: Re: Should I translate my own writings into a second language I also know well? Nabokov was very discouraged when he translated his Lolita into Russian. And he spent half a year on it. So should

@Smith147

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I would always seek help from a professional translator, no matter how proficient I deem myself in the target language. A professional translator has studied the intricacies of both languages (and probably a few more); he has linguistic tools at his disposal I might not even imagine existed; he can look back at years of professional experience; and he is getting paid to get it right, it's his entire job. He will deliver a better result much faster.

Most importantly, though, you can always talk to him. In fact, a professional translator will always be proactive about talking to you should he have any questions. And even if he's totally happy with his output, you can still say, "nope, that's not quite what I had in mind. You've translated the name X as Y where I would have preferred Z, and in this sentence here you are actually implying something that is not true to my original".

Now, I'm not saying that you should never even think of translating any works of yours yourself. If you feel like trying, by all means do. It's a fascinating experience. However, the thing is that if you do the translation yourself, you will still need to show it to a professional editor afterwards, or at the very least have it proofread by a few native speakers of the target language (one is never enough). So you will still have to work together with another person of five, except that it will be much more cumbersome and take forever.

Lastly, even if you invest a few years and achieve true mastery in translation, it will still be a trade-off: never forget that you could be spending all that time writing new works instead.

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