CYFIEITHU

Translation is sometime a very tricky business.

This particular sign, erected by Swansea Council in 2008, has many lessons, not for translators but for those who use their services.

I once wrote away for a booklet from a translation service which advertised its service as "the most expensive translation in the world".

I wondered how such a perverse ad could ever attract business but on reading the booklet I understood.

In business in particular, a bad translation can be costly even in purely financial terms, not to mention the delays involved in having the job redone properly, with the potential for ultimate loss of contracts.

So my booklet explained how this firm, among its many other practices, always had the translation independently and expertly retranslated back into the original language.

Had Swansea Council done that, it would have realised that the Welsh text it had been given was simply and "out of office" notification and it would not then have ended up on the final sign.

The Welsh reads

"I'm not in the office at present. Send on any material for translation."

This is a true story.