Impregnation and Hydrophobization

Author Alan James and partner dropped by to pick up his watercolours that I had photographed for his book in production. The humour in his true biography of a college porter was reflected in conversation but we also discussed more serious issues such as styling and font to use.

At last I had a clear run to complete the translation and formatting of Mr Juengst's brochure, which did indeed take the rest of the day.

Two words stood out in translation, which rang as strange in my mind.  The first of these was “impregnation”.

The word was used in relation to impregnating the surfaces of historical buildings and monuments with protective agents. I looked up the definitions, I looked up its use in relation to restoration. The word is used in the industry, there is even a company called Impregnation Services that works in the area. Yet the word constantly niggled in my mind as I was working though the translation. I suppose it was the other use of the word, “to inseminate”, “to make pregnant”, with all its sexual connotations that falsely triggered my translator's instinct to say “are you sure this is the right word?”

The second word was “hydrophobization”. The immediate temptation was to replace the word with “water repellent”. But in respect to treating sensitive surfaces, façades and walls, water repellent almost implied a total sealing and waterproofing, such that a building might not be able to breathe.

Hydrophobization seemed to mean more a coating of particles within a structure, so that water would not penetrated into the particles, whilst still allowing the surface to breathe.

The problem with thinking too hard about a translation of a word can be that even the most obvious and appropriate words become suspect in the mind of the translator.