Translator

Everyone has a story. It's what you did this morning. It's what brought you to my website. It's the odd things that happened on the way into town.

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How do you tell your stories?

 

Everyone has a rhythm, a tone, the word they use that no-one else does. Everyone inherited a turn of phrase from their mother, grandfather, that crazy uncle. Because language is not something that lies, flat, on a screen or a page. Language is something that communicates. It's something that has meaning and nuance, and is always changing and always alive.  I should know. I translate all kinds of stories, every day. 

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I translate detective stories, love stories, evocative stories about dying communities and hopeful stories about young creatives. 

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When you hire a translator, you're hiring more than a machine. You're hiring someone to listen to the rhythm of your words on the page. You're hiring someone to hear the heartbeat of your story. You're hiring someone who cares - who wants to do your story justice.

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I have over forty years of experience writing, editing and translating. I know what makes a story come alive. 

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Just as importantly, I have over forty years of experience of living in two languages. My wife is English, I speak to her and my children every day in English, in the language that I have written in nearly every day of my life since I was eight years old. It's in English that I talk to my taxi driver, chat with neighbours and it's English that I hear when I walk to collect my kid from class. The vast majority of the books on my shelf are in English.

But it's Hebrew that speaks to my heart. It's in Hebrew that I dream. It's in Hebrew that I chat on the phone. 

I live two languages, I think in two languages, I read in two languages and if what you're looking for is a deep understanding of how to tell a story - I'm your guy.

Translation is about more than nuts and bolts. You want to ask where the beans are in the supermarket? Ask Google Translate.

You want to translate a story about the time you went to the supermarket to buy beans - to make that recipe your grandmother gave you - and when you got home you got the call to say she was in hospital. And the cholent burnt but your grandmother came home. That story? Don't ask Google Translate. Ask me.