London Translation Agency Blog

Best Translated Book Award 2012

The English editions of the novels “Fiasco” by Imre Kertesz and "Scenes from Village Life" by Amos Oz are among 25 finalists for the Best Translated Book Awards.

The authors and translators of a winning work of fiction and a winning poetry collection each will receive $5,000, money provided through a grant from Amazon.com. The finalists were announced today by Three Percent, the online literature magazine of Open Letter Books, which is the book translation press of the University of Rochester.

Rooney Lost in Translation

Wayne Rooney was recently interviewed by La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper. As we can guess, he can’t speak Italian so the interview was translated into Italian for publication. For some reason the original interview was then ‘back translated’ from this Italian translation and published in English and the tone of his answers sound more philosophical than usual. That is why some media have made fun of him suggesting that he attempts to be the new Eric Cantona. Here we show you an extract from the interview:

Malaysia eye-poked over translation blunders

Google online website translation tool can be useful to provide an idea of what is the site about. However, if the website is the visible face of your business or country, it is advisable to spend some money and get a professional translation to avoid the embarrassment experienced by the Malaysia's defence ministry, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who blamed the use of Google Translate for the mangled English that appeared on its website.

Norwegian Bible Translation Becomes a Best Seller

The first Norwegian translation of the Bible for 30 years has become a best seller in Norway. The Bible topped the country's book charts almost every week between its publication in October and the end of the year, selling almost 80,000 copies.