The Thrill of Translating Techno-Thrillers: Mission Possible
For those who believe the translating world is divided in two domains, the literary translation and the commercial translation, translating techno-thrillers can be quite a risky adventure. Having translated several James Bond, science-fiction, and military action novels into French, I discovered that this enterprise requires military organization, scientific research, logistic capabilities and operational readiness; and, of course, intuitive writing skills.
The mission is indeed risky, and when you start to unfold the strategic map where the action is to take place, the terrain starts looking like a mine field. The traps are numerous and various in nature: technical descriptions of airplanes, radars, artillery sites, submarines, battle ships, computer systems, telecommunication systems. When your mission, as hard as it is, requires you to get basic training in these various existing defense and attack systems, it becomes an even more hazardous task when you have to get acquainted with newly invented spacecraft, genetic species and communication systems for which you have no name in French.
After you have assessed your capabilities and estimated the enemy forces, if you want to prevent your operation from getting off course, you must remember that you are, after all, translating a novel.
As with any military mission, you need to plan as much as possible in advance and provide for a back up plan for when the enemy shows up in a different place than expected. Now you attach your parachute, close your eyes and jump. You will have time to get scared after you return to your home base – if you return.
First and foremost, organizing the research and hiring experts in the various fields of activity is essential. Obtaining research material on military equipment is an adventure by itself, sometimes requiring intelligence capabilities. When one of the airplanes you have to describe at length in French is the B2, long kept secret Stealth bomber, your task starts looking like a spy mission. American and French military specialists joined the mission to assist me understand how various military airplanes, submarines, and battleships function, how they are organized and how they interact during military operations. French and American fighter pilots threw themselves into the battle to help me survive dog fights. When thermo-guided missiles started chasing Vertical Take Off and Landing Sea Harriers, I finally learned which button to push to launch flares and chaff decoys.
Translating Science Fiction
Science fiction novels tested my survival skills. Managing mining activities on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, with equipment for which I had to invent a French name, is exciting. Discovering blue skinned aliens and dealing with their psychology made me feel as if I was writing a script for the X Files. When the author decided to use a specialized enzyme as a “molecular knife” to isolate and snip specific genes to cross both human and alien species, I had to stop for a while and get a crash course in genetics, and call my doctor friends for help to review my work and keep my sanity.
After this operational stage was under way, the technical translation checked by experts and the texts reviewed for accuracy by consultants, I was left with a battlefield scattered with technical parts. Cleaning up the style and organizing the story was not a minor undertaking, either. Following the author’s thought like an elegant yet discreet shadow is an essential rule; however, since most action novels are read mainly by men, I had to make sure that the novels did not appear to be written by Barbara Cartland.
This is where my squad of pilots helped again. Since most dialogs were written in a jargon understood only by pilots, army soldiers, and navy seamen, translating US military slang used in the various branches into French slang spoken in the corresponding arms became a rescue mission.
Finally, as long as James Bond stuck to rescuing pretty girls from vicious enemy in his shining fighter plane, I was pleased to follow him, for I could finally find some humor and even light sex in this otherwise dry masculine literature. But when he decided he had to solve a riddle by referring to Dante’s Inferno to save himself from enemy fire, I became annoyed. Wasn’t he getting off line? Still, overcoming this genre-mixing hurdle, I retrieved my dusty copy of Divina Commedia in its original version and looked for an official translation to retrieve the names of all demons in French. Consumed by these hellish flames, in the end I rescued him and brought him home safely to Admiral M and Miss Monneypenny. Mission accomplished. Au revoir, James.
By Dimitra Hengen- Published in Capital Translator – February 1999
James Bond, Role of Honor by John Gardner. Translated into French and published in 1996
James Bond, Win, Lose or Die by John Gardner. Translated into French and published in 1996
Saturn’s Child by Nichelle Nichols. Translated into French and published in 1996
Nightstalker by Timothy Rizzi. Translated into French and published in 1997
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