Translator: both ways between English and Afrikaans
Local time: 23:58 SAST (GMT+2)
Native in: Afrikaans , English (Variant: UK)
What Helene van der Westhuizen is working on
Jul 9, 2018 (posted via ProZ.com): I finished an ENG to AFR project on Codes of Conduct for humanitarian workers: Translators without Borders. Lovely to work with Julie Pickering. ...more, + 1 other entry »
Words translated: 487
English to Afrikaans: Chocolat - Joanne Harris
February 11. Shrove Tuesday
A warm wind for February, laden with the hot greasy scents of frying pancakes and sausages and powdery-sweet waffles cooked on the hot plate right there by the roadside, with the confetti sleeting down collars and cuffs and rolling in the gutters like an idiot antidote to winter.
There is a febrile excitement in the crowds that line the narrow main street, necks craning to catch sight of the crêpe-covered char with its trailing ribbons and paper rosettes.
Anouk watches, eyes wide, a yellow balloon in one hand and a toy trumpet in the other, from between a shopping basket and a sad brown dog.
We have seen carnivals before, she and I; a procession of two hundred and fifty of the decorated chars in Paris last Mardi Gras, a hundred and eighty in New York, two dozen marching bands in Vienna, clowns on stilts, the Grosses Têtes with their lolling papier-mâché heads, drum majorettes with batons spinning and sparkling.
But at six the world retains a special lustre. A wooden cart, hastily decorated with gilt and crêpe and scenes from fairy tales.
A dragon’s head on a shield, Rapunzel in a woollen wig, a mermaid with a cellophane tail, a gingerbread house all icing and gilded cardboard, a witch in the doorway, waggling extravagant green fingernails at a group of silent children.
At six it is possible to perceive subtleties that, a year later, are already out of reach.
Behind the papier-mâché, the icing, the plastic, she can still see the real witch, the real magic. She looks up at me, her eyes, which are the blue-green of Earth seen from a great height, shining.
11 Februarie. Dinsdag voor Vastedag
Ons het saam met die wind tydens die karnaval ingewaai.
’n Warm wind vir Februarie, belaai met die hitsige oliegeure van pannekoek, braaiwors en poeiersoet wafels, gebak op ’n warm plaat daar reg langs die pad. Confetti vlok neer op krae en moue, en rol in die afvoerslote weg, soos ’n idiotiese teenmiddel om die winter te verdryf.
’n Koorsagtige opgewondenheid heers in die skare langs die nou hoofstraat met nekke wat rek om die crêpe-oorgetrekte vlot met sy sleepsel linte en papierrosette te kan sien.
Anouk staan tussen ’n inkopiemandjie en ’n hartseer bruin hondjie en bekyk alles met wydgerekte oë, geel ballon in die een hand en speeltrompet in die ander.
Ons het al meer as een karnaval beleef, ek en sy; ’n optog van tweehonderd-en-vyftig versierde vlotte in Parys met die laaste Mardi Gras, honderd-en-tagtig in New York, twee dosyn orkeste op parade in Wene, narre op stelte, die Grosses Têtes met hul papierpulpkoppe wat hang, trompoppies met hul stawwe wat blink draaie deur die lug gooi.
Maar op ses het die wêreld nog ’n spesiale glans. ’n Houtkarretjie, haastig versier met goud en crêpe en tonele uit feëverhale.
'n Draakkop op ’n skild, Raponsie met ’n wolpruik, ’n meermin met 'n sellofaanstert, ’n gemmerbroodhuis – die ene versiersuiker en goue karton – ’n heks in die deur wat oordadige groen vingernaels swaai in die rigting van ’n stil groepie kinders.
Op ses is dit nog moontlik om subtiele dinge waar te neem wat net ’n jaar later reeds buite bereik sal wees.
Agter die papierpulp, die versiersuiker, die plastiek, kan sy steeds die werklike heks – die werklike towerkrag – sien. Sy kyk op na my met blink oë – die blou-groen kleur van die aarde soos vanuit die ruimte beskou.
“Kan ons bly? Kan ons hier bly?” Ek moet haar herinner om Frans te praat. “Maar kan ons? Gaan ons?” Sy trek aan my mou. Haar hare wirwar soos spookasem in die wind.
Translation education Other - University of South Africa
Experience Years of translation experience: 11. Registered at ProZ.com: Oct 2012. Became a member: Jun 2013.
Credentials English to Afrikaans (South African Translators' Institute / Suid-Afrikaanse Vertalersinstituut, verified)
Memberships South African Professional Editors' Group (PEG), South African Freelancers' Association, SATI / SAVI
Professional practices Helene van der Westhuizen endorses ProZ.com's Professional Guidelines (v1.1).
I started out in life as a musician, made a detour through Psychology and ended up as a freelance language practitioner. In a serendipitous moment, back in 2007, I was handed a recipe book to compile for the South African Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Gogo’s Kitchen went on to win the category for fundraising cookbooks at the 2008 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. This accomplishment led to a second book project for the embassy, and to the translation and editing of the English subtitles for three Polish films. I’ve been editing and translating ever since, working in English and Afrikaans in a wide variety of fields.
English to Afrikaans 4
Keywords: Cinema, Film, TV, Drama; Poetry & Literature;	Cooking/Culinary; Insurance; Education/Pedagogy;	Psychology Music