Gaaahhhh! ANyone else do translating work?

[SpringchickenGoldBrass]

And if so, how do you deal with complaints from the client that your translation isn't all that great when the reason is that the original is complete shite?

If its easily "fixable" I gently fix bad originals in the translated version. If something is not easily fixable, confusing or just plain wrong (data) I have absolutely no problem in letting the client know that they need to fix that particular sentence/paragraph... (they usually thank me for it)

I'm pretty adept at making bad text look good. I used to get the odd comment/complaint back when I first started out, and used to think all translations needed to be literal word-for-word. But since then I've learnt how to take advantage of the differences in language structure to smooth out the bumps in the originals.

Am always amazed, though, at the amount of bad writing that exists in the world!

THinking back to the first lot of work I did for this client I did actually quietly dump most of the original text and rewrite. I will just do that again for the next lot.
It's copy for a fashion/alternative lifestyle magazine that's very pic-led, so the copy is generally 'written' by someone who simply hasn't got a clue, so even when translated 'properly' it's crap.

I'll tend to write back to the customer when I first look at the document and give them two options, either I translate what is there which will end up sounding shit, or I 'embellish' the text to produce good copy. If the source text is that bad I'll just refuse to do it anyway. I'm a translator, not a copywriter!

If the customer is complaining, ask for a specific breakdown of their issues with examples. Be prepared to fight your corner.