I just got a very cute order from a translation office (I won’t say which): “Herewith we order: § Absolutely flawless translation German-Russian”.
If this phrase were part of every order, flawless quality would be guaranteed, right? :)
Some possible alternatives include “ideal translation”, “perfect translation”, “impeccable translation”, “excellent translation”, even simply “very good” or “the best translation”… I like synonyms, but let me stop here. I signed the order in this form, and the translation was not objected to: can I assume, then, that the text was really flawless? But can I be sure that no customer in the world would have found something to object, too? I’m happy to respond to customer criticism; in some cases, however, “responding to criticism” also means: explaining to the customer why the translation should stay that way, why the choice of words is good for this context, why the translated ad or marketing brochure will have more success with this slogan, etc.
By the way, I have also seen “error-free translation” in translation orders. All right, but what if there are errors in the original? I experience this very often, and I’m happy to what mistakes I find: if the errors are linguistic, there are no extra costs; in case of factual errors I mostly don’t charge extra, either (if there are very many, though, I make a separate offer for research / fact-checking to go with the translation). No translator I know writes in their contract “only applies to error-free originals”.
When I place an order myself (often I ask colleagues for proofreading, as I like to work according to the four-eyes principle), I do not write “flawless proofreading”, “ideal proofreading” or “perfect proofreading”. I simply write “proofreading”. For good translators and editors, “translation” and “proofreading” mean “good translation” and “good proofreading” by definition.
