Notes on Translating The Ghost Pirates

Translating out-of-date language, specialized language and dialect

Languages constantly evolve, with new words added to the dictionary regularly. Language professionals need to stay up to date with new words and language trends and use them in their translations.

But what about translations of “out of date” language or so-called archaic words or archaisms? Shall we make our translation look up to date and use new words, or shall we stick to the archaic terms and preserve the atmosphere of past times? What shall we do with equipment which is not used now? What about technologies? Obviously the meaning is the same, but it contributes to the overall effect and mood of writing to use "thou" instead of "you". Archaic words certainly have their place in modern work as they have a special shade of meaning and nuances, have a special taste of context, mood.

When translating the novel The Ghost Pirates, we faced the fact that the text contained many outdated phrases and words, especially the names of ship parts and swear words. We managed to find explanations of such expressions in dictionaries and other translations and adapt them to the Ukrainian reader.

Many nautical terms, especially outdated ones, can't be found in any dictionary. Fortunately, many sea novels and stories were translated into Ukrainian long ago, so we could often double-check them, and pick the best word.

An interesting example of a specific terminology can be a word "doctor", which we found meant not a medical professional but a cook.

One of the cornerstones in the translation of the novel was the word "apprentice". It can be translated into Ukrainian in two ways: "стажер" and "практикант". After reading the whole novel, we came to the conclusion that we would choose the word "стажер" for translation because "практикант" is a person who tries his or her hand at work but does not receive any money for it. And on the ship described in the novel, all crew members were paid, or it was not mentioned otherwise.

Translating "slang" within the context of a translation

Do you think that you yourself use high language? I am sure that 5 minutes ago, you sent something like OMG or LOL to your friend, didn't you? It is not a shame to use slang, overall, 80% of Americans report using slang, and it takes the place in Oxford Dictionary and it is a new normal now. And of course, people use slang in all different languages all around the world. The French use the term MDR or “mort de rire” (dying of laughter) in place of the English LOL. Similarly, the number 5 represents the letter “h” in Thailand. However, it isn’t always easy to find a perfect counterpart in the target language when translating slang expressions. And what to do when you translate a book about pirates, who sailed their ship several centuries ago across the seas, and you are preparing the book for Ukrainian soldiers today?

There were some idioms in the book our team worked on. Translating them, we searched for equivalent expressions or found creative solutions to convey the same meaning in Ukrainian.

For example, we had a bit of a struggle translating "there was a lot of talk about there being a Jonah aboard". Since there was not one person called Jonah, and even if it was, the whole sentence seemed strange, we started to search for another meaning, and found out it was "any person or thing regarded as bringing bad luck".

Another example can be a phrase "There's a good chap" that didn't make much sense if translated literally. It was interesting to find out that this phrase is often used as encouragement, like "make sure you do the right thing". So we translated it as encouragement "Ну ж бо" that meant "Come on!" in Ukrainian.

Some characters of the novel don't speak standard English, especially the figure of Williams, a Cockney, so translating phrases like "I'm blimed ef I don't tike er piy-diy out of 'er, shadders or no shadders" was a challenge from the point of view of the stylistics.

Translating songs or poems

In the process of translation, we faced the task of translating songs.. pirate songs. In the beginning, we had more questions than answers: What should the translation look like? Should it be like the one read only by soldiers at the front line, or by ordinary people, by  merchants, sailors, soldiers, hawkers or minstrels, or were they rather scribes, teachers, ministers, or even poets? Should we use modern language or recreate an old-style language in translation? We discussed a lot and there were a lot of offers on how to translate, and what translation approach to use to make it more interesting and attractive for the reader.

One of the hottest topics in our debates was the translation of the song at the beginning of the novel. This was especially true of the exclamation "Ha-a!-o-o!" There were different options for translation, but the discussion was between two options: either it is a call to action ("Гей-го!") or it is a sigh during physically hard work ("Ех! Ох!"). We learned more about this genre of songs, namely sea shanties. These are rhythmic songs that sailors sing while working on a ship. Depending on what the sailors are doing, different songs are used. In the song from the novel, we clearly saw that the sailors use their strength to do something or to turn something around. That is, this work requires a lot of effort and is physically demanding. The final version was chosen and we translated "Ha-a!-o-o!" as "Ех! Ох!"