ScotNet Autumn Workshop 2025 - Translating botany: not all a bed of roses?

Translating botany: not all a bed of roses?

Translating botany may seem like a niche specialism, but think how often gardening, agriculture, forestry, plant research, conservation and similar topics crop up and require us to know how to deal with some aspect of botanical nomenclature, morphology or ecology! What is more, the issues involved in botanical translation can also be applied to many other areas of science, from astronomy to zoology. This talk is therefore not for the botanical specialist but for anyone interested in methods to cope with the many fields in which authors write about plants.

The first session will present some of the common challenges of botanical translation, illustrated by examples from the speaker’s own translations of such diverse texts as a field guide to Mediterranean flowers, a book on healing plants and a tropical plant lexicon. Examples from the German originals will be glossed for non-German speakers. Participants will have the chance to discover and solve some illustrative examples via interactive polls.

The second session will be a translation exercise in small language-specific groups, followed by a plenary to share the translation challenges and how these were solved. There will be one text out of English and foreign language texts for those translating into English. The subject matter will of course be botanical but not highly technical.

By the end we will be better able to meet the common challenges of botanical translation giving participants creative strategies to apply in their own field, be this scientific or not.

Afterwards, join our networking lunch at Ciao Roma Italian Restaurant - 64 South Bridge, EH1 1LS.

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