Literary translation is a particular and by far one of the most demanding parts of a translator’s job. The translator must not only use a wide range of words that are not commonly found in standard translation, but must also be able to imitate the author’s style, that is, write in the spirit of the author. Speaking of writing, a good translator of literary texts should have at least the basic knowledge of how to write with style, and should be able to construct coherent, complex sentences so that the text is suitable for editing. A flair for writing is very helpful.

It is very rare for an author to be lucky and privileged enough to choose the translator of their own books. Even more rarely do they have any insight and influence over the translation process. Thanks to the outstanding skills of Alingua’s translator, as well as his extraordinary flexibility and adaptation to me as a writer, we achieved the result I had dreamed of but was not sure was attainable: to give me the feeling that the translated text had come from my own hand. I was free at all times to make my own changes if at any point my opinion and that of the translator differed. It was a great pleasure and, I have to say, a great adventure.

In the autumn of 2021, Anna van Steenbergen approached us about translating a book she had written, Others to Blame, one of the volumes of her series entitled The Everbeating Chronicles, published in collaboration with a publisher in the Netherlands. Anna also sent us the opening short story of the series (already available in English), so that we could get a better idea of the style and themes of her work.

We asked a translator who is not only very comfortable with different varieties of English, but also – as it turned out – well versed in the dark world of steampunk to do the sample, and then the entire translation. Translating books is in fact writing them from scratch in another language, building a literary world on the basis of the original with the proper words, so the right choice of a translator is crucial.

When dealing with such an unconventional novel, the excellent contact between the author and the translator, the possibility to consult especially sophisticated passages or specific deadlines, was a big plus. The translation proved to be very demanding but also incredibly rewarding, and the end result met the client’s expectations. The book itself was so interesting that the translator read it again after the order was completed.

As a long-standing client, we value the Alingua team for their professional service and prompt delivery. The language support we receive from Alingua helps us to reach a much wider audience and ensure the international standard of the marketing message. Alingua has always worked with us in a friendly atmosphere.

We started our collaboration with GJC International, the company behind the success of the RemaDays International Advertising and Printing Fair, a key event on the advertising and printing market, in 2013. We mainly handled translations into European languages for newsletters, exhibitor materials, keywords, trade fair recaps and other marketing content that is essential for building strong business relationships.

In 2018, the company enquired about a service that was uncommon at the time: recording of the content we had translated into three languages. In order to help customers feel comfortable contacting the trade fair organiser, we expanded our collaboration to include more languages: before RemaDays Warsaw 2022, we did the translation and recording of four voice messages for exhibitors in 17 languages.

Thanks to the multilingual voice recordings, exhibitors from different countries heard the helpline invitations and announcements in their native languages, which is a nod to the customers’ needs and a sign of high awareness and respect on the part of the organiser. Importantly, such actions are effective in boosting the organiser’s image: the RemaDays trade fair has enjoyed growing popularity and trust among Polish and foreign exhibitors for almost 20 years.

Alingua Translation Agency completes its tasks reliably and on time. The agency’s employees are well-mannered and professional.

Our collaboration with the International Cultural Centre in Krakow began in 2018. To meet the needs of the client, we offer translations of materials necessary for contact with foreign institutions and for the co-hosting of exhibitions. These are usually documents in English and Central European languages.

In 2019, the curator of the Photobloc. Central Europe in Photobooks exhibition contacted us with an enquiry about the possibility of translating an excerpt from a newsreel in Estonian. The client only needed the text in Polish without time stamps, so the translation was done by ear by an Estonian translator. Shortly afterwards, we received a request for a similar service for two more films: in Slovak and Hungarian. Our translators studied the materials and promptly developed a transcript in Polish.

The monotonous voiceover of the Soviet newsreels concealed interesting stories: the opening of a bookshop in an Estonian town, the arrival of a library-bus in the Slovak town of Trenčín, and a Book Week which was very popular among Hungarian villagers. The stories were told in a very similar language, whether in Estonian, Slovak or Hungarian: a language which we know from communist propaganda. The translation helped the organisers of the exhibition to extract another layer of meaning from the black and white recordings about the development of reading in Central European countries and to interpret the archival material more comprehensively.

Ewa Pruchnik, author of such books as Emi and Aeroplane of Paper, wrote to us in 2020, when she was working out the final details of her latest novel, In the Shade of the Good Trees. The author decided to offer it to foreign readers: to commission a translation and publish the book in English.

In accordance with the author’s wishes, before we started the translation, we discussed all the details of the collaboration, the contractors and their competences. We prepared a larger-than-usual sample of a dozen pages so that the author could see that her book was in good hands, and make sure that the English version met her requirements in terms of quality, form and style. She approved the sample.

The translator – a Polish speaker specialising in American culture – and the editor – a native speaker of English from the USA – worked on the translation, which is not without significance, as the novel is set in Boston and Chicago. The book is beautiful, elegant and charming, and our contributors have ensured that this is also the case in the English version. The warm reception of In the Shade of the Good Trees by international readers (see) proves that the task was a success.

Literary translation is a particular and by far one of the most demanding parts of a translator’s job. The translator must not only use a wide range of words that are not commonly found in standard translation, but must also be able to imitate the author’s style, that is, write in the spirit of the author. Speaking of writing, a good translator of literary texts should have at least the basic knowledge of how to write with style, and should be able to construct coherent, complex sentences so that the text is suitable for editing. A flair for writing is very helpful.

It is very rare for an author to be lucky and privileged enough to choose the translator of their own books. Even more rarely do they have any insight and influence over the translation process. Thanks to the outstanding skills of Alingua’s translator, as well as his extraordinary flexibility and adaptation to me as a writer, we achieved the result I had dreamed of but was not sure was attainable: to give me the feeling that the translated text had come from my own hand. I was free at all times to make my own changes if at any point my opinion and that of the translator differed. It was a great pleasure and, I have to say, a great adventure.

In the autumn of 2021, Anna van Steenbergen approached us about translating a book she had written, Others to Blame, one of the volumes of her series entitled The Everbeating Chronicles, published in collaboration with a publisher in the Netherlands. Anna also sent us the opening short story of the series (already available in English), so that we could get a better idea of the style and themes of her work.

We asked a translator who is not only very comfortable with different varieties of English, but also – as it turned out – well versed in the dark world of steampunk to do the sample, and then the entire translation. Translating books is in fact writing them from scratch in another language, building a literary world on the basis of the original with the proper words, so the right choice of a translator is crucial.

When dealing with such an unconventional novel, the excellent contact between the author and the translator, the possibility to consult especially sophisticated passages or specific deadlines, was a big plus. The translation proved to be very demanding but also incredibly rewarding, and the end result met the client’s expectations. The book itself was so interesting that the translator read it again after the order was completed.