Handbook for translators of Spanish historical ... - University Library

CHAPTER III
PROCEDURE IN TRAMSLATIOH
Accuracy and readability are the foremost aims of the
translator of Spanish historical documents. Any procedure
that makes for a maximum of these qualities is acceptable.
The procedure that we advance hereinafter is presented because
it is one that has been used successfully for several
years. It consists of four operations.
The first and most important operation is reading the
document twice. The first reading is hurried— for meaning,
not for detail; any word not immediately legible is ignored.
The second reading is a careful analysis, subjecting each
word not readily deciphered to adequate natural eind artificial
light. -^ At the same time, each unfamiliar word is
noted and a satisfactory definition obtained before the
translator begins to write. While reading, notice is
taken of points where long sentences of involved Spanish
structure may be broken without altering the meaning. The
place where the Spanish sentence finally ends, being seldom
marked by a period and often by no puncttiation at all, is
especially noted by the translator.
The second operation consists of writing a first draft
translation of the whole document. Here the translator's
chief problem is good sentence structure, retaining at the
same time the specific idea conveyed and the flavor of the
original document. The writer of Spanish official communications
tends to employ a single sentence for the seune purpose
that a writer of English employs a paragraph, that is,
to cover a single topic. Thus, one official Spanish sentence
may contain numerous dependent , independent , and parenthetical
clauses and often covers one or more full pages. Obviously,
this structure cannot be retained literally without
creating an effect of oddness never intended by the writer.
Spanish sentence structure, however, does not require
changing merely because it is long. Occasionally a sentence
may retain its construction with definite advantage to the
translation. Perhaps in an effort to retain the elusive
flavor of the o riginal, translators sometimes attempt to
^For a discussion of the difficulties of reading manuscripts
and for aids in deciphering them, see Chapter II.
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