Poems about Translation 27: Robo-Burns; The Orfeon Translates (from Bill Herbert)

This poem for Burns Night may be slightly cheating because Burns Night is just past,  but it cheered me up so much that I wanted to share it anyway. It's not strictly speaking a poem about translation, but the whole post can be considered a poetic reflection on translation, if I squint...

The three texts represented are the Scots poem by Bill Herbert 'Rabbie, Rabbie, Burning Bright'; an translation into Bulgarian by Kristin Dimitrova, and a back-translation from Bulgarian into English by Facebook Autotranslate.  They are in reverse order, so you might like to start by scrolling up from the bottom of the page.

P.S. For a previous Burns Night post in this series, see no.21, 'Robert Burns on the Translator as Assassin'.

EU competitions for translators and interpreters

I hear the EU competition for translators will be open for registration at the EPSO website at www.eu-careers.eu from 13 July to 12 August. According to the site, there will be competitions for translators into Danish, German, English, French and Slovenian, and for interpreters into Bulgarian, English, Dutch, Romanian and Slovenian.

While you are waiting for registration to open there are a couple of resources you might find helpful. Charles, a translator at the DGT, has a Facebook page where he answers questions from potential applicants for translation posts with the EU institutions - see the Discussions board. And sample texts in all languages for the translation competitions can be found here.

Good luck to any readers of this blog who apply! :)