TAKE TWO An advert from BMW's 'Joy is'campaign in English and German20 TheLinguistAUGUST/SEPTEMBERwww.iol.org.ukCREATIVE TRANSLATIONBill Maslenoffers an insideaccount of advertising transcreation Creative translation - sometimes referred toas 'transcreation' - is hard. It's hard for all thereasons you know, and for a lot of othersbesides. First, there's the work itself. Itdemands intellectual application, an ability tothink laterally, a good sense of rhythm andeuphony, and a penchant for getting excitedabout stuff. Even when the stuff isn't veryexciting. Second, there are the clients. Theydemand speed, flexibility, a willingness topull rabbits out of hats at the very lastminute -and consistently top-quality work.Creative translation is not for everyone. Iknow many experienced technical translatorswho recognise this and systematically avoidit. Why is the work so different? Surely themain criteria are the same? Like a technicaltranslator, a creative translator should be awareof three things before starting a project: itsobjectives (aims, intentions); target readership(audience); and target medium (usually media).The differences lie in the specifics. Is the textpromoting a product or service, or the brandas a whole? Is it adhering to the client's brandvalues or deliberately breaking with them andtaking an edgier approach? How does thisaffect the choice of language and tone?Some of these questions are cleared uponce you know whether the campaign is B2B(addressing businesses) or B2C (addressingconsumers). As a creative translator you shouldknow exactly who the client is attempting towoo, and exactly how. The 'how' may not bewhat you were expecting. As David Bellosremarks in his thought-provoking book Is Thata Fish in Your Ear?:1'Translation always takesthe register and level of naturally written proseup a notch or two. translators are instinctivelyaverse to the risk of being taken for less thanfully cultivated writers of their target tongue.' This tendency can be a problem. The clientmay want rough and tough, and many verycapable translators find this kind of stylisticelasticity difficult to achieve. Good creativetranslators must be willing - must activelyMaking it ad updesire - to experiment with language, playwith unfamiliar constructions and idioms, andraise, lower or contrast registers. And aboveall, they must be willing to focus a sensitive,attuned ear on the language used by a client'starget audience. Thus research is just asimportant for a creative translator as it is for atechnical specialist - more so, in fact, becauseit should cover a vast range of intangibles,such as tone of voice, idiomatic idiosyncrasiesand regional/dialectal variations.Many of the most gifted creative translatorsI know are 'family' people - they try out theirgrasp of idiom on their nearest and dearest,or on friends and neighbours. They readwidely, and rake carefully through the web forthe latest, greatest terms or phrases thatcharacterise a particular market segment.They are also consummate researchers whowill go to any lengths to track down obscurereferences, to make sure not only that they getthe translation right, but that the copywriterwho wrote the source text also got it right.The consummate professionalTypically, a source text arrives with no brief, noexplanation and no context. This is an endlesssource of moans and drones at translationconferences. But this negative responseoverlooks a positive opportunity: this is yourchance to look like the consummateprofessional -by asking the right questions.Many translators, and even translationfirms, will do almost anything to avoid askingquestions of clients, perhaps because theyare anxious not to lose the client'sconfidence. The reality is utterly different.Whether the client is a corporate marketingdepartment or a communications agency, thefirst point of contact is likely to be a juniormember of the team, often a freelanceproject manager who knows little about thecreative underpinnings of the project.But that's ok. There's always one person forwhom the creative aspect is critical: theCreative Director. To work your way up thechain of command, ask intelligent questionsof your junior contact (about intention, targetaudience, target media, etc). They won't havethe answers, and you will soon be transferedto the Creative Director or to the copywriterwho wrote the original text. At first, the Creative Director may beimpatient and irritable, but this is where yourprofessionalism has a chance to shine. Neverjust ask a question (eg, 'this passage is veryunclear, can you explain?'); always suggest anintelligent solution as well.What you're looking for is a brief. Thereare three kinds: 1A campaign brief, covering the overallgoals of the campaign (your project usuallyforms part of a greater whole)2A creative brief - a more detailed documentthat focuses on the concepts and messagesthat will be used to attain these goals3A copy brief, specifying what this particulartext is intended to achieve and how.In the old days, agencies rarely embarkedon a campaign without some kind of formalbrief. Such is the speed of moderncommunications that nowadays briefs areoften neglected completely, or exist in apurely oral form that can be tweaked andrefined as the campaign takes shape. Today's creative directors are confronted bya vast, increasingly fragmented range ofmedia through which they can (indeed must)communicate their messages. Decidingwhere to focus their creative energies - and

