How translating a WW2 diary helped me explore someone else's (hi)story, but it also gave me a pr
As I am settling into the life of a translation trainee at the European Institutions with an 8:30 - 17:30 working schedule, I can't help but look back to the "good old days" (aka about a month or so ago) when I was translating in my fluffy pyjamas in bed, while drinking inappropriate amounts of espresso and listening to Molly and the Zombies songs in the background. Don't get me wrong, these fluffy, jim-jam days didn't come along that often since I was spending most of my days interpreting (in the field, so to speak and thus, wearing pant suits and actual shoes). However, the month of January was a completely different (translation) story.
I had to translate one of my most time-consuming, intricate, and complex but also magnificent projects: I was translating a World War Two diary from Romanian into English. I was extremely fortunate because someone had kindly passed on my contact details to the client, and the project simply landed in my lap, without any prior warning.
And when it landed, it sure made a splash: the diary actually consisted of four separate (handwritten, obviously!) journals, each of around 120 pages. The client explained the purpose of the translation: she simply wanted to know more about her mother (the diary's author) and her past since that was an era that she knew very little about. In fact, my client spoke no Romanian whatsoever, yet felt an urge to understand her mother's past and follow her along her journey to Britain, as she was trying to escape war-ridden Romania.
As soon as I accepted the project, I realised that I didn't really know what I was getting myself into: the client did not want a conventional translation, but required a summary of certain elements of the diary, with a more literal, "faithful" approach to be maintained for those extracts that dealt with the war and the socio-political issues of that time, and of course with her mother´s personal life and deep, inner thoughts. Now those are a lot of variables for a quote or even for a rough estimate of the final cost and timeframe! I resorted to charging an hourly rate for the project and immersed myself in the diaries and started reading and, of course, translating/editing.
From the very beginning, I felt as if I were reading a novel. The author's style flowed beautifully and the "plot" was intriguing. Throughout the more bellicose chapters, I could not help but worry about the heroine of the "book". Would she make it? Would she survive the war and reach England? Would she ever see her parents back in Romania? Of course, I knew all the answers to these questions. She did make it to England, she did survive the war, but she never returned to her native country. I knew all of this because I had met her daughter, her daughter had commissioned the project, after all! But, somehow, the suspense still lingered on.
The workload was considerable, but I struggled to pace myself and I felt an incontrollable urge to carry on translating and could rarely find the desire to concede myself any breaks. I carried on working through the wee hours of the night when I managed to, and could not stop reading (or translating) her words. Nothing ever felt as natural as conveying her thoughts. In fact, I felt like I was part of the diary, performing alongside the author, somehow trapped between its pages, yet at the same time, distant and impartial, scrutinising.
The text contained several intrinsic difficulties, starting from the format and the calligraphy of the author, to the archaic language employed in certain parts of the text. The handwriting was overall legible, but at times, especially when it came to proper nouns (names of places and people), I felt that my eyes were betraying me as I was trying to decipher the swirls of every single letter.
The actual language was relatively similar to the one used in modern-day Romanian, but in some instances, it was overflowing with archaic words for proper nouns describing household appliances, among others, or with recherché adjectives.
What also proved arduous, at times, was trying to extract the hidden information from sentences and thoughts that contained premises that I was simply unaware of. The author obviously knew if "R" was a man or a woman, she certainly knew what the nicknames she used referred to. However, for a reader unfamiliar with the inner workings of her mind. it was difficult to understand if she was referring to people, animals or objects.
The diary was meant to be left as a posthumous legacy for generations to come. That was the author's clear intention and the message she left to her daughter, and thus the reason why my client commissioned this translation. Nonetheless, it was first and foremost a diary and, as such, it contained an outlet for her deepest feelings and emotions, it contained a piece of her.
What I enjoyed most was following her along her physical voyage and "accompanying" her on this coming-of-age journey while exploring the landscapes of Romania at the time, the perils of a sea voyage during WW2, the fear of air raid sirens and the joy of the "all clear". I followed all of this while noticing the changes in her handwriting and in her style of writing throughout the span of four years.
This project had such an impact on me that I decided to start my own diary of a sort. Although my aim is not to record my day-to-day life, I have drawn inspiration from this assignment and started collecting my thoughts, ideas, some drafts of short stories and creative writing pieces in a small notebook. I doubt my descendants will ever decide to have it translated, but you never know! And I believe I am setting a burdensome task for this potential, future translator: the ramblings in my diary are multilingual and they contain self translation extracts.
