Translation

If you rely upon machine translations, you are getting only about half the accuracy and power of the American English language that I can give you. You require a person who can understand both the literal and cultural meaning of the text in the foreign language and translate the metaphors and idioms of the foreign culture into American English cultural equivalents. Since I am a writer, editor, proofreader, and publisher myself, I can offer you the highest quality American English translations from German, Spanish, French, or Russian originals.

Here is an example of a cultural problem in translation:

German culture has a concept known as Schadenfreude. It is composed of two opposite, or nearly opposite concepts: Schaden, which means damage or injury, and Freude, which means joy. Together, Schadenfreude means something like joy derived from another's misfortune. And in practice it usually means taking concealed inner joy from another's misfortune or failure. It is also intertwined with the related idea of being upset at another's success.

In America, we have related ideas, like comeuppance, a deserved bad consequence for earlier misbehavior, but such and related terms like just deserts don't really convey the German attitude. Typical German and American outlooks or philosophies are similar in many respects, but not identical. You can't always come up with one-to-one relationships between concepts and words in different languages. That is why you need a human involved in translation. A human being can navigate the discrepancies and get you across the cultural divides.

Here are a couple of client reactions to my work:

"Excellent translator. Indeed, the translation was better than the original. Thank you!" — Sebastian Sauerborn

"Michael is an excellent translator. The translation was done to my complete satisfaction. Even the smallest subtleties and puns were excellently translated into English. You can immediately tell that Michael is a language lover and a professional translator. Delivery was extremely fast. I will definitely work with Michael again. If you are looking for an extremely qualified translator, I and my proofreader can only highly recommend Michael." —Christian Urban

Examples:

I translated from German, the very important book which led the successful campaign to cause Otto von Bismarck to give up the prevailing British free trade policies which had left Germany economically weak, and to replace those policies with American-style tariff protections for German industry. Despite the passage of more than 140 years, this important book had never before appeared in English.

Here is my translation of a beautiful poem by Goethe which I published as part of the dedication to another book:

So wirkt mit Macht der edle Mann

Jahrhunderte auf seines Gleichen:

Denn was ein guter Mensch erreichen kann,

Ist nicht im engen Raum des Lebens zu erreichen.

Drum lebt er auch nach seinem Tode fort,

Und ist so wirksam als er lebte;

Die gute Tat, das schöne Wort,

Es strebt unsterblich, wie er sterblich strebte.

***

The power of a noble person

Stretches across the centuries:

Because what a good mortal can accomplish

Cannot be completed within the short span of life.

So he lives yet beyond death—

As effective as in flesh.

The good deed, the beautiful word

Work just as well in eternity as in life.

—translated by Michael James Carr

German, Spanish, French, Russian

Language Background

German: My initial studies of German were begun at George Washington University, continued later in private lessons, then greatly developed to fluency during a period of about 2 years of residency in Germany. With my translation and publication of an important book by Wilhelm von Kardorff, my knowledge and confidence really grew. Since then, I have performed many translations from German: poems, legal documents, emails, YouTube scripts, YouTube caption files, and four more books.

Spanish: As one set of my grandparents had come from Spain, I picked up quite a lot of Spanish via family life. I furthered my knowledge by study at GWU, but since my early 1990s move to Texas, I have used Spanish constantly, as it is a second language here.

French: Between grade school and high school, I studied French for 6 years. Two more years at GWU included one year of the study of French literature—conducted in the French language. I've translated one novel from French.

Russian: My study of Russian began at GWU, continued with private study later, and expanded when a Latvian UpWork client sought me out to translate 70 or so documents, slide shows, emails, and educational materials for a course which was being translated into English from Russian. Despite having listed no Russian proficiency in my profile, she had sought me out because of her appreciation of the power of my English writings. Since that initial Russian project, I have been called upon to translate YouTube scripts and several novels.

Rates for Translations into American English

$0.12 a word

$3.00 a page

$30.00 an hour