Into English

Seven survival tools for translating Brazilian Portuguese into

English
and
Translation Journal's First World Translation Contest

by Danilo Nogueira

ome people handle gobbledygook in translation by the hallowed

GIGO (gobbledygook in, gobbledygook out) method. I don't. I
like my translations to be crystal-clear. The guys who read the stuff I
translate are businesspeople and they do not have the time or the
inclination to pore and ponder over a text, looking up words in an
unabridged dictionary; they want to understand what they have to
read the first time they skim through it. If they don't, they say "damn
the translator," not "damn the author".

All this business of "crystal-clear translation

The guys who read
for gobbledygook original" may be a little bit
the stuff I translate
contrary to good translation theory, but I
are businesspeople
am not talking about good translation theory
and they do not have
here, I am talking about earning a living.
the time or the
Readers of business translations expect to
inclination to pore
understand what they read without
and ponder over a
difficulty, and I have a family to feed.
text, looking up words
Therefore I keep it simple. Perfect
in an unabridged
reasoning.
dictionary.
So although my recipe for translation theory
may vary from time to time, it always includes a good shot of Strunk
& White's for the kick. (There is a bibliography of sorts at the end of
this article.) How much S&W's I use depends on many factors. Some
clients like it more than others but at least one guy complained that I
write funny (he was Brazilian, however).

Following my basic recipe, I have developed a set of survival tools,

some of which are shown below. I conducted a couple of seminars
where participants were shown how to use some of them. I even
intend to cram all of them into a small book. But today I must be
contented to squeeze a few of them into this article.

1. My favorite dictionaries

Businesspeople do not like words they don't know. They find reading
a text that requires frequent trips to the dictionary an irritating task.
Some translators seem to ignore that and use words that are seldom
found in the target language. Take homologar¸ for instance. The
Portuguese-English dictionary will tell you it is homologate, and a
large dictionary will dictionary will tell you homologate really
corresponds to homologar. However, homologar is a common word in
Brazil whereas homologate is not nearly as frequent in English. For
instance, the average Brazilian peão freely discusses a homologação
da rescisão- whereas an American hardhat probably would flinch at
homologation of the termination.

That is why I prefer smaller monolingual dictionaries to homologate,

er, confirm my translation choices. Black's Law Dictionary has all the
legal terms you can think of, including many a majority of American
lawyers and most executives do not know. Gifis' is a lot shorter and,
therefore a lot better if you are working into English. Translators who
dare use a word that is in Black's but not in Gifi's run the risk of not
being understood.

The same goes for non-technical dictionaries. Don't go about using a

word just because you found it in the Oxford English Dictionary. The
OED is an excellent dictionary that contains all the words nobody
knows. If you translate into English, get a few of those splendid
dictionaries they make for foreigners, such as the Longman
Dictionary of English Language and Culture and try to limit your
vocabulary to its selection. Of course, for the source language, the
more and bigger dictionaries you have, the better.

2. The nervous tic

I translate meaning, not nervous tics. One of my clients begins every

second paragraph with por oportuno, informamos também que... I
refuse to begin every second paragraph with because it is opportune
we also inform that. I asked the client why he wrote that way. He
said vício, an addiction. Then I suggested he should go over his
writings, after they were ready, and amputate those useless
proboscises. He thought the idea great, but never got around to
implementing it. So I do it on the translation. By the way, my charges
are based on the word count of original text.

3. The elevated synonym, the unctuous adjective, the local

reference and the geography of places unknown

Many Brazilian writers think calling a rose a rose is beneath their

station. So they call it anything but a rose. Well, not roses, really, but
take the Constitution, for instance. I have a book where it is variously
called a lei maior, a lei magna, nossa lei fundamental and even a lex
legum. Now the Constitução, by any other name, should be the
Constituition and nothing else. I also refuse to translate o pretório
excelso as anything other than the Brazilian Supreme Court.

The love of elevated language also forces other authors to add an

unctuous adjective to almost every noun. A lawyer will refer to the
guy who works for the other guys as meu erudito colega or o ilustre
jurista. My erudite colleague or the illustrious jurist inside a business
letter sounds too unctuous or ironical in English (three spoonfuls of
Eugene Nida) and I usually resolve that into my colleague, counsel
for X, or something of that sort. The Dickensian close sem mais para
o momento, apresentamos os protestos de nossa elevada estima
becomes yours sincerely.

One of my favorites among constructions of that type is o legislador

pátrio, which I do not dare translate literally, and is usually best
translated as the Brazilian Congress. Certain writers seem to be
ashamed of the word brasileiro and replace it with pátrio whenever
they can.

This leads us to the third type in this group: the local reference. O
Tesouro Nacional may be better translated by the Brazilian Treasury,
a moeda nacional by Brazilian currency. A língua patria by the
Portuguese language. O vernáculo is also the Portuguese language—
another case of the elevated synonym.

