2013-12-07

alexpgp: (St. Jerome w/ computer)
2013-12-07 10:47 am

What's in a name?

One of the perennial thorns in the side of any translator working from Russian to English is how to deal with the names of various Russian institutions.

Take, for example, this gem I ran across this morning:
Федеральное государственное бюджетное учреждение науки Государственный научный центр Российской Федерации Институт медико-биологических проблем Российской академии наук

Literally:
Federal State Budget-Funded Science Institution Russian Federation State Scientific Center Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences
That whole "Federal State Budget-Funded Science Institution Russian Federation State Scientific Center" part up front is, in my mind, sort of like a drum roll, and I cannot avoid thinking of the kind of introductory preamble one might hear at some banquet-like occasion when the guest of honor is introduced, along the lines of:
"Please join me in welcoming this year's winner of the Brouhaha Award, the best-selling author of What is to be done?, renowned scholar, Olympic award-winner, twice-elected Municipal Dog-Catcher, all-round exemplary citizen..."
...eventually ending with said individual's name.

I have taken to moving all of that adjectival mess into a set of parenthesis and parking it after the name of the institution, as follows:
Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (a Russian Federation State Scientific Center and Federal State Budget-Funded Scientific Institution)
I think I need more coffee...