Development and main problems of scientific and technical translation activities in Hungary

Abstract

Scientific and technical translations may be prepared either by publishing houses or by other instítutions. Translations prepared by publishers are usually issued as books or periodical articles; they are carefully checked and edited, their quality is in general good or even excellent. The volume of published translations is much smaller than that of those prepared outside of the publishing trade. Because of this reason and because this type of tanslations pose numerous problems, the present article confines itself to the investigation of the problems concerning this group of translations,
Translation activities outside the publishing houses started in 1869 with the establishment of a translation division in the Prime Minister's office. The scope of the activities of the division covered translations of the most sígnificant articles of periodicals issued in the languages of the nationalíties of the country and translations of the most important laws and decrees from Hungarian into these languages. However, the division was alsó entrusted to undertake translations on command of official or priváté bodies. In 1949 the translation division has been transformed into an enterprise, which became one of the central instítutions of the translation business, the Hungárián National Office for Translations and Attestations (Országos Fordító és Fordításhitelesítő Iroda = OFFI).
In the same year various national documentation centres were founded. The Technical Documentation Centre, (to-day called Hungarian Central Technical Library and Documentation Centre) and the Agricultural Documentation Centre (to-day called A GROINFORM), included from the very beginning translation divisions which are still operating. The information bureaus, established in the fifties by industrial ministries (heavy industries, metallurgy and engineering, building industry, transport and communication) devoted most of their efforts especially in the early days of their foundatíon, mainly to translation activities.
In addition, scientifíc and technical translations are being prepared in many of the larger enterprises and instítutions. The total volume of all translations may reach about 2,5 million typewritten standard pages per year, most of them being scientifíc and technical translations.
Translations are carried out to a smaller extent by Professional translators (about 200 persons) and to a big extent by extemal specialists, (engineers, economists, agronomists, lawyers, physicians, etc, altogether more than 2000 persons), Thus, the Hungarian translation business is basically characterized by specialist translators, in contrast to Western countries where the Professional translators often do not possess special qualification.
Another important feature of the Hungarian system is the central registration of scientifíc and technical translations, which was introduced already in 1949 and which proved to be a most useful tool. Not every type of scientific and technical translations have to be registered, but mainly joumal articles, books, parts of books, patent specifications, standards, operating manuals etc. Thus, only a part, although the most important part of the scientific and technical translations is registered, about 35% of the annual volume of all translations.
The intention of translating any substantial piece of scientific and technical literature has to be communicated to the Central Registry which gives the authorization only in cases if the translation has not already been prepared or started ba another applicant; if this is the case the Registry denies the authorization to carry out the translation. This method allows for the preventing of unnecessary duphcation of translations (about 200 thonsand pages annually) thus saving about 3,5—4 million forints per year.
One copy of any registered translation must be deposited at the Central Registry which is responsible for the distribution of these deposit copies to the relevant national special libraries where they form the most often demanded part of their holdings. When a demand for a certain translation arises, the inquirer is not compelled to turn to the translating institution, as it often happens in other national systems registering translations. Copies of translations can be ordered at cost price from the deposit libraries.
Since 1950 the demand for scientific and technical translations has increased by 400 percent and its tendency is still rising. The result of this trend is the first main problem of the translation business: translation bureaus are short of translating capacity and their main concem is to ensure replacement of aged translators.
Further problems include the reduction of time required for translating work. Big efforts are to be made in order that translations prepared for normál rates (not express rates) should also be carried out within a reasonable time. Last but not least: the pressing volume of translation orders and the inclusion of young translators beside the experienced ones, continuously decrease the quality levél of translations; therefore, action must be taken to extend quality control to the substantial part of translations.