In a translation from English to German, how to handle German text in the Original
Thread poster: Rayne Trans
Rayne Trans
Rayne Trans  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 19:53
English to German
+ ...
Oct 12, 2020

I'm translating an (English) notarial certificate (which had been translated from Chinese into English beforehand) into German... so basically translating a translation... this English translation has two stickers on the back, one in Chinese and another above from the German embassy in Beijing, certifying the signatures of the notaries as true.

My question is, how do I handle these stickers in my German translation. The Chinese I can't read of course...do I simply state [Sticker in
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I'm translating an (English) notarial certificate (which had been translated from Chinese into English beforehand) into German... so basically translating a translation... this English translation has two stickers on the back, one in Chinese and another above from the German embassy in Beijing, certifying the signatures of the notaries as true.

My question is, how do I handle these stickers in my German translation. The Chinese I can't read of course...do I simply state [Sticker in Chinese language]???

And the German Embassy sticker of course is already German...do I simply reproduce what it says?

Never had to deal with this before, so bear with me. Thanks for your help.
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Joakim Braun
Joakim Braun  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 19:53
German to Swedish
+ ...
Labels Oct 13, 2020

IMO, in a sworn translation any untranslated text should be reproduced as in the original. You could use a scan for the Chinese. Any text not in the sworn language combination should be labeled (for instance, "[In Chinese:]"). Same thing with text that's already in the target language.

You really have considerable freedom to handle situations like this in sworn translations, provided that you label everything clearly.


 
Anna Dzidowska
Anna Dzidowska  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 19:53
English to Polish
+ ...
re: Oct 14, 2020

These are the rules I follow as a sworn translator in Poland:

1) I am not allowed to scan any untranslated text, seals, logos, etc. from the original document.
2) as for the text in Chinese - unless you are proficient in Chinese and know Chinese characters by heart, you only ASSUME that the text is in Chinese because the document comes from China. In Poland, I am required to describe the sticker and write something like [A round sticker with text in another foreign language],
... See more
These are the rules I follow as a sworn translator in Poland:

1) I am not allowed to scan any untranslated text, seals, logos, etc. from the original document.
2) as for the text in Chinese - unless you are proficient in Chinese and know Chinese characters by heart, you only ASSUME that the text is in Chinese because the document comes from China. In Poland, I am required to describe the sticker and write something like [A round sticker with text in another foreign language], without stating whether it is Chinese, German, English, etc. It happened to me more than once when translating English documents with some German text - even though I am fluent in German and I recognised the text as German, I could not write it was in German, simply because I am a sworn translator of English and not of German.
3) As for the text in your target language - this has happened to me before and I simply wrote [A sticker in Polish or the seal of the Polish embassy, etc.] and that's it - I can reproduce the text in my target language but I am not required to do that.

Hope it helps:)
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Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 12:53
Dutch to English
+ ...
Square brackets Oct 14, 2020

Anna Dzidowska wrote:

These are the rules I follow as a sworn translator in Poland:

1) I am not allowed to scan any untranslated text, seals, logos, etc. from the original document.
2) as for the text in Chinese - unless you are proficient in Chinese and know Chinese characters by heart, you only ASSUME that the text is in Chinese because the document comes from China. In Poland, I am required to describe the sticker and write something like [A round sticker with text in another foreign language], without stating whether it is Chinese, German, English, etc. It happened to me more than once when translating English documents with some German text - even though I am fluent in German and I recognised the text as German, I could not write it was in German, simply because I am a sworn translator of English and not of German.
3) As for the text in your target language - this has happened to me before and I simply wrote [A sticker in Polish or the seal of the Polish embassy, etc.] and that's it - I can reproduce the text in my target language but I am not required to do that.

Hope it helps:)


I also follow your point (1) but according to the rules I have learned, I don't copy any text from the source but I replace it with "[text in foreign language]" and, if there is room, a blank line above and below.

I also don't copy any stamps (or stickers), such as the ones certifying a true copy, but I insert a box and translate the text. I put those boxes in the same place as in the original, usually at the bottom of the page or on the next page. If the layout of the original is very complicated with text and stamps in odd places, I set up a table with as many columns and rows as needed, and move the lines where necessary, to make the layout more or less the same as the original.





[Edited at 2020-10-14 15:21 GMT]


 


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In a translation from English to German, how to handle German text in the Original







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