As I mentioned in a post last month, I have more than a passing interest in the folk music of Bulgaria, and particularly that of the region around my wife’s native city of Burgas. While we were there, we happened to run across an interesting book titled Musical Folklore of Strandja Region: Peculiarities of Rhythm, Metrics, Structure, and Modes by Professor Stefan Tchapkanov. The only problem with the book, for me at least, is that other than the foreword and the abundant musical examples, the entire text is in Bulgarian. So until my reading comprehension improves, the book is basically an outstanding anthology to accompany research by American ethnomusicologists such as Timothy Rice and Donna Buchanan.

So what does this have to do with a career opportunity? Well, I took the book off the shelf yesterday and started reading through the foreword. After just a few moments I suddenly became aware that I had absolutely no idea what I was reading! It is not that the literal translation is incorrect (and far be it for me to criticize anyone who speaks more than one language with any fluency!) but rather that the translation, in many subtle (or not so subtle) ways just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense without very careful scrutiny. This immediately brought to mind a career opportunity that I’ve had in mind for many years now: Re-Translator!

So here’s the job listing:

Wanted: Young, entrepreneurial native English (or French, or German, etc.) speaker with a good vocabulary, good writing skills, and a sense of adventure to join our staff of translators. No experience necessary, proof of language skills required. Come enjoy living abroad as you contribute to our burgeoning economy by re-translating a variety of documents.

Do you have what it takes to be a re-translator? Here is a passage from the forward of Musical Folklore of Strandja Region first in Bulgarian, and then translated into English. Please re-translate, you have 10 minutes, starting… NOW!:

В Този контекст трябва в днешното фолклорно наследство на странджа да откриваме самобитно музикално светоусещане, в което се транслира по един или друг начин общата полклорна култура на странджанци с тяхната регионална идентичноцт като потомци на едно автохтонно население. Нецлучайно Михаил Арнаудов не се поколебал да вложи своето особено усещане за тази автохтонност на странджанското духовно наследство в една дума “мистика”.

This is translated as:

In this context we should look for the distinctive musical conception of the world imminent to the folklore heritage of Strandja into which in one way or the other the common folklore culture of the people of Strandja with their regional identity as decedents of autochthonic population is retranslated. It is not by accident that Mihail Arnaudov did not hesitate to express his own perception of of this autochthonism of the Strandja spiritual heritage with one word - mysticism.

You can leave your answers in the comments section…

STANDARD (Politically Correct) DISCLAIMER: The job listing itself is entirely fictional (The passage from the book, however, is not.) This was inspired simply by the sheer volume of poor translations common in restaurants, museums, and local guide books and the years of work it will take to provide more modern and tourist friendly documentation. I’m quite certain that Bulgaria has many excellent and hard-working translators who, if given an opportunity, could do all this work themselves.