ProZ.com translation contests »
1st Annual ProZ.com Translation Contest: "Awakening" » English to Czech

Competition in this pair is now closed.

Source text in English

Heathrow Airport is one of the few places in England you can be sure of seeing a gun. These guns are carried by policemen in short-sleeved shirts and black flak-jackets, alert for terrorists about to blow up Tie-Rack. They are unlikely to confront me directly, but if they do I shall tell them the truth. I shall state my business. I’m planning to stop at Heathrow Airport until I see someone I know. (...)

Astonishingly, I wait for thirty-nine minutes and don’t see one person I know. Not one, and no-one knows me. I’m as anonymous as the drivers with their universal name-cards (some surnames I know), except the drivers are better dressed. Since the kids, whatever I wear looks like pyjamas. Coats, shirts, T-shirts, jeans, suits; like slept-in pyjamas. (...)

I hear myself thinking about all the people I know who have let me down by not leaving early on a Tuesday morning for glamorous European destinations. My former colleagues from the insurance office must still be stuck at their desks, like I always said they would be, when I was stuck there too, wasting my time and unable to settle while Ally moved steadily onward, getting her PhD and her first research fellowship at Reading University, her first promotion.

Our more recent grown-up friends, who have serious jobs and who therefore I half expect to be seeing any moment now, tell me that home-making is a perfectly decent occupation for a man, courageous even, yes, manly to stay at home with the kids. These friends of ours are primarily Ally’s friends. I don’t seem to know anyone anymore, and away from the children and the overhead planes, hearing myself think, I hear the thoughts of a whinger. This is not what I had been hoping to hear.

I start crying, not grimacing or sobbing, just big silent tears rolling down my cheeks. I don’t want anyone I know to see me crying, because I’m not the kind of person who cracks up at Heathrow airport some nothing Tuesday morning. I manage our house impeccably, like a business. It’s a serious job. I have spreadsheets to monitor the hoover-bag situation and colour-coded print-outs about the ethical consequences of nappies. I am not myself this morning. I don’t know who I am.

The winning entry has been announced in this pair.

There were 8 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase, 6 of which were selected by peers to advance to the finals round. The winning entry was determined based on finals round voting by peers.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (8 total; 6 finalists) Expand all entries

Entry #7513
Marek Buchtel
Marek Buchtel
Czech Republic
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
357 x42 x23 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.914.25 (8 ratings)3.56 (9 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
  • 7 users agreed with "likes" (7 total agrees)
+7
1
kteří přes košile s krátkými rukávy nosí neprůstřelné vesty
Flows well
Jana Zajicova
Entry #7691
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
275 x43 x21 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.783.89 (9 ratings)3.67 (9 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
  • 7 users agreed with "likes" (12 total agrees)
+6
Co přišly děti
Flows well
Jana Zajicova
+6
Přistihnu se
Flows well
Jana Zajicova
Entry #7951
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
254 x44 x21 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.393.33 (9 ratings)3.44 (9 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 3 "like" tags
  • 4 users agreed with "likes" (5 total agrees)
  • 1 user disagreed with "likes" (1 total disagree)
-1
+2
výstraha pro teroristy, kteří se chystají vyhodit do vzduchu místní prodejnu s kravatami.
Flows well
Marek Buchtel
+3
Ke svému úžasu čekám už třicet devět minut a zatím jsem nezahlédl ani jednu známou duši.
Flows well
Marek Buchtel
postupovala krok za krokem vpřed
Flows well
Jana Bedanova
Entry #6508
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
121 x43 x22 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.413.36 (11 ratings)3.45 (11 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 4 users agreed with "likes" (4 total agrees)
+4
jako bych právě vylezl z postele.
Flows well
Helena Gogelova
mohli nachomýtnout
Flows well
nice choic​e of words
Jana Bedanova
Entry #6490
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
1001 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.113.00 (9 ratings)3.22 (9 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags
Entry #6536
Finalist
Voting points1st2nd3rd
1001 x1
Rating typeOverallQualityAccuracy
Entry3.253.25 (8 ratings)3.25 (8 ratings)
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 1 "like" tag
  • 2 users agreed with "likes" (2 total agrees)
+2
včerejší pyžamo
Flows well
Markéta Vilhelmová