking that I was hallucinating, but this e-mail actually did arrive in my spam folder. I appreciate that it is very difficult to achieve perfection of expression in one's own language, let alone a second one. I am not knocking... Continue Reading →
NAJIT Blog. Well, what you need to know if you live in the United States of America. Your own country probably does have a similar organisation who will be happy to provide you with the information you need. This is a long article. If you are not an interpreter or a translator, you will find... Continue Reading →
Scrabs is not in the dictionary. That is what the Scrabble® (excluding U.S. and Canada) application on Facebook will tell you. I say Scrabs simply to avoid inserting the registered trademark symbol every time I type it. It's a cheap shot, I know. I like playing online. It beats playing on one's own! I play... Continue Reading →
My dislike of making phone calls collided with the necessity of phoning customer support to reconfigure my modem after our recent bout of liquid sun. Viewed objectively, I could help myself in two ways: I could order a new landline instrument so that I do not have to use my cheap cellphone on which I... Continue Reading →
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE IS DEFINITELY ABOUT THE REVISION OF TRANSLATIONS. THERE ARE NO PICTURES. JUST WORDS. YES, I USED CAPITAL LETTERS. I must have been feeling upbeat yesterday. Why else would I accept a couple of assignments involving the revision of translations from German into English? There is nothing unusual about this. The last revision I... Continue Reading →
I have chosen now. Well, that is rather misleading. Let me rephrase that: I have finally chosen now to be the time. This is the time to translate that poem. I shall need a preamble for this. For fellow translators in a hurry: the poem in the original Portuguese together with the English translation are... Continue Reading →
One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.Thus spake Voltaire.One great use of quotations in translation is to hide the original. That is what I say. My web search skills must still be in need of improvement. I have not found the original French yet. Any light anyone can shed on the matter... Continue Reading →
The click I am referring to is not the sound this rather poor attempt English makes at onomatopoeia. It is the sound made when the isiXhosa word qongqothwane is correctly pronounced. Listen carefully as to how that oh-so-grand lady Miriam Makeba does it in a number made famous as The Click Song.It is also the sound... Continue Reading →
That elusive pair of jeans 