As I was typing out a message to an artist in Brazil who has done some excellent work for me (the image of the female hand with the blue flame/spirit is his work), it occurred to me that I might want to consider having some of my short stories translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and perhaps Italian. I thought of these because I often find myself interacting with people who speak one or more of these languages on a regular basis. The Spanish I can probably handle with a little effort, since I live in a place where about half of the population speaks it and I kinda-sorta speak it (I understand more than I speak–funny how that works), but I don’t think I’m up to taking on either Portuguese or Italian and doing justice to either one.
I was also wondering just how important it is to have one’s work translated into another language. What I mean is that there is always Google, and it seems to do a decent job (it sometimes botches the tenses and irregular verbs, but most of the time it’s readable). Then there is the wide-spread proliferation of English across the world. It’s still only the third most common language globally (Mandarin Chinese and Spanish are #1 and #2, respectively), but it is a common lingua franca of technical and commercial discourse. Surprisingly, Portuguese comes in at #6, according to the Swedish Encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin.
Nonetheless, I suspect that a person who’s native language is not English would appreciate being able to read something in their native tongue. So, I’m on a quest to find an affordable way to get some of my work translated. I will periodically post updates on my progress, and if you have any suggestions or advice to share on this topic, please feel free to do so.
Here’s a bit of humor about languages:
What do you call someone who can speak three or more languages?
A polyglot.
What about someone who can speak two languages fluently?
Bilingual.
And someone who can only speak one language?
An American.
(This was told to me by a Russian language professor at an awards luncheon a while back–he’s an American from Ohio)
The Wind Muse 