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Sample translations submitted: 2
English to French: Science-Fiction novella by Jack Vance (excerpt) General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - English The Augmented Agent
Jack Vance
(excerpt)
Over a period of some months, James Keith had undergone a series of subtle and intricate surgeries, and his normally efficient body had been altered in many ways: "augmented," to use the jargon of the Special Branch, CIA.
Looking into the mirror, he saw a face familiar only from the photographs he had studied—dark, feral and harsh: the face, literally, of a savage. His hair, which he had allowed to grow long, had been oiled, stranded with gold tinsel, braided and coiled; his teeth had been replaced with stainless-steel dentures; from his ears dangled a pair of ivory amulets. In each case, adornment was the secondary function. The tinsel strands in his headdress were multi-laminated accumulators, their charge maintained by thermo-electric action. The dentures scrambled, condensed, transmitted, received, expanded and unscrambled radio waves of energies almost too low to be detected. The seeming ivory amulets were stereophonic radar units, which not only could guide Keith through the dark, but also provided a fractional second’s warning of a bullet, an arrow, a bludgeon. His fingernails were copper-silver alloy, internally connected to the accumulators hi his hair. Another circuit served as a ground, to protect him against electrocution— one of his own potent weapons. These were the more obvious augmentations; others more subtle had been fabricated into his flesh.
As he stood before the mirror, two silent technicians wound a narrow darshba turban around his head, draped him with a white robe. Keith no longer recognized the image in the mirror as himself. He turned to Carl Sebastiani, who had been watching from across the room—a small man, parchment-pale, with austere cheekbones and a fragile look to his skull. Sebastiani’s title, Assistant to the Under Director, understated his authority just as his air of delicacy misrepresented his inner toughness.
Translation - French Le syndrome de l'homme augmenté
Jack Vance
(extrait)
Sept mois durant, James Keith avait subit une série d'opérations subtiles et complexes. Son corps, saint et fonctionnel, avait été altéré — "augmenté", pour employer le jargon technique de la CIA.
Il ne connaissait ce visage dans le miroir qu'à travers des photographies : sombre, farouche, sévère — une véritable tête de sauvage ! Ses longues nattes graissées et tressées de fils d'or pendaient en spirales ; en guise de dents luisait un dentier en inox ; une paire d'amulettes en ivoire se balançait de ses oreilles. Dans chaque cas, l'aspect ornemental était secondaire. Les fils d'or cachaient des accumulateurs multi-laminés, qui se rechargeaient par des réactions thermo-électriques. Le dentier pouvait brouiller, condenser, transmettre, recevoir, décompacter et décoder des ondes radios presque trop faibles pour être détectées. Les pseudo-amulettes dissimulaient un radar stéréophonique capable non seulement de guider Keith dans le noir, mais aussi de lui donner quelques fractions de secondes d'avertissement en cas de danger. Ses ongles étaient un alliage de cuivre et d'argent, intérieurement connecté aux accumulateurs dans ses cheveux. Un autre circuit servait de prise de terre pour le protéger contre l'électrocution — l'une des plus puissantes de toutes ses propres armes. C'étaient ses "augmentations" les plus évidentes ; d'autres, plus subtiles, résidaient sous sa peau.
Il se tenait devant le miroir pendant que deux techniciens silencieux plaçaient un turban — un darshba — autour de sa tête avant de l'habiller d'une robe blanche. Keith ne se reconnaissait plus. Il se tourna vers Carl Sebastiani, qui l'observait de l'autre côté de la pièce — un petit homme, blanc comme un linceul, aux pommettes saillantes et dont le crâne semblait d'une grande fragilité. Son titre, assistant au sous-directeur, minimisait son autorité tout autant que son air fragile dissimulait sa dureté interne.
French to English: a fantasy novel by Jean-Philippe Jaworski General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - French ORIGINAL
a short excerpt from « Janua Vera »
a French fantasy novel by Jean-Philippe Jaworski
Welf resta pensif un moment. Je n’avais pas envisagé que la perspective d’un conflit pouvait l’affecter à ce point ; après tout, c’était un vétéran. Marin et soldat : la guerre contre Ressine représentait pour lui une ouverture, la possibilité de se tailler sa part de butin et de gloire. Et il n’était même pas né à Ciudalia ! Moi, la guerre, je m’en souciais comme de ma première paire de chausses ; ça n’empêchait pas les particuliers de vouloir liquider leurs rivaux en amour ou en affaires. Welf ne semblait pas saisir l’opportunité qui s’offrait à lui. Peut-être vieillissait-il. Ou peut-être Avallonëe exerçait-elle déjà un charme délétère sur son esprit.
Après une hésitation, Welf reprit la parole.
— Au Sénat, il y a encore le tiers parti... Que font les Souverainistes ?
— Une minorité. Ils sont divisés, eux aussi. Ils n’ont pas de ligne claire.
Welf s’ébroua, comme s’il avait du mal à se faire à cette idée.
— Mais... et le Podestat ? Que fait le Podestat ?
Translation - English ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Welf remained thoughtful for a moment. I had not considered how deeply the prospect of a conflict could affect him; after all, he was a veteran. Seaman and soldier: the war against Ressina would allow him to claim his share of booty and glory. And he wasn’t even born in Ciudalia! Myself, I couldn’t care less about the war; it wouldn’t stop individuals from wanting to dispatch rivals, whether in love or in business. Welf did not seem to register how this could be an opportunity for him. Maybe he was getting old. Or maybe Avallonëe was already exercising its deleterious charm on his mind.
After a pause, Welf spoke again:
“There still is a third party in the Senate... What are the Monarchists doing?”
“They’re a minority. Also divided, anyway. And their policies are unclear.”
Welf snorted, as if he was having a hard time getting used to the idea.
“But... what about the Podestat? What’s the Podestat doing?”
I'm a bilingual French-English writer and translator with over 20 years of experience in the French Science-Fiction/Fantasy publishing industry.
My experience as a developmental and line editor has also been significant, though mainly in French. I've worked in this capacity for the magazines Scen'ART, some issues of Slash and two anthologies. I also did a lot of editing on Philippe Ward's first two novels (Ward has since become a publisher, at the head of Rivière Blanche).
In English, I did a new (more modern) edit of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the looking glass" which was published in 2012.
My personal pet peeve is language related: I find it extremely annoying when people write "I could care less" when what they truly mean to say is "I couldn't care less". It's unfortunately a very common error that people make. It's hard to correct, though, since... most people couldn't care less about it, it seems!
I strive to always get the best results and feel confident that I could turn in high quality work for any project you would like to throw my way.
My fields of expertise -- in fiction: SF/Fantasy, crime/thriller/spy stories -- in non-fiction: film, TV shows, music.
Keywords: french, english, science-fiction, fantasy, fiction, novels, short stories, novellas, ghostwriting, ghostwriter. See more.french, english, science-fiction, fantasy, fiction, novels, short stories, novellas, ghostwriting, ghostwriter, translation, translator, writer. See less.
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