tranfree issue 42 - 6 November 2001

Feedback from Issue 41 Nobody's Perfect Article

Dear Alex

I read your article "Nobody's perfect" with interest. Yes, we all make mistakes, and I have yet to find a translator who has never taken a job he / she should have left well alone. It happened to me once, with dire consequences ... although the client was rather understanding, I lost him for good and I still feel rotten about letting him down.

I had taken this (big) job on a Friday evening, eve of a bank holiday, it was a subject in which I was no specialist, but I wanted to do them a favour because they were running short of options and they were friends of a friend (and I had good dictionaries) - the translation turned out to be a complete nightmare... to cut a long story short, I vowed never to be pushed into taking a job again, but also not to be so greedy when there was no need to be.

But fate tempted me again recently. The client, a long-standing one, called me and asked if I could take 6000 words, with a short deadline (job emailed on Wednesday pm, to be returned by Friday am) and tricky terminology. I refused, saying this wasn't my field, but they insisted, offering the client's glossary.

I turned them down again, arguing the short deadline, but they rung me later and said that they could extend the deadline by half a day, so could I please do them the favour, they had nobody else...it was tempting, not because I needed the job, but because they made me feel needed and I felt bad refusing to help them.

But...

...I held my ground, remembering what had happened the previous time I yielded to a client's pleas... The other thing was, I was heavily pregnant with my first child and had been told to take it easy.

Well, that was on a Wednesday afternoon. By Wednesday night, I was in hospital, and by Thursday, I had given birth to my baby boy! Hardly a good time for translating a "tricky job" ! Even in labour, I was thinking "oh my god, when I think I nearly took that big job... It would have been a disaster, I would never have fitted it in before Friday lunchtime!"

A good lesson anyway, and one thing is for sure, next time the situation arises again, I won't even be remotely tempted !

Marina Attwood-Philippe (Translator English into French)

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