I’m Abdussabur, and I’ve been translating from German to English since 1993. I was brought up in the UK and lived in Berlin from 1989 to 1994. After that I lived in South Africa, with short periods in Albania and Indonesia.

What I really enjoy is writing good English. As well as translating, I write and publish books, and I edit other people’s writing.

I’m keen on cars and technology. I’m fascinated by all kinds of subjects and I’m always looking at how people write about different things. I like current affairs too. I keep up my German by talking with friends and colleagues, reading the press, and reading the many thousands of words that get sent to me each week.

I studied law and there’s part of me that loves legalese, so I do a lot of contracts. I enjoy translating magazines, essays and articles, dialogue and general conversation. I started my career churning out technical texts for Berlin and Munich agencies, and technical texts still land on my desk quite often.

Overall, what I really love is producing really good copy. And I especially enjoy working with people who are keen to think about what a piece of German writing is really saying, so we can bring it across in natural English.

I dictate a lot of my work. It gets typed by a native English typist. When it comes back, I edit it. That way I get a fresh look at my own writing, and it means I can get through four or five thousand words a day if I need to. I often use Trados as well.

Get in touch and we can talk about how to produce a really good translation together.