Whenever I tell someone I am a translator, they often ask me this question. As soon as they hear the word translator, they think of literature. When I tell them I do commercial translation, not literary translation, I often have to explain what it is. I work with translation agencies, businesses and local governments to translate product information, product packaging, websites, tourism guides, museum displays, press releases, manuals, academic papers, and more, from Japanese into English.

Literary translation and commercial translation are two different fields. In my fifteen years working as a translator, I have been asked to translate books on numerous occasions. I accepted three of the requests, two because they were short and I knew the subject matter, and one because I had already translated most of the material that was going in the book. The three books were non-fiction and I could translate them comfortably without too much research.

Once, someone asked me to translate a work of fiction. While the book looked interesting, I knew it would take me a long time, and would require many hours of research, consulting with the author, and checking and rewriting. It would require complete immersion in the story, and an understanding as deep as the author’s. It would have taken me so much time, there was no way I could have done it, and still managed to eat and pay the bills.

I enjoy reading and writing fiction. Another job of mine is writing graded readers for learners of English. So far, I have written around thirty books. While these works are short, I understand just how much time, thought and energy goes into creating a work of fiction. I imagine literary translation would be like writing the book from scratch. There are linguistic and cultural differences to consider. The book must be accessible and comprehensible to its target audience, and must read like it was written for them. That takes considerable time. I know some literary translators. All of them have other jobs which pay the bills, and they work on the translations in their spare time. They can take up to a year to complete a book, sometimes longer, if edits and rewrites are required. Most of my jobs are completed in a day or two, or sometimes a week, depending on the length. It is rare that I get a job lasting longer than a week or so. I like getting work done and out the door quickly. It gives me more time to write my own fiction, and it pays my bills.

Very often, new clients ask me this question. They want to know what work I have done before they ask me to translate for them. I would like to tell them what I have translated, as I am proud of a lot of the work I have done. Much of it has been for large multi-national corporations, or national governments. However, there is something stopping me from giving a potential client a list of work I have done. It’s the non-disclosure agreement (NDA). More times than not, I have to sign one of these before starting work on a project, or working with a new client. The agreement prevents me from talking about any of the work I have done. This means that I can only give vague answers when asked what I have translated, such as “company IR information”, “government website”, “product catalogue (food, cosmetics)”.

The only work I can mention specifically is that which has my name on it. I have translated two books and done the subtitles for a DVD, all of which have my name listed.

When looking for a translator, you might be wary of the translator who is vague regarding their past work. However, it is the translator who tells you everything they have done in detail that should give you cause for concern. If they are talking openly about work they have done for other organizations, will they also talk to other companies about the work they do for you? If confidentiality is not a problem for you, and you don’t require an NDA, that’s great. The translator gets to list your work on their CV, which is helpful. But if you require a degree of confidentiality, in many cases, the vaguer an experienced translator is about past work, the better it is for you.