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Taking A Header
by Dale Brown, 2007

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT TheBigFiveOh.com Blog @ Yahoo.Com, Wednesday May 16, 2007

Now that the paperback edition of my eighteenth novel "Edge Of Battle" has hit the bookstores, I'm receiving more e-mails than ever on a particular topic, so I thought I'd best address it here:

In "Edge" and other novels, one technique I tried to enhance authenticity is to present the dialogue of foreign characters in their own language, especially if the listener doesn't understand the language. For example, if an American protagonist is having a conversation with a Russian antagonist, and the American doesn't understand Russian, I'll write the Russian's dialogue in Russian (I'll also write curse words in a foreign language, which allows me to write swear words without cluttering up the story in foul language).

Why? My thought was that if the character can't understand the language and that creates confusion, then the reader (who probably doesn't understand the foreign language either) will be confused as well. The reader feels the same confusion and frustration, and a bond is created between the character and reader, which is the ultimate goal of any novelist.

Now obviously you don't want to CONTINUE the confusion too long, so you eventually have to translate for the reader. But I thought this was just one small element I could use to enhance authenticity. Maybe not my most brilliant thought ever, but I gave it a shot.

The most important ingredient in this scheme, of course, is to do an accurate translation.

When I started doing this trick, my two main sources for foreign language phrases were Berlitz phrasebooks and a book entitled "International Dictionary of Obscenities" (Oakland, CA: Scythian Press, 1991). It was fun for me, although it probably drove the audiobook performers nuts (the foreign phrases were mostly deleted in abridged audiobooks). I received a few complaints about outdated, incomplete, or incorrect phraseology, but overall the scheme was well-received.

In "Edge of Battle" I expanded the use of foreign phrases to include complete sentences in Spanish, not just exclamations and expletives. For this I used various online translation engines.

I have since learned that if you use online translators, you'd better not create very sophisticated sentences, because the machine translators don't always compose complete and logical sentences when they do the translations. I've received many complaints about the Spanish phrases.

I want to let everyone know that the inaccurately translated phrases are no one's fault but mine. Although a small army of editors and copy-editors go over the manuscript before publication checking facts, spelling, grammar, style, and usage, it's MY novel, and ultimately I'm responsible.

I don't blame the online translators either and I still use them when I reply to e-mails in foreign languages. I get a few comments about screwed-up translations, but e-mails are definitely different than novels, and folks are excited enough to get a reply from an author they've written to that they're much more forgiving of hackneyed verbiage. I get a lot of e-mails from overseas written in awkward English, but I'm so jazzed about getting e-mails from readers in places like Thailand or Morocco that I overlook the piecemeal English.

But don't expect to be seeing foreign-language phrases in my novels in the future. Readers who understand the language are very defensive about it, and they don't tolerate sloppy work.

The obvious question arises: why didn't I use a person to do the translations?

The short answer is "convenience," but that's not the complete answer.

"Edge of Battle" was a tough novel to do. I'm conflicted when it comes to the two topics of illegal immigration and militarizing the U.S.-Mexico border. I want everyone to enjoy the benefits of life in the United States of America, but I want our government to have complete control of our frontiers as well. I admire the courage and determination of those who risk their lives to enter the U.S. to work and try to make a better life for themselves and their families, but at the same time I resent them breaking the law to do it.

I know a lot of Spanish-speaking folks here at Lake Tahoe, most of whom would've been happy to do the translations for me...but what if they read what I wanted translated and didn't like my attitudes and perspectives about the topic? What if they assumed that the words in the novel, even though presented in a fictional context, reflected my actual opinion? Could I risk a friendship by asking them to do it?

Rather than risk it, I didn't ask. I didn't engage professional translators either, mostly because of the expense.

I've since received many, many offers from readers to do translations for me, most for free. I appreciate the offer, but I probably won't be putting foreign phrases in my books in the future.

I've been writing novels full-time now for twenty years, and I still have some learning to do.

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