As you may already know, the 2nd Written Exam will be held on Monday, 9th during the first two classes.

This one will be all about translation and given that we rarely, if ever practise this complex skill, you should be ready for what is in store.

Our classes on Friday will only last 30 minutes, so I would appreciate if you could translate one of the following excerpts at home, so that we can analyse your translations on Friday.

Some of my tips would be the following:

You should read the entire excerpt first and many times if needed to get the gist of the story. The first thing that you should do is answer the following journalist questions: what kind of an excerpt it is (fiction, non/fiction) where the action is taking place, who is there, then whether you are dealing with a narration, a dialogue or an internal monologue.

Be mindful of the context. Many English words are polysemous, you may know one meaning of the word but not all of them. So you would need to have a good monolingual dictionary first and then a good bilingual one. You CAN'T SHARE dictionaries, so it is essential you bring dictionaries of your own. Using mobiles will not be allowed.

Here are the excerpts:

But she knew this was a race she was not going to win. Her horse was a neat, sprightly gelding, but he hadn't the stride or the deep chest of the pursuing animal. Unless Delsey decided for some reason to give up the chase, she was going to be overtaken within minutes. And then she realised that her pursuer was not overtaking her, he was keeping an even distance between them, and for some reason this infuriated her. It was as if he was playing with her, cat with mouse, allowing her to think she was escaping even as he waited to pounce in his own good time.

She slipped her hand into her boot, her fingers closing over the hilt of the wickedly sharp dagger Jack had insisted she carry from the moment she had matured enough to attract unwelcome attention. By degrees, she drew back on the reins, slowing the horse's mad progress as she straightened in the saddle. The hooves behind her were closer now. He must have been too confident of himself. She waited, wanting him to be too close to stop easily. Her mind was cold and clear, her heart steady, her breathing easy. But she was ready to do murder although she wished she had never come that far.

He was close now and as she'd thought his horse was going fast enough to carry him right past her before he could pull it up. She saw his startled expression as for a minute he was facing her head on.

J. Cheever, Strike

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Crossing the vast South Atlantic on board the Crystal Serenity, the only blip on our radar is the speck of St Helena. A thousand miles from the nearest continent, and well off the main Atlantic sea lanes, this cluster of islands remains as splendidly isolated as they were in the time of Napoleonic wars.

As our cruise ship approaches the islands, mountains and cliffs appear on the most populous of the three inhabited islands, the 47sq mile outcrop of St Helena itself, but the lack of even a harbour these days hints at the seclusion enjoyed by its population of 4,000 souls.

On St Helena, however, the occasional guests are warmly welcomed by the Saints, as the inhabitants are known if, that is, they can get ashore. There is no breakwater or even a protected anchorage on the windward side. So, having spent considerable time voyaging to the island there is a possibility that the rough seas caused by the south-east trade winds will prevent any launch from approaching the quayside.

It was not always so. Indeed, this isolated island of Spartan beauty is where Napoleon was dispatched in 1815 to prevent him from repeating his escape from Elba, and where he died in May 1821. Then, it was a prosperous, indeed strategic port on the long trade route around the Cape of Good Hope to India, and would remain so until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 wrecked the business. Thereafter, St Helena entered its melancholy time capsule, altering little over the years.

Nigel West, The Lives of the Saints

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The Translation Exam for the 4th Year

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