Hi!
I've just reached over 1,000,000 translated words for Gengo—twice what it takes to become a Wordsmith—and was wondering what was next for my career as a translator in general and with Gengo in particular. Do more experienced translators have any advice on what to do from here? I would like to apply my experience to new projects, perhaps something involving new translation technologies.
I would really appreciate any input! :)
2 comments
Hi Facundo,
I already replied to your other recent post, but would still like to repeat my congratulations on your achievement of translating 1,000,000 words! That's a great accomplishment! (See that post for my thoughts on that matter.)
To your question of "What now?" all I can say is that translating/writing is a skill that can be used in so many different ways. I think it depends on what you enjoy and what you want to do. Your path will be unique.
For me, I've found that I enjoy literary translation (something Gengo doesn't offer), so after translating several novels for Italian writers into English, I've taken on a self-directed project of translating Italian literature from the public domain into English.
My first effort in this realm was a new, improved, modern translation of Pirandello's "One, No One & 100,000." It's now available as a very inexpensive ebook on Amazon everywhere.
I'm currently working on translating a short romantic/historical novel by a prolific Italian writer of the early 1900s who seems to have been lost in the sands of time. Nothing (!!) of his is available in English, so I look forward to providing the first commercially available translation of one of his works to the anglophone public. I hope it'll shed a bit of light on this particular writer. I'll publish it in November if all goes as planned (I'm hesitant to name the author or work until I publish).
Bottom line, find what interests you, and select a project or a mission that speaks to you and go for it!
Best wishes and continued success!
Kevan Houser
Hi Kevan,
Thanks again for your congratulations and for your advice now. I was also thinking there's so many things you can apply writing/translating to and have a few ideas on my mind.
That's really impressive you've translated novels from Italian! Actually, literary translation is my favorite field of translation as well. However, I haven't found a way to make a profit out of that yet and I also enjoy "commercial translation," especially when you consider the new translation technologies, which I think are pretty exciting!
I've never read anything by Pirandello but I'll make sure to check him out. Congrats on starting your own projects! That really must take a lot of determination.
I wish you much success as well and hope to keep seeing you around on Gengo!