ProZ.com translation contests »
30th translation contest: "Translators translating translators"

Preparing
Submission phase  
Nov 15 '22Jan 1 '23
Hybrid phase  
Jan 24 '23Feb 7 '23
Finals phase  
Feb 7 '23Dec 31 '23
Deadline reached
Finished

About the Submission phase

During the Submission phase, entries may be submitted in any language pair, per contest restrictions. Contestants are allowed to edit their entries until the end of the Submission phase.

At the end of the Submission phase, all language pairs with submitted entries will be "paused" for review by the contest administrator.

About the Hybrid phase

During the Hybrid phase, individual language pairs can be placed in any of the Submission, Qualification, or Finals phases, depending on how many entries have been submitted.
  • Pairs which received fewer than 3 entries during the Submission phase will likely be placed in an "extended submission" period. If at least 3 entries are eventually submitted, the pair will be moved forward to the Finals phase.
  • Pairs which received between 3 and 7 entries will likely be placed directly into the Finals phase, where site users who list that language pair in their profile may vote for what they feel are the best entries.
  • Pairs which received more than 7 entries will likely be placed into the Qualification phase, where site users rate and tag entries in an effort to determine a smaller pool of entries which should move forward into the Finals phase.

About the Finals phase

During the Finals phase, all language pairs which have received at least 3 entries will be open for site users to vote for what they feel are the best entries. Pairs with fewer than 3 entries will not be able to have a winner determined.

At the end of the Finals phase, votes will be tallied by site staff, and winners in each pair will be announced.
The "Finals phase" deadline of Dec 31, 2023 15:00 GMT has passed. Winners will soon be announced in language pairs which have received a sufficient amount of votes during the finals round.

Note: ProZ.com membership is required to enter the competition in certain language pairs.  Details


Source texts — Jump: English, Spanish

The following are the source texts for this edition of the ProZ.com translation contests. Contest participants are given the opportunity to submit translations of these texts into the languages of their choice. If three or more translators translate a text into a given language, the contest is "on" in that language pair. To learn more about the source texts, see the "About the source texts" section below.
English
– "The Dot at the End" by Filia García
I
Space is the soil where writers converge, and seeds of words are sparse, for sprouts of a poem may emerge.

II
Space, uncontained for words to be written and memory spared.

III
A writer fills space with words,
their given meaning challenges the intellect
their catching sense pervades the self.

IV
The muse is a reckless joker the luck to be blamed
for space is filled and erased by a writer with words that elate.

V
If this art entertains the reader, gracious, it is. If this art helps feed my hunger, sate be me.
But,
If this art is never read, someone may find it hidden in the crevices of space, reverberating, splitting, and merging in the dot at the end.
Translations submitted (31 pairs)
Albanian (2) Feedback
Arabic (3) Feedback
Bulgarian (1) Feedback
Catalan (1) Feedback
Chinese (3) Feedback
French (4) Feedback
Galician (2) Feedback
German (6)
Greek (2) Feedback
Hebrew (1) Feedback
Hindi (1) Feedback
Italian (8) Feedback
Korean (2) Feedback
Macedonian (3) Feedback
Malay (3) Feedback
Maltese (1) Feedback
Marathi (1) Feedback
Norwegian (Bokmal) (3)
Persian (Farsi) (3) Feedback
Polish (1) Feedback
Portuguese (BR) (7) Feedback
Romanian (3) Feedback
Russian (1) Feedback
Serbian (2) Feedback
Spanish (6) Feedback
Swahili (1) Feedback
Swedish (3)
Tagalog (2) Feedback
Tamil (1) Feedback
Ukrainian (3) Feedback
Urdu (1) Feedback
Spanish
– "Querida novela" by Virginia Monti
Querida novela: me desperté a la madrugada con el canto de los gallos y con una urgencia, la de seguir durmiendo, pero me dije que era en vano, que así como no se puede ir en busca de la escritura, sino dejar que la escritura lo encuentre a uno, tampoco se puede ir en busca del sueño, y que lo mismo vale para los amantes. Los que nos preocupamos por el sueño escaso tenemos el cansancio arraigado, ese que deriva naturalmente de dormir poco, pero también de la preocupación misma, y así nos consumimos, como uróboros del desvelo. Me despierto pensando en dormir cuando en realidad debería dejar de pensarlo y sentarme a escribirlo, para que el sueño no me pierda el paso y que, una vez llegados él y yo al mundo de los vivos —habiendo yo burlado mi impaciencia orfeica— por fin me alcance. Por eso te escribo, novela.

[...]

Bostezo y me tapo un poco; los brazos no, querida novela, los necesito afuera de la frazada para poder seguir escribiéndote. Otro bostezo. Afuera, los gallos. También empiezan a escucharse los pájaros, señal de que el mal anunciado, la luz, es inminente, señal de que la preocupación por volver a conciliar el sueño se hará más intensa, señal de que ya no dormiré. Escribí poco más de una carilla y ya no sé si es correcto decir “poco más de” o “poco más que”. Quizás la respuesta la tengan los gallos, o los grillos, que también se escuchan, porque todavía no es de día, pero tampoco es completamente de noche, sino esa cosa tan ajena a lo consolidado que es el devenir. Son las 6:00 de uno de los pocos días que le quedan al verano, y pensar todo esto, escribirlo y no dormirme me va a haber llevado en total una hora, y me conmuevo, porque en esa frase verbal se plasma la magia del lenguaje, la intromisión del pasado en el futuro, o la del canto de los grillos en el despuntar del día, y el de los gallos, en la muerte de la noche.
Translations submitted (8 pairs)

About the source texts

The source texts for ProZ.com translation contests are typically selected by ProZ.com members with a goal of providing interesting and challenging material that enables top translators to show their talent.

To ensure a fair competition, efforts are made to avoid texts for which published translations exist. If you know of the existence of a published translation of any of these source texts into any language, please notify the site staff with a support request.

The views expressed in these texts should not be considered representative of the views of either ProZ.com staff members or the members of the ProZ.com community who have selected the texts.