Translations

Since 1997 I’ve worked as a free-lance translator from English to Czech and Czech to English. Because I have the added benefit of having a native English-speaker editor and writer at home as a husband, we focus on translations into English.

My projects tend to fluctuate between web-development and translations, the main reason being that I like change in my work schedule and the challenges. Very often these two fields go hand in hand, from producing original copy-writing in Czech or English to developing the brand and the website and translating the final presentation.

Creative Translations

Besides regular business documentation, contracts and communications for legal firms or scientific grant proposals, I specialize in what I call creative translations. These are translations requiring some creative input on part of the translator and editor, not just an accurate transfer of information from one language to another. These texts need to appeal to a particular audience and at the same time sound natural and fluid.

Typical needs for creative translations include promotional texts for websites, flyers or Powerpoint presentations (such as product and service descriptions), FAQs or customer-service instructions. This is usually a combination of copy-writing and translation.

I also work for leading advertising agencies, because most campaigns tend lose all their glory and punch when simply translated. The shorter the brand, motto or headline, the more impact it carries and its supporting text usually needs to be rewritten. This is also true on the conceptual level, when I translate Powerpoint presentations for advertising agency clients.

But of course, my favorite work is translating literature, may it be fiction, non-fiction or poetry. Being a writer myself (and having many of them as close friends), I have an understanding for balancing author need for sustaining content and style, with the customs and interests of the target readers, who enjoy texts that don’t feel like translations. This is a real and interesting challenge.

Milestone Projects

In case of larger projects, I lead a team of trusted translators (many of them writers or journalists themselves) who collaborate with my husband as a single editor maintaining style and continuity. Among these cases was a translation of an encyclopedic publication called Moravian Dominions of the Liechtensteins and Dietrichsteins into English. The 600+ page book covers a thousand-year family history of the Liechtenstein and Deitrichstein aristocracy in Europe and was commissioned by His Highness, Crown Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein.

Probably my most difficult, but also most successful work so far is my cooperation with Slovak writer Róbert Gál. Róbert writes experimental prose, often in the form of short aphorisms packed with neologisms, double meanings, philosophy and irony. Excerpts from his novels have been published in many international literary magazines and selected for the 2012 Best European Fiction anthology by Dalkey Archive Press. In this case I translated from Slovak to English, then worked directly with Robert, a translation editor (my husband) and a literary editor from the publishing company.

My project portfolio is available at: www.translation-proofreading-webdesign.com