The last type in this group is the local geographical reference that
needs some expliciting (a pound of Peter Newmark). When a
newspaper in São Paulo refers to a baixada, it means a baixada
santista, which is better translated as the coastal area around the city
of Santos. O cerrado may by the scrublands of Central Brazil, where
the capital, Brasilia, is located, but also a derogatory reference to the
Federal Government, the irony of which may have to be compensated
somewhere else.

4. The sesquipedalian sentence

Portuguese apparently can handle long sentences better than English

can, for a number of alleged reasons I will spare you. Yes, I know
William Faulkner wrote sentences longer than the average
roundworm and some American lawyers suffer from periodophobia
(British lawyers can be stoppophobic). But being neither Faulkner nor
lawyer, I prefer not to burden my reader with those kilometer-long
Brazilian sentences (Brazilians don't write mile-long sentences; we
have gone metric ages ago). So, I start looking for a good splicing
place whenever the sentence runs to more than 25 words.

Natural splicing places are conjunctions and relative pronouns, of

course. My favorite is sendo que. Have you noticed how we can write
an extraordinarily long sentence, tack a sendo que on at the end for a
breather and then go on for another hundred words or so without
stop? I have been told sendo que is being that, but old Mr. Nida says
it is not. So I translate sendo que as a period.

5. The absolute clause

Even colloquial Portuguese will be sprinkled with initial absolute

constructions, which are possible in English, but not nearly as
common. Thus it is often better to develop them into clauses with
finite verbs. For instance an initial informado por um acessor de
que... may be after an advisor informed him that...Or indagado se
pretendia continuar may very well be when asked whether he
intended to go on.

6. The case of the missing noun

Many Brazilian gobbledygookers are in the habit of dropping the noun

out of noun-adjective phrases. For instance, petição inicial becomes a
inicial. If you don't know that, your are lost, because you are bound
to translate it as the initial¸ whereas it should be the complaint.

7. Abstractions, positive and negative

The latest fashion in Brazilian gobbledygook is the negative
abstraction. Abstractions have always plagued gobbledygook, both in
English and Portuguese, it is true, but somehow I feel English texts
use fewer abstracts than their Brazilian counterparts. Probably the
effect of Strunk & White and their followers north of the Rio Grande.
Quantity is of no importance however. What matters is that
sometimes a Portuguese abstraction does not translate well into
English.

Have a look at this: Excesso de pluviosidade está causando um

retardo na construção de estradas, which I found in a newspaper.
Two abstractions: pluviosidade and retardo. Excess pluviosity is
causing a delay in road construction in English is preposterous, but
even Brazilian radio reporters have taken to talking like that and the
average traffic report in São Paulo radio stations sounds like a
translation from a German treatise on higher metaphysics.

Using Vinay & Darbelnet's transposition tool, you can change the first
abstract into a concrete noun and the second into a verb: excess [or
"too much"] rainfall is delaying road construction. Funny that this
translates literally into perfectly good Portuguese: excesso de chuva
(or "chuva demais") está retardando a construção de estradas.

A existência de extintores em restaurantes é uma obigatoriedade. I

did find this in my morning paper. I had an extra cup of coffee to help
gulp it down. How can I say obrigatoriedade in English? Obligation?
So, existence of fire extinguishers in restaurants is an obligation? Or
all restaurants are required to keep fire extinguishers?

The following beauty is cribbed from Equivalences, an excellent book

if you know French: a audiência tem três características: oralidade,
publicidade e contraditório. Try translating the three abstractions.
Better translate it as the hearing has three characteristics: it must be
oral, it must be public and both sides must be heard.

However, the negative abstraction is even worse: a falta de uma lei

específica resulta na inexigibilidade do imposto. What is
inexigibilidade in English? Non-claimability? Is this a "virtual word",
one of those words that is not necessarily in any dictionary but can be
coined by anyone with sufficient chutzpah? Should we render it as the
lack of a specific law results in the non-claimability of the tax? May
be, but how about the tax may not be claimed unless a specific law is
enacted? This, of course, requires quite a few spoonfuls of Vinay &
Darbelnet transposition and modulation, but reads a lot better.

Envoi and Bibliography of Sorts

Envoi (not envoy, which is something else) is not in dictionaries for
foreigners and is a word I would hardly use in translation, but this is
an original text and translators are supposed to have a large
vocabulary anyway.

I could go on and on developing this article, but I had to stop

somewhere and I decided to stop where I did. I will probably return
to the subject in future articles, if this raises as much interest as I
think the issue deserves.

There is a lot of talk about whether we should translate from our

native language into a foreign language. There is even a very
interesting and realistic article on that subject, called Direction of
Translation by Allison B. Lonsdale in the Routledge Encyclopedia of
Translation. But I don't translate into English because of what
professor Lonsdale says. I translate into English because when I
began nobody told me I should not—and when they did it was too
late to stop. In fact, I think it is excellent training: one learns to
translate into Portuguese by translating into English and vice versa.
Thank God I am not a university professor.

