I see each book as being deeply connected with the culture it comes from. Therefore, I believe when translating a book, the translator of choice should do a little background research, ask around, and basically get to know the author and his/her culture. Just knowing the language is really not enough.

Especially when the book is written in one language by an author coming from a different culture. Like Elif Shafak’s ‘The Bastard of Istanbul’. I’ve previously written a bit on this book and it’s translation. But this translation comes back to haunt me.

I cannot understand why the translator has been so lazy as to overlook entire sentences written in Turkish..Yes, you got that right, no translation at all! How stupid can that be? And then, she amazes me again with her ignorance. She states “Elhamdulillah” is in Turkish in the original text!!! Hello??? That’s Arabic. Not Turkish. Maybe, just maybe, if you’d checked first, someone would have taken pitty on you and told you there are a lot of Arabic phrases used by Turks, most of the related to religious rituals.

I’ve wrote a letter to Polirom, the publishing house on this, and now I am really curious to see their reply.

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Thanksgiving has passed and I didn’t even notice it. We don’t celebrate it in Romania, of course, so it does not mean much to me. But today I’ve come across this post written by Yvonne Russel over at Grow your Writing Business. While the reason to celebrate says nothing to me, the spirit of Thanksgiving, remembering what I should be thankful for, really appeals to me. Simply because we all have a great deal to be thankful for, to cherish, but we forget it all because of our busy life.

While the daily nonsense is a real reason, it’s not a very good excuse. So here’s my lists for things I’m thankful for.

• My parents, especially my mom
• My health and the well-being of those I love
• My boyfriend
• My friends, of which quite a few are online (at least 80% of my blogroll)
• Not having serious accidents while driving
• All the presents I received this year, they were all amazing
• The expressions of those I gave presents to all year
• My job and my colleagues
• My professional victories, larger ones and small ones alike
• The dream vacation I’ve had and the other short one coming at the end of the year

And the list could go on and on…How long is your list?

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Before moving, I always had a book with me. As I traveled a lot by underground trains, I had a lot of reading time (at least one hour a day) to enjoy. There were quite a few books I carried around for weeks, but at least managed to finish them.

Everything changed when I moved. My daily trip to the office and back takes about 10 minutes with the tram. So it was really too short for reading. I gave up carrying books with me. The result? I was feeling quite sad. My time for reading was limited even before moving, and it was shrinking more.

You can imagine my happiness when realizing that if I also count the time I spend waiting for the tram, I can get to at least 30 minutes of reading each day! It’s not much, I know, but it’s still something. And those 5 pages I read before work really have a great impact on my day. They make it a lot better! And I don’t know due to what mystery, I also seem to find more time for reading when I’m at home.

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When it comes to marketing tools and especially to documents (articles, white-papers, flyers, brochures etc), a lot of people still think whatever they come up with can fit in any usage scenario. What you use for end users works for system administrators also. What you send to department managers also work for CEOs. What works for IT companies also works for car manufacturers.

Well, this is never true. Not even if you sell bread. As some might care about how natural it is, while others are interested in its number of calories. The audience, the target group, those you want to reach, how ever you choose to name the “who”, never forget him/her/them. Who they are shapes how you say or do things. Because you want to hit the bull’s eye, not somewhere close by. Continue reading

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Loredana has tagged me a while ago to tell you what books I’ve been reading. Given that I haven’t managed to finish a book in weeks (too busy, too tired and other excuses), I will tell you what books I’m trying to read these days

I’ve read through about half of Mircea Cartarescu second book of the Orbitor(Glaring) series, Corpul (The Body). Amazing as the first one, however I feel I need to be less preoccupied when reading it, I need to free my mind first and apparently, I haven’t really managed to do so lately…

I’m also reading Joe Marconi’s Public Relations: The Complete Guide. Yes, work related, still a great read.

And the last one from my collection of hardly finished books, Elif Shafak’s novel The Bastard of Istanbul. Very catchy story, interesting style, but I’ll tell you more when I finish reading it.

There is something I have to say about the Romanian translation of this book. A little lesson for Ada Tanasa. In English, when you have a foreign word, like Turkis “dolma”, you can easily get a plural by adding an “s”: “dolmas”. When you get the book, written in English, and translate it into Romanian, you either cut the “s” all together, or use the Turkish plural, “dolmalar”. Maybe miss or misses Tanasa should have read a little about the Turkish language or culture before writing the book or asked for help, I am sure Polirom has Turkish-to-Romanian translators!

In the end, I have to tag some people…Mig would be the first, as I am really curious what she’s reading these days, Bro, to make him write on his blog and Safiya, to return a favor Of course, anyone feeling like sharing their reading list is welcome!

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