ABOUT ME
"A translator is a professional schizophrenic, continiously wandering on the edge, risking his sanity in the crashing zone of two languages and two cultures. He is operating in an elevated state of mind as if in trance indeed, it is a creative trance, a state of bipolarity, of being at two places simultaneously, moving parallel in two worlds. In this sense, he is an exotic stranger, an itinerant of the ever-growing literary world. Invisibly, condemned to solitude, he enters this atypical state of awareness, becomes a trance-later." ( Zoltan Pek)
That´s me :)! If you want to know more, please read on...
My Life Story
I was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1961 and I never dreamt of ending up working as a translator. I always wanted to be a writer, a painter, a fashion-designer and at some point even a funeral-director.
But somehow life intervened. I trained as a legal secretary and later on I ended up in sales , which I greatly enjoyed.
1996 I remarried my ex-husband and I moved to lovely Devon, SW-England. My first job in my new home country was in sales again and required extensive travelling which I wasn´t too keen on (remember, I just re-married my ex and we were freshly in love.) A colleague told me that the publishing-house her partner was working in was looking for a game translator. I applied, got the job and never looked back.
The publishing house ceased business (not my fault!) and I worked as a freelancer.
I started 1998 with game magazines and stayed in the kiddie-niche for several years:
2 years I worked directly for Wizard of the Coast (Harry Potter and Pokemon proofing), 2.5 years for LEGO (editor), and I also translated several games-magazines for three different publishing-houses and some games and walkthroughs for agencies.
Since 2000 I am working for Devon Swedes Ltd on a freelance basis (selling swedes during the season, writing cookery-book) and from 2006 until April 2016 I translated all German content for the tourism-website: www.lakecomohomes.com on a weekly basis.
2009 I started with transcreations and since 2011 I have been specialising in fashion as well – both subjects I enjoy.
I transcreated many, many TV-ads for Mattel (Barbie and friends), Fisher Price, HP, and currently I am translating/transcreating for accounts like: Diesel, Clarks Shoes, Dorothy Perkins, Belstaff, Evans, Bally, Fay Italy and more.
I came to the translation industry by pure chance, but I absolutely love it and my clients seem to like me, too.
Right now I am working directly with companies and through two agencies. My favourite agency (the one that supplies me with lots of fashion-translations and transcreations) elected me as their “translator of the month”.
If you are looking for diplomas – look somewhere else. But if you are looking for a fresh approach and an experienced translator/copywriter (old in years but not in mind), then I am the right person for you.
In my spare time I love cooking, eating, reading, writing, crocheting and painting:
https://www.instagram.com/dagmar_gove_dotty_art
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