ул.7-ая Парковая, 4-й Войковский проезд

17:02 Mar 8, 2020 

If you carefully read what the asker posted, then you wouldn't be dragged into it, as you phrased it. Nothing personal, just business. This forum is sure not the place to teach manners and no the only one to discuss translation, but it clearly reveals that habits die hard. We are translating into English, nice. So, everything else is secondary, right? No, guys, here it's not precisely about translation but choosing the way to render the specific type of information that does not have to be translated in the same way as the words in question normally require.

16:48 Mar 8, 2020 

Misha, you have appreciated just one part of the message and ignored the rest. You are still thinking about delivery of packages. For your and Michael's reference, transliteration in OFFICIAL documents is the only way to deal with ADDRESSES. We are not talking about the translation of culture-bound exotic items, and khleb is certaintly not the case. The purpose is here to provide a formal designation of an address in a document and not in coherent text. The question is not exactly about translating into English, but about rendering a particular kind of information with the use of transliteration as is customary in such cases. This is not the case of using some accepted English rules for the simple reason that this is not a sample of coherent text to discuss. Talking about different clients does make sense when adapting your text to the needs of the client you already know. A passport is not something you make take the liberty of borrowing American equivalents and putting them just because it sounds English according to accepted usage. Usage has nothing to do with it, while it is reasonable to use analogies in fiction and related areas of literature.

09:12 Mar 8, 2020 

If it's for a passport, then your interlocutor may even be correct: to paraphrase Akhmatova, its's their passports, let them do whatever they wish with them.
It's no longer about the answer but about the form of communication and the fact that the asker in question is quite obviously mal élevée: one doesn't write to colleagues that they are incompetent, don't know what they are talking about, put up airs, ecc. However, this is not the forum for teaching translators social graces, especially those who are quite obviously not given to reflection. That's why I say, оставьте, висконт!:)

08:48 Mar 8, 2020 

(I'm writing beyond the call of duty). The Asker chose. Now it's his "tzores":) Don't get dragged into it. It's clearly futile, and only pregnant with being recalled to order. As they say in Brooklyn, what do you care? Go back up high where you usually fly :))

22:47 Mar 7, 2020 

Roman, I can appreciate the logic in what you are saying, and I agree that when the intended purpose of your translation is to get the package to the addressee your approach may well serve the purpose best. However, to borrow from your very own words, this really has little to do with translation (it's transcription, really, it's like rendering хлеб as khleb), let alone having the original text understood by someone who speaks English as his or her first language. Like I said before, by and large, we are translating into two different languages, and for entirely different purposes and clientele. In my book, accepted usage in English ALWAYS rules (well, duh, we are translating into English, aren't we?). In your book, apparently, the Russian GOST rules, or the Central Committee, or whatever it is that rules in your book these days. It doesn't mean you or I are wrong. It just means that we live on different planets, is all:)

19:34 Mar 7, 2020 

that suits you, but it has nothing to do with the purpose of translation. "Streets" or "drives" that you refer to as correct English are applicable exclusively in fiction or related genres or elsewhere other than official documentation for the sheer reason that addresses serve to pinpoint the location of a person's residence or deliver correspondence. Trying hard to Americanize a Russian address so that it assumes an English-style pattern would be as grave a mistake as etymologizing the names of streets ("улица Дурова" should be rendered as Ulitsa Durova and not Durov Street). How do you think police or any immigration service agency are going to locate an individual by the name of a non-existent street, I wonder? When it comes to passports where precise information is a requirement and not your personal preference, finding "streets", "drives", "lanes" etc. that claim to be the equivalents for Russian urban topopnyms would be confusing, at the least. All the more strange is writing some additions in Cyryllic in a document that is limited to space and is not subject to ambiguity. Have you ever seen French or Dutch fitting their addresses to American style? Why should we?

14:35 Mar 6, 2020 

to continue with my "overfamiliarity and putting on airs" any way I see fit, especially seeing how we are apparently translating into different languages and for utterly different markets and clients. Likewise, everyone is totally within their respective rights to follow - or not - my advice, at their own peril.

08:12 Mar 6, 2020 

There's no denying that one should take care to follow a uniform address pattern, but it does depend on what type of document you translate, and not only your personal preference.

07:49 Mar 6, 2020 

At least in most cases it doesn't. Naturally, if this is the address for an actual delivery, you are better off just leaving everything in the same order and transliterating, but otherwise, it is for the most part a matter of your and your client's personal preference. What is absolutely crucial though is that once you've chosen an address format, you stick with it throughout the entire document.