I am eating my head

[robinturner]

This is a literal translation of one of my favourite Turkish idioms, and expresses how I feel about my stupid decision to accept another translation job. I still haven't finished translating a documentary about Anatolian felt-making, and here I go translating a promotional video for a Turkish construction company which is building high-security luxury estates in Iraq. I'm doing this because they're giving me $100 for translating a five-page script, and another $100 for doing the voice-over on the video. This sounds like a lot of money for little work, but translation always does my head in. I go in with good intentions, then after a few paragraphs I start to agree with Quine that you can never really translate anything from one language to another. (Incidentally, I originally intended to call my website "Quine's Rabbit", but nobody I talked to got the reference.) If I manage to perform this task with "quality and reliability" (to quote my translation of the script), I reckon they should give me one of the apartments they're building. Woo, holidays in Erbil!

By the way, it's a long shot, but does anyone here know anything about concrete? I'm trying to find a word for the kind of concrete that you get from the factory ready to use.