The Valuable Lessons I Learned From Completing a Book Translation
In what feels like an eternity ago, I agreed to take care of the translation of a book from English into German. But the project took far longer than I expected, which gave me a lot to think about after the final paragraph was completed. Below I will try to explain the reasons and the lessons I learned.
It was in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when I started to ponder about various ideas to occupy my mind. Making money was not the first line of thought under these circumstances but rather being busy and not having time to think.
Lethargy during the early stages of the pandemic
We all deal with the current circumstances in a different way. Some of us run away to the other side of the planet, others crawl into a cave and cease contact with pretty much everyone. There are also those people who reinvent themselves, find a regular office job, start studying online, come up with projects they always dreamed about, and do their utmost to stay afloat.
The most fortunate are those who already had an office job prior and were basically just shifted into home office duties without a hitch.
I don’t really fit into any of these categories but more or less combine several of them at once. And that left me in a state of mind that can only be described as apathy. Imagine the seven stages of anger but instead, it consisted of 50 shades of fear, indifference, and lethargy.
In order to combat that, I enrolled in several online courses and quite obviously picked too many at the same time. Up until now, I did not finish any of them and that is quite honestly just absolutely pathetic. More often than not, I would be trapped by giving in to the distractions available in the living room/home office. But there was also another feeling creeping up, which happened to be guilt.
I was upset with myself for putting hopes on others and ended up even more disappointed because I could not even keep one of the promises I had made. What was it about? I gladly accepted the proposed task of translating a specific poker book from English into German.
The wrong mindset at the start of the project
It seemed like a trivial task, especially considering that I was cocky enough to assume I would be one of the most qualified people for this task. After all, I have been in poker for more than nine years and finished my education as a “foreign language correspondent” at a business school. One exam short of having a certificate as a translator, this book had to be a trivial task.
I was entirely wrong, by a magnitude that didn’t even remotely cross my mind. Heading into such a task with a mindset of superiority and without any pressure was probably one of the most vital lessons I had to learn. It was simply a case of arrogance, and the inevitable laziness followed as the book project dropped to the wayside.
Once I had improved my physical balance thanks to the advice of someone I had just met a few dozen times throughout the years, the mind was willing to accept that this defeat was unacceptable. There was no point in not finishing the translation even though I probably pulled the worst slow-roll of all times on someone that had known me as a very reliable person.
Holding myself accountable did the trick
At the start of the new year, I gave myself a literal kick in the ass. Most of the new year's resolutions end up being shredded sooner or later but thus far I was able to stick with mine. Those post-its are simply screaming at me right next to the work desk and provided a gentle reminder to stop being so lazy.
But it still wasn’t enough, because while the pace may have been steady, it was still slow. I had to come up with a more sophisticated solution to get the job done. I gave the authors of the book “Poker Satellite Strategy” permission to blackmail me on social media if I would not complete the translation by the end of Sunday, February 14, 2021.
“Hold yourself accountable, I do that sometimes,” Barry Carter replied on instant messenger.
Dara O’Kearney was convinced I’d get the job done in time. “You’ll do it. You’re deadline-driven by nature,” he said.
Perhaps they were both right but I was most certainly behind schedule. The final weekend turned into torture but I eventually wrapped up the task with around two hours to spare.
The whole experience gave me plenty of lessons way beyond the task but also confirmed a few things that I had noticed over the years. In a nutshell, translating content may look easy but if you are not familiar with the specific topic, the most hilarious things may come out of it.
I see that a lot in the German translations of online poker sites. The only one to have nailed it pretty much spot on is PokerStars, while others such as GGPoker, partypoker, and 888 have some very interesting flaws for their German content. You can pretty much tell within a few seconds that a translation agency was responsible for it and they don’t have a decent understanding of poker.
One of the most difficult things to solve is the different word order in both languages. You can have a medium-sized sentence in English but the German equivalent may turn into a multi-clause sentence nightmare. Many of the specific terms do not exist in German and you have to describe them instead.
English poker expressions don’t always exist in other languages
In “Poker Satellite Strategy” specifically, the term “fold equity” is used a lot. It doesn’t exist in German, and I would be inclined to say that using the English term is perfectly fine. Many English words have made it into the common German vocabulary while terms such as “Schadenfreude” and “Wanderlust” have gone the other way.
The “range” a player has to consider is another fun word because we don’t really have any specific word that would ensure the same meaning. Perhaps that is just my personal impression but I ended up with a rotation of three different expressions for it throughout the entire book.
There were plenty of other expressions such as Fold / Shove, which have become very common in the German poker language already and I sometimes translated them, while leaving them in English at other times. Basic expressions such as All-In, Big Blind, Cutoff, etc should be common knowledge, after all.
Germans are worse at English than you may think
However, one particular misconception certainly exists — Germans are supposedly good at speaking and understanding English. Based on my experience throughout the years and especially the communication on social media platforms as of late, that is perhaps somewhat overrated.
There are many bizarre “word for word” puzzles or sentences which contain the German word order, which makes it sound quite hilarious, to say the least. I also had moments where tears crawled down my cheeks when I copy-pasted some English sentences into Google Translate.
The word for Bubble, the most intense part of any poker tournament which separates those who earn a portion of the prize pool from others who come up short, is prone to cause laughter. Because the exact translation for it is “Blase”, which can mean bladder or the kind of bubbles to fascinate kids.
Google Translate can provide plenty of entertainment
And if you are folding too much, you risk ending up all-in blind and become the bubble.
Below is the genius Google Translate version: “Zu viel Falten macht es wahrscheinlicher, dass Sie blind werden und Blasen bilden.” -> Folding too much makes it more likely that you will end up blind and build bladders / bubbles.
There were plenty of these spots in the book and someone not familiar with poker, in general, may very likely pick the worst possible meaning for the translation. I would also automatically make the very same mistake in a translation if I possessed no expert knowledge of the niche topic. However, when doing translations, I constantly ask myself if that really makes sense and do some research to make sure I didn’t miss any particular meaning.
The above paragraph in German would either contain shorter sentences or end up far longer with plenty of commas involved. Our grammar is certainly not the easiest and can lead to a lot of frustration for native English speakers. The transition the other way around seems far smoother but that's perhaps just my own expression after picking English as my first foreign language in school.
Final thoughts and next book project
Being able to finish the book translation taught me that I am still capable to do the things that I initially learned during my time in business school. Most of the progress usually took place soon after completing my daily fitness routine and picking up a fresh cup of coffee. Being able to stick to a certain routine and have something to do helps to push back any dark thoughts that may arise.
As a result, I have picked up the next book translation for “PKO Poker Strategy” already and set my eyes on a deadline for the end of March 2021. That would equal roughly five pages per day and provide 1–2 days to triple-check all content when it’s wrapped up.
I have no idea if that will be doable in case my usual job or any other writing on short notice somehow picks up again out of the blue. But I certainly want to try it and be able to tell myself, that this ongoing pandemic wasn’t a waste of time.