Post-partum

The translation is done.

Well, perhaps not completely, but near enough, and I am having a bit of trouble readjusting to PT (post-translation) life. Perhaps, however, that is just the exhaustion speaking. I woke up Wednesday morning and went out to the museum to finish up the translations of the last two galleries. 38 hours later I napped a bit on the train on my way home. Yes, 38 hours later. Plenty of coffee got one gallery done and about half of the remaining gallery. At that point, however, coffee and Japanese energy drinks ceased to affect me. My body demanded sleep and food. Those who have seen me bouncing and barely able to sit still after a simple caffeinated beverage will understand just how I exhausted had to have been at that point! I napped on the multiple trains home and got some food into my stomach. Once I got home I managed nearly 2 hours in bed before I got up again to do a final edit. Good thing it was a final too, because no sooner had I sent it off than it was taken to the recording studio! I collapsed into bed and spent the next six hours sleeping fitfully, repeatedly waking up in a cold sweat gripped with fear and stress, convinced I had more corrections and editing to do and had forgotten which part I was supposed to be reading. Apparently my sleeping self is having trouble letting go. Sigh. I may get to reassure my unconscious by doing a little more touch-up editing and a few style changes over the weekend in preparation for the last bit of recording on Monday. But then I really will have to step back and let my baby go out into the world on its own.

(You can bet I'll be at the museum an hour before it opens the day the new audio guide is up and running, I can't wait to hear what it sounds like!)

I did get a report on how the day at the recording studio went. There were worries at the stat that the foreigner doing the recordings would have trouble with pronunciating Japanese terms or names, but there seems to be no problems there thankfully. As far as the text itself... Well, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to most of you that while the perfectionist in me critiques my own work pretty severely, I absolutely hate to have those faults (personally recognized or not) commented on by others and have issues with responding to said criticisms. Sigh. It is something I am trying to work on... So anyways, opinion on the text... Some of the text is too long for audio guide sound bites. This is about content, not style, and since this is a translation from a Japanese original, I am off the hook for that one. phew. Unfortunately, however, (brace yourselves, I know I did) there is a style problem. Apparently the native English speaker hired to do the English recordings, an expert with 19 years of recording and related experience, was stumped by some of my text. She had to whip out a dictionary to check a few words. Along the way I was teased by a non-native English speaker for using "big words," but I didn't take the criticism seriously, feeling confident that I was using language that was understandable but suitable to a museum setting. Apparently not. Out comes the thesaurus and thus begins a search for simpler words. I suppose I can take that type of criticism! I blame it on having academic parents and an ivy league degree! Besides that issue, however, apparently all involved were very impressed and satisfied with the quality of the work. I'm glad. My baby is out there in the world and, while not perfect, is at least proving to be acceptable.

Now comes the question of what next?! This translation has taken a lot of time and effort. Over the last month in particular, with any non-translation activity (including sleep) only happening on a very limited and restricted basis. Now that my baby is out in the world I'm left trying to remember the busy variety that usually fills my days. Once I've caught up on my sleep a bit, however, I'm going to have to get back up to speed again pretty quickly. I'm working tomorrow, Brownies on Sunday, and my cousin arrives for his first trip to Japan on Monday. And I really must do something about the dust creatures threatening to take over my room, my bangs that have been hanging in my eyes for weeks and now have curl from where they hit my glasses, oh and a little matter about an essay 5 weeks overdue... Somehow I don't think I'm going to have any problem moving on!