Vol/51 No/4 2012AUGUST/SEPTEMBERTheLinguist21CREATIVE TRANSLATIONissue: a client with strong views on whatconstitutes business English.Dealing with these issues is an exercise indiplomacy. The client had a good standard ofEnglish, but it wasn't their first language. Myusual gambit ('How well you know yourmarket! What wonderful ideas you have! May Ijust suggest - in order to optimise your ideas -a couple of tweaks?') didn't work. 'So what?'you might ask; the client is entitled to havewhat they want. But this is BMW, with well-established brand values. The agency was onmy side: they wanted to get it right but didn'twant to fight. So I introduced a number oflow-key tweaks. The client was happy andapproved the final copy. A compromise, yes,but a face-saving, pragmatic one that meantthe final result was written in proper English. Tempting as it is to be precious about one'screative work - especially after spending hoursstruggling with ideas - it is much better to bepragmatic. Since then, I have done a numberof jobs for the same client. Predictably, theyno longer make changes to my copybecause they have learned to trust me.A little while ago, I translated a brochure onmergers and acquisitions for Ernst & Young(E&Y) Deutschland. This was a good exampleof 'trickle-briefing'. First I was sent the bodycopy for the brochure, which was reasonablystraightforward - clear intention, clearmessaging, clear target audience. No explicitbrief was included or, apparently, required.Then came the headlines (chapter headings).These were somewhat trickier, with someodd turns of phrase. What was going on? I returned my translation with severalproposals for each headline and anauthoritative commentary suggesting that,with more context, I could pinpoint the idealheadline in each case. There was a pause.Then they sent me the visuals and all wasrevealed. The images were humorous,involving chickens and eggs in various statesof distress (a theme only obliquely reflectedin the copy). After a discussion with theagency, I was able to produce amendedheadlines that played on this humour. Corporate speakEvery large corporation tends to develop astrong corporate culture - a kind of group-think based on the company's priorities andgoals, often expressed in a specific corporateshorthand ('idiolect', paceBellos).2When thisstarts to infect corporate communicationsthey have a problem. Effectively, their writersstart to assume that not only existingcustomers but even prospective customersshare the company's priorities and concerns -and even the language used to express them. Both assumptions are horribly flawed, andresult in concepts and copy that are bothdifficult to read and tangential to customers'real-world interests. As a trusted outsider, Ihave been able to remind corporatemarketing departments that they should beinterested in their customers' preoccupations,not their own. Again, the extent to which theyhave been willing to listen has depended onthe professionalism with which I haveconveyed my very carefully expressed critique.Creative translators work for thecommunications industry. We have to be goodcommunicators not only in our work, but alsoin the way we liaise with clients. This can betime-consuming, and this should be reflectedin our pricing, but without communication, youcan't produce creative translation.I'll admit I get things wrong too. I once losta Dutch client as a result of defending somecreative work too vigorously. I fell into a simplebut seductive trap: I had come up with what Ithought were some really good ideas, I wasupset when the client didn't like them andunimpressed by their counter-suggestions. Iforgot all the lessons I had learnt over 25 yearsof working in the industry. I went in hard andsounded arrogant. We patched together asolution but we never worked together again.Much of the intellectual labour of creativetranslation goes into communicating with yourclient. Do it well, and you'll build long-lastingrelationships. Neglect it, or do it badly, andyou'll lose them very quickly indeed.Notes1 Bellos, D, 2011, Penguin, 1952Ibid, 288money - is difficult, time-consuming andfraught with risk. We've all read about viralcampaigns that have gone horribly wrong.The diplomatAs a translator, I usually work out of German. Irecently worked on a newsletter for a clientwho decided to use the German conceptAnstandas the theme for the publication.Anstandcan mean an enormous variety ofthings, including propriety, decorum, decency,respectability and good manners. There's nosingle English word that encapsulates it.Rather than wrestle single-handedly withthe problem, I included the client in mydeliberations. We discussed the way Anstandis approached in each article; the mainmessages of the newsletter, which is aimedprimarily at managers; and the lessons thenewsletter is trying - often quite subtly - toteach. We even discussed whether to includea separate English explanation of the termfor interested readers. These interactions didnot damage the client's respect for my work.In fact, the client was extremely appreciative,I learnt more about their specific concerns,and our relationship developed.Last year, a marketing firm asked me totranslate a variety of materials for a BMWcampaign, including a website and severalemailers. The campaign targeted businessbuyers; the language was serious butseductive. The client provided me with lots ofreference material and was responsive to myqueries. But then we ran into a fairly commonCreative directors areconfronted by a vastrange of media. Makingthe right choices isfraught with risk