¡Te lo doy firmado!

Después de traducir cientos de documentos legales, vale decir documentos notariales y judiciales uno empieza a fijarse en todo. Algo curioso que se repite en todos aquellos documentos es la forma de las firmas. Yo, por ejemplo cuando firmo un documento, firmo mi nombre más o menos como lo escribo en letra imprenta, solo que resulta algo más ilegible. Se pueden distinguir mi nombre y apellido por separado. En España y en Latinoamérica, sin embargo, la firma de uno se convierte en un símbolo, y como tal guarda quizás una semejanza simbólica al nombre y apellido del dueño de la firma. Lo otro que salta a la vista es que las firmas generalmente tapan parcialmente o el texto o algún sello o timbre, seguramente para hacer el documento aún mas "oficial".

Quick and easy templates

I know that you can set up templates in Word, but I find the process somewhat complicated and unnecessary. What I like to do is create a Templates folder and fill it with translated files that have repetitive text (CAT tools are out of the question because the source texts are scanned image files). I also create blank Word files with just the formatting in them. Examples of these are: Arial 11 letter size, Courier New 12 legal size. Then I make them read only files so that they are not accidentally modified or deleted.

To do this, right click on the file in Windows Explorer and then select Properties. Then check the Read Only box. Now your template is ready to go! When you want to use a template, go through the same steps you took to make it read only, except this time, uncheck the read only box.

Lien II

No, I did not mean for this post title to be a pun. I am too sheltered to do that. I guess it comes from working with so many words.

I just wanted to warn translators of another lien situation that may arise with agencies if you are not careful. Let's say you had a bad day and you did not translate a document the way you should have or you ventured into unfamiliar territory; or perhaps the agency's client just didn't like the way you used a certain word. Under certain circumstances, an agency can use the amount of outstanding invoices as a nonconsensual lien as compensation for your unsatisfactory work (whether real or perceived). The agency may withhold part or all of the money due to you. Whether or not this is a good business practice is definitely a matter to be debated. However, if you the translator are at fault in any way, it is difficult, often not worth the time and effort, to dispute this lien.

There are three ways of minimizing this risk. 1) Always do your best work. Check and double check. 2) Choose reputable agencies to work for. The ProZ Blue Board is a good place to check agencies' reputations. 3) Do not accept lengthy payment terms. Try to shoot for 45 days after issuing the invoice at the latest.

Lien on me!

No legal term is clearer to me than those that describe situations that I have been in. I had always heard the word lien mentioned here and there. I knew from an early age that it was pronounced like the word lean but spelled differently. I had a foreboding ring to it, but I was never able to pinpoint its definition. Now, I am more than certain about what a lien is.

The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines a lien as "A charge upon real or personal property for the satisfaction of some debt or duty ordinarily arising by operation of law." The Spanish word for lien is gravamen or derecho de retención.

And now for my own lien experience: When my wife and I bought a house a little over a year ago in Santiago, the former owner assured us that there were no debts, liens and no encumbrances on the property. He did mention that he had previously hooked up piped natural gas to the house and had subsequently disconnected it. Now there is a tank outside that needs to be filled by a truck every so often. There was mention of an outstanding debt to the gas company, but that this matter was in litigation.

Not so. The gas company called us and sent us notices. The current owner of the property was, unfortunately, the current debtor. So instead of letting the interest accumulate, we paid off the debt. End of story. There is nothing better than reality to learn about the law.

Translation Source on Twitter

Translation Source is a solid, professional translation agency based in Houston, Texas. The Spanish<>English pair is one of its specializations. I recommend the Translator Source tweets on Twitter as they include legal and cultural issues that will be of interest to Spanish legal translators. You can sign up for them here.

RSS now available for Legal Spanish Translation

Some of this blog's readers were asking how to subscribe to an RSS feed. Now this is possible by simply clicking on the orange button near the top of the page.

Word games

Is it just me, or do all translators enjoy playing with words? I used to know someone back in college who would start a conversation with: "Let's talk about ____ " It could be any word, like trees, for instance. Then I would say something like "Trees have green leaves." and this person would add: "The leaves fall off in the fall", and the game would go on like that until there was nothing left to say.

Not too long ago, I started a similar game, only it is work-related, and I use dictionaries. Take a legal word like encumbrance. The dictionary says: "Any claim or restriction on a property's title." Now I find a word in the definition I either don't know or am drawn to. Let's look up claim: "A demand for money or other relief." And then I might look up demand or relief, and so on.

Has anyone else done this? Are there any variations you would like to suggest?

¡El que pestañea no pierde!

...De hecho gana a mi modo de ver las cosas con respecto a los archivos PDF (¿Dónde estaríamos nosotros los traductores jurídicos sin este archiconocido formato informático?). Me explico: Adobe Acrobat Reader está en todas partes, y desde luego tiene su brillo, pero encuentro que ocupa mucha memoria RAM y que esta eternamente actualizándose. Por eso es que yo he optado por desinstalarlo e instalar Foxit Reader. Foxit Reader tiene todas las funcionalidades de Adobe Reader más pestañas. Así no tienes todos tus PDFs abiertos en un solo lugar.

The semicolon; a great invention

What I am about to write is a generalization. From years of observation, I can say that simply put, Spanish uses long sentences and English uses short sentences. Of course, I could give you concrete examples to prove the contrary. Jorge Luis Borges writes in short sentences, and Charles Dickens writes in long sentences.

Now that I have given you the long and the short of it, I want to introduce my friend the semicolon to you. It is not a period, yet it is not a comma. It is a marker placed in the middle of the road that says we are taking a different course, but we are not stopping. A slight change of plans, but nevertheless loosely tied to what we were doing before.

Getting back to long Spanish sentences and short English ones, in a marketing text, I have programmed my brain to chop up the translated English sentences at the right junctures; otherwise I would have a word salad on my hands.

Legal Spanish is a different story; it has long, indivisible sentences which, if chopped up by periods, will change the meaning and flow of the text. Many times, the original Spanish document has semicolons that coincide with where a semicolon would be placed in English.