Pubdate: Thu, 22 May 2014
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Jon Carroll
Page: E6

TRANSLATIONS, WEATHER, POT - A CORNUCOPIA

The truth revealed about little old Italian ladies in North Beach.

I do get all sorts of wonderful mail, and I do not share it as often 
as maybe I should. So here are three more examples, all from the 
golden world of cyberspace.

The first is from Maria Hachey, who is a translator and friend of 
translators. In a column, I wondered about how translators do what 
they do - that level of fluency in two (or three, or four) languages 
struck me as miraculous.

"As to how we do it, several of us are immigrants. Several of us also 
start with a different mother tongue than English. In Canada, we have 
a more formal training than in the U.S. and several of us are raised 
in bilingual environments. (I'm of French Canadian descent but I 
learned both French and English at the same age. My education was 
also bilingual.) That certainly puts us ahead of the game in some 
ways, but not all of them.

"Translators generally translate from their second (third, etc.) 
language into their mother tongue. To be fluent in a language for 
translators specifically refers to their writing skills. In other 
words, we need to understand the source material in detail, but it's 
more important to have good writing abilities in our mother tongue.

"So yes, it's quite possible to find translators who translate into 
more than one pair of languages, but it's difficult for anyone to 
keep that level of written fluency considering the semantic changes 
in languages over time. These claims are unlikely to be true unless 
some specific life circumstances enable these translators to spend 
significant amounts of time in several countries, enough to absorb 
the new varieties in a given area and language pair.

"As for the specifics, we have a few different guidelines that we may 
choose to follow. Generally these are along the lines of the 
English-Russian debate you mentioned. Do we formulate a passage 
according to its rhythm? Do we find an equivalent passage in its 
meaning? Its emotional impact? Do we adapt it to the readers or do we 
honor the writer's intent? These specifics are up to individual 
translators and that's how you get entirely different translations, 
even with the same translator."

I got a letter from Ellen Komp, deputy director of California NORML. 
I had written a column expressing my worries about pesticides in 
marijuana, because it's a largely unregulated commodity.

She sent me links to various stories on each subject, together with 
bullet points, so it all checks out.

"The Mendocino Agriculture Department tried to certify organic pot in 
2005 but the state turned 'em down.

"A group called the Emerald Growers Association has put out a guide 
to pesticide-free growing.

"An attorney named Chris Van Hook, who certifies organic orchards and 
other crops, also certifies medical marijuana as 'clean green' (i.e., organic).

"Most marijuana sold in collectives is lab tested these days, and 
they test for pesticide residues.

"Some local medical marijuana cultivation ordinances, such as the one 
in El Dorado County, have environmental regulations about water use."

Finally, this charming note from Tom Genelli, reacting to a column 
about the weather around here:

"As a war-orphaned child in San Francisco (my parents both worked in 
the defense industries), much of my upbringing in the early 1940s 
fell upon my beloved Grandpa Joe, an Italian American, 
ex-professional boxer, cable car conductor, church sexton at St Peter 
& Paul, widower and all around dapper bon vivant.

"He was a friend to me, from age 7 to 13, more companion than a baby 
sitter. We would trip the light fantastic over the hills and back 
alley restaurants of North Beach visiting Grandpa Joe's various 
cronies, making me privy to information never revealed at my Catholic 
grammar school. On one particularly hot Sunday Grandpa Joe revealed 
to me that the fog would return on the next day. He explained that 
whenever it got too hot in San Francisco the little old Italian 
ladies at St. Peter & Paul would light candles and the gentle fog 
would return the next day. From that time I never worried about it 
when it became too darned hot, assured that on the third day the fogs 
would return.

"It seems that severe weather patterns have now become the norm. It 
is not difficult to imagine the tribulations that would follow if the 
climate regulating fogs were to fail. Climatic change is one thing, 
but we must also acknowledge the decrease in number of little old 
Italian ladies who traditionally lit candles at St. Peter & Paul. I 
have not personally investigated the possible decrease in candles 
currently being lit but assume the figures would be telling."

"If everybody minded their own business," the Duchess said in a 
hoarse growl, "the world would go round a deal faster than  ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom