Translation with Colour® brings value into environmental project

Another great translation project into the English language by Translation with Colour® was finally launched. The subject area was not new but the scope and audience are definitely global. The project consisted in translating the Portuguese language website dedicated to the largest freshwater lake in the Iberian Peninsula, aka Pateira de Fermentelos, into English. The website was promoted by the local authorities and it is available in Portuguese and English.

January 20 was the date chosen by the Mayor of Águeda to present the website and the local and regional media were there. Our previous project concerning this lake had also caught the attention of both the local and national media and the online buzzing stations.

As you can see below, the message about the new multilingual website has gone beyond the local boundaries, which means the website had a good reception by the audience. Please don't hesitate in reaching us if you have any other clipping about this project or if either you or your organisation is interested in receiving more details about either this website, its mentors or translator. Simply write to translationwithcolour@gmail.com

Assignment for the Portuguese One-Stop Shop Business Portal

Today I have finished translating into English a series of texts for the Portuguese Administration online One-Stop Shop for Businesses. In order not to escape terminological consistency I had to research quite a bit, e.g. the English translation already in use of the names of different government agencies and services, especially related with taxes, gambling, permits and licenses. 
What is really interesting in all this process is that there is not a single place where one may find a public resource outlining nomenclatures and other linguistic data which might help harmonise translation and terminology in the universe of Portuguese public administration. But why should one be surprised? After all Portugal is one of the few countries in European Union (and beyond) which has not granted translators their legal rights. For instance, in Portugal one will not find sworn translators, which indicates the translator's work is not respected as one can not legally certify his/her own work, which can only be made according to law by a notary, a lawyer, chambers of commerce... Technological and cultural leaps forward require recognised linguistic mediators.

Translation with Colour®: The reason behind our name

One of the things I get asked most often about Translation with Colour® is the reason behind this name (which is, by the way, a registered trademark…). “Why should translation have colour?”, “what do you mean with this?”, “are you a translator who does design?”, and others alike are the typical mind-bogging questions quizzing colleagues, visitors, and clients on the first contact either online or on meetings.

I can’t even forget the episode in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the famous Frikadel’ki restaurant, when an Israeli lady was puzzled with what she was trying to read on my Translation with Colour® t-shirt. After tilting her head left and right it didn’t take long till she addressed me. I explained Translation with Colour®’s was my translation venture and contrary to what she thought I was not a designer (despite I had made the design).

“But why Translation with Colour®?”

There is a language called Geez (some give it as extinct), which developed in what is nowadays Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. This was the language of the Ethiopian Imperial Court and Kingdom of Aksum. This language is still used in by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church, and also the Beta Israel Jewish community.


One of the less described and known features of the Geez language is that its writing, especially what on what concerns official letters and religious writings, was ciphered or protected using colours which altered meaning of texts, offering different possibilities for understanding the true message. Only the initiated would plunge into the different layers of a given text. To make the matters more complicated Geez makes use of an alphasyllabary aka abugida (a Geez word itself) writing system based on consonants, developed for this language alone, but afterwards adopted by other languages in the region.


Now it’s clear how translation might get a colourful shade from an original text. In any case, ciphered texts are word of the day and a sign of the times we live in. In any case, languages, texts and ideas are charged in such a way with diverse and intense layers of meaning, offering no other solution than Translation with Colour®.