TESTIMONIALS
Chris is a dedicated, efficient, punctual, and meticulous professional. Most importantly, his translations are faithful reinterpretations of the source texts in the new language. I recommend him.
Federico Crespi, Federico Crespi & Associati
Alessandro Cevenini, a young man suffering from acute leukemia, fought his battle against the disease by creating the non-profit foundation Beat Leukemia, and writing the highly successful book The Secret Is Life (over 10 thousand copies sold), a positive, inspirational story of illness, faith, and overwhelming hope.
The book’s success with Italian readers prompted us to widen its audience with Spanish and English editions. The English translation was entrusted to Chris Turner, who perfectly interpreted the author’s spirit in a meticulous work that further contributed to the book’s success.
We can therefore recommend Chris Turner as a faithful translator and interpreter of the spirit of the author.
Maurizio and Michele Cevenini, Beat Leukemia
Chris has been working with us for 15 years, handling technical translations from Italian to English. He is fast, reliable, helpful, and open to discussion. Working with him is a pleasure, and I hope that our professional relationship continues for many years to come.
Carlotta Zucchini, Editor-in-Chief THE PLAN
Working with Chris was a surprise and a blessing. His translations, always precise and respectful to the original, are the result of an extraordinary level of care and a real passion for his work, which leads him to researching each topic and even verifying the information contained in the source text.
Andrea Demodena – Coordinating Editor, Penna Magazine
I’ve known Chris for over 30 years and have followed his career every step of the way. He has always proven himself to be extremely reliable, and I can state without a doubt that he approaches all his translations – from the most stimulating to the most tedious – with the same attention to detail and commendable dedication to finding the right linguistic register.
So, do you need a translation from Italian to English? Without a doubt, Chris is the right person!
Fabio Malgaretti, adjunct professor, Milan State University
Since he’ll sometimes find problems with a text before you do, working with Chris is a pleasure. Accurate, punctual, reliable – Chris is an excellent translator.
William Dello Russo, freelance editor and copywriter
In the professional life of a writer, there are three figures who help you sleep easy at night and think yourself lucky (and I do). The first is the publisher – the one who discovers you, who publishes the book you never thought you’d publish, who helps you take your first plunge into the sea of words. But the publisher doesn’t always stay and swim with you or check to see how you’re getting on. You can change publisher.
The second figure is the editor – your first friend and enemy, the person you need to convince with your drafts, the one who raises the first questions, the one who plants the first doubts in your mind, the one who gives you the final solutions. You need to spend weeks with the editor, but, if you’re lucky (and I am), they’ll be wonderful weeks.
The third figure is the translator – who takes your language, your words, your rhythms, and your sounds and turns them into new ones. There are accurate translators, talented translators, resolute translators, and translators who flatly refuse to settle for second best. And then, if you’re lucky, there’s Chris Turner, who has all those qualities but is not “just” a translator: he’s a musician who uses your words as his instrument. Whatever rhythm you had in mind, just tap it out, scribble it down, and pass it on to him. This is no small thing: having a story translated by him feels like striking gold while panning in the Yukon River. Perhaps I’ve already mentioned that I’m lucky. And I work with him.
Chris Turner is quite simply one of the best translators I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with.
Today, 2020, the world of translation is undergoing radical change: CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) has reached a level of sophistication that was unthinkable just a few years ago and is able to handle even very complex texts. Also, the number of people who call themselves “translators” has increased exponentially. Apparently, this is a job that growing numbers of people can perform without a lot of effort. A job that, sometimes, even a machine can do.
But Chris’s work has nothing to do with any of that. On the contrary, his translations reflect a deep understanding of some very subtle aspects of a source text – its nuances, subtext, hidden quotes or plays on words, its style, the effect the author is trying to achieve, along with their intentions. He then takes these aspects, transforms them, and – sometimes – reinvents them to obtain an equivalent effect in the target language. And he does this in such a natural way and with such skill that even the most expert and attentive reader will fail to realize that what they are reading was originally conceived by someone who doesn't think or speak their language.
Not only does Chris produce translations of the highest quality, he is also able to provide thorough, detailed explanations of the choices and underlying motivations that guide him when rendering an idea in one way rather than another, this simplifying the work of his clients.
Since 2009, when I started working with Chris, he has become the first person I turn to when there is a particularly delicate or difficult assignment, a text that anyone else would consider “untranslatable,” or when the end product simply must be perfect – even for the most exacting critic or the most important publisher.
Not once has Chris’s work failed to live up to expectations.