What I translate, and why it matters

• I translate documents that have consequences: contracts, standards, technical files, the occasional court exhibit. The common thread is that someone will act on the translation, so a sentence that reads well but shifts a meaning by five percent is a failure rather than a style choice.
• Most of my work arrives from engineering firms and law practices, and most of it is dull in the best sense. A standard on concrete cover is not interesting to read, but getting one clause wrong in it is expensive in a way that is easy to picture.
• I keep a glossary of construction terms because the same Spanish word is used for three different things depending on who is holding the drawing, and because nobody has written that down in one place.