Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library)

Chapter 9. Living in a crowd 225same premises) easier (both work for the same company or organisation and bothdo serve the same interests) and more profitable (in that the author can explainmeaning in detail and provide the translator with all the necessary informationand explanations about the subject matter, the product, or the domain concerned).6. Translators and proof-readersThe job of the proof-readers, in theory at least, is to correct whatever is blatantlywrong in a translation while at the same time identifying and pointing outanything they find strange or unusual or ambiguous. Since it is not their job tocorrect the translation proper, they are not felt to be actually passing judgementonthequalityofthetranslator’swork.All the same, translators who rely on ‘volunteer’ proof-readers must be waryof exhausting potential resources. Even the most willing partners need some kindof compensation for their pains, in cash or in kind (i.e. free translation or otherservices in return). And translators must also be very careful not to place theirproof-readers under the kind of pressure – in terms of notice and deadlines – thatthey themselves resent on the part of their work providers.Even when the relationship with the proof-readers is defined within aninstitutional framework of some kind (e.g. when both the translator and the proofreaderwork for the same employer) the translator must be careful to stick toschedule and give the proof-reader sufficient notice for the job in hand.7. Translators and revisersThe relationship between translators and revisers is often a difficult one. Thereviser is all too often seen by the translator both as a quality assessor and as astern and unforgiving schoolteacher, out to correct all ‘mistakes’. No one, whateverthe circumstances, enjoys being subjected to critical appraisal, especially when it isrelentless and uncompromising, as the reviser’s has to be. Many a translator feelstempted to take the easy way out of any problem and say: “Let the reviser get onwith it then and do the translation himself, if he’s so good at it...” To make thingsworse, the reviser may, at times, make rash corrections, overlooking the fact thatthe translator has had to compromise to come up with what seemed to him to betheonlypossiblesolution,albeit a not very satisfactory one.If the reviser has been commissioned by the translator, problems seldom arise.Both will work as a team and share responsibility for the ultimate quality of thetranslation and also for the economic viability of the job. The translator soonlearns that the reviser is there to add value, not to correct elementary mistakes,