I seldom wax theoretical and thus am not adept at preparing

bibliographies, but the data below will certainly help you find the
books, if your really wanto to.

S&W's obviously refers to the classic Elements of Style (Macmillan)

by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. There are several other books
on good English writing and one of my favorites is Style, by J.
Williams (Scott, Foresman and Company). These two should be
required reading wherever advanced English is taught. They are not.

I own J. P. Vinay and J. Darbelnet's classic, Stylistique comparée du

français et de l'anglais, in the first French edition, by Didier, but I saw
an English translation recently. I have not had a chance to examine
it, though. Worth reading even if you do not translate French.
Equivalences, a fascinating book by Eric Astington, (Cambridge)
amplifies and extends V&D's work in many ways. Unfortunately, it
only compares French and English. A nice, short, introduction to
translation techniques is Procedimentos Técnicos de Tradução, by
Heloisa Gonçalves Barbosa (Pontes). If you have not been introduced
to translation theory before, this may be the book to begin with—if
you can find it.

Peter Newmark's Approaches to Translation (Pergamon) is one of my

favorites, one of those marvelous books by someone who knows not
all translation studies should by restricted to literary translation.
Black's Law Dictionary (West) is, as far as I know, the largest English
law dictionary. Barron's publishes a shorter dictionary by Steven
Gifis, my favorite for into-English work.

Longman, Cambridge and Collins Cobuild publish superb dictionaries

for foreigners. Even if you are a native speaker of English, you should
have a look at them. The basic idea behind them is not all the words
there are, but all the words people use. Wonderful to help you avoid
those texts that are perfectly correct but do not read well because the
vocabulary is so highfalutin'. The best words are those found in at
least two of them.

I have never been able to lay my hands on any original work by

Eugene Nida. However his theories are well known and references are
often found in other people's work, for instance, in Peter Newmark.

Translation Journal's First World Translation Contest

We decided it was high time we ran a contest at the Translation

Journal. Why not? All you have to do to participate is translate a
single paragraph of Portuguese into English.

The paragraph is a nightmarish pearl of legalese found on page 164

of Eduardo Marcial Ferreira Jardim's Dicionário Jurídico Tributário
(Saraiva). There is nothing wrong with the book, except for the fact
that the style does not easily lend itself to translation. Take a look.

UNIVERSALIDADE DA JURISDIÇÃO. Postulado indeclinável do

Estado de Direito, o Diploma Excelso o contempla por meio do artigo
5º XXXV, que hospeda a seguinte fraseologia "a lei não excluirá da
apreciação do Poder Judiciário lesão ou ameaça a direito". Dito de
outro modo, significa a garantia constitucional que assegura a
qualquer pessoa o direito de bater às portas do Judiciário. Por sem
dúvida, exprime um dos sustentáculos do Estado de Direito,
incorporado entre nós pela Constituição de 1946, quando ensejou
candente comentário de Pontes de Miranda ao dizer que foi "a mais
típica e mais importante criação daquela Carta." Por força de seu
conteúdo, nenhum diploma normativo pode estabelecer qualquer
limitação que condicione o ingresso em juízo, como por exemplo, o
esgotamento das vias administrativas, porquanto tal hipótese afigura-
se decididamente conflitante com a dimensão semântica do aludido
primado constitucional.

The rules for the contest are a lot simpler that the above text.
1. You may submit as many entries as you want. Only submissions by
e-mail will be accepted. All e-mails should be addressed to
danilo.tradutor@uol.com.br. Only e-mails with "TRANSLATION JOURNAL
CONTEST" in the subject line will be considered. Use a penname and
one of those untraceable addresses that are so easy to get nowadays.
If you do not know how to get one of those addresses, have a non-
translator friend mail your entry. But, please, remember to ask your
friend NOT to add something like "Hi! This is X's entry". In other
words, if your entry is identified, you will be disqualified.

2. I will judge the entries, if any. I may ask some colleague for an
opinion, but the final decision will be mine. If you don't like my
decision, that is too bad. Don't sue me. Not worth the trouble. I am
as poor as any translator.

3. Entries will be accepted until December 31, 2000. If you win, I will
e-mail you for your name and address and later mail my next
dictionary. No great prize. The dictionaries are very small and cost
very little. Just a memento.

4. The results will be published in the first number of the Translation

Journal for 2001.

5. There is no "right" solution. There can be several possible good

translations for this paragraph. So you do not have to guess what the
translation is.

Please note that I do not run an agency, this is not a test of

any sort nor will I use it for any commercial purpose. Don't
send me your CV. There is nothing I can do with it.

This is an in otio cum dignitate contest. Let's have some leisure with
dignity. You are not running for top translator of the year. Let us
relax and have a good time translating the text. Let your translation
be as literal as possible and as free as necessary. Good luck.

© Copyright Translation Journal and the Author 2000