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

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 3 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase. The winning entry was determined based on finals round voting by peers.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (3 total) Expand all entries

Entry #7154
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
7718 x42 x21 x1
Entry tagging:
  • 2 users entered 2 "like" tags
  • 1 user agreed with "likes" (1 total agree)
prikovani za radni stol
Good term selection
Hokaido
+1
1
Ne želim da me itko poznat vidi kako plačem jer nisam tip koji utorkom ujutro ni zbog čega doživljava živčani slom u zračnoj luci Heathrow.
Flows well
Davorka Herceg-Lockhart
Entry #7720
Voting points1st2nd3rd
233 x44 x23 x1
Entry tagging:
  • 1 user entered 2 "like" tags
  • 3 users agreed with "likes" (5 total agrees)
+3
Nose ih policajci
Flows well
Kristina Kolic
+2
trateći svoje vrijeme
Flows well
flows well
Kristina Kolic
Entry #7201
Voting points1st2nd3rd
1304 x25 x1
Entry tagging:
  • No "like" tags