the market is named first
Spanish differs between Mexico City, Medellín, and Buenos Aires. Before a word is translated, the customer's country is fixed in writing, and vocabulary, pronoun, and tone follow from it.
About The desk at 612 Penn Ave
by the time your launch arrives, every sentence will already have been read twice.
Solmeriano is a translation desk with one language pair and one method: translate, set aside, read cold against the original. This page explains who does the work, how it is checked, and where its limits lie.
01 Why one language pair
a small desk, kept to a single pair of languages.
Solmeriano translates between English and Latin American Spanish, and nothing else. A desk that does not rotate through ten languages can afford to learn the one pair properly: the regional vocabulary, the register of a lease against that of a menu, and the places where an English phrase has no honest Spanish equivalent.
The clients are small businesses in New Jersey and New York that sell, hire, or sign agreements across the border or across the street: restaurants adding a Spanish menu, contractors localizing a storefront, landlords issuing a lease to a tenant who reads in Spanish. Their files are modest in size and large in consequence, and they are treated accordingly.
Work is quoted in writing, delivered in the format it arrived in, and invoiced once. The office is open six days a week, and Sundays too, because deadlines do not observe weekends.
02 Working principles
three rules the desk does not bend.
nothing returns unread
Every file is read cold against the English by the translator after a rest from it. Queries that cannot be resolved by the desk are sent to you as a short list, not guessed at.
the limits are stated up front
Certified or sworn translations for courts and agencies are outside the scope. The quote says so before the work begins, so the figure on the invoice matches the figure you approved.
03 Life of a file
from your inbox to your inbox, in five stages.
A typical file under 2,500 words moves through the desk like this. Larger projects keep the same order on a longer calendar.
- Day 0
quote
You send the file or a URL. An itemised written quote follows within one business day, and nothing is billed until you approve it.
- Day 1
brief
The desk confirms the country, the audience, and any names or phrases that must never be translated, and starts a glossary for the project.
- Day 1–2
translation
The text is translated in full, with formatting kept intact: tags, tables, and interface strings included.
- Day 2–3
the cold read
After a pause, the Spanish is read against the English line by line, and then read once more without the English at all, as your customer would.
- Day 3
delivery
The finished file returns in its original format with the glossary attached. One revision round is included for 14 days, and the invoice follows, payable within 15 days.
04 Scope
what the desk does, and what it leaves to others.
inside the scope
- English to Latin American Spanish, and back again
- Websites, storefronts, menus, brochures, email sequences
- Contracts and policies for business understanding
- A bilingual glossary delivered with every contract
outside the scope
- Certified or sworn translation for courts and agencies
- Peninsular Spanish, or any language outside the pair
- Live interpreting, in person or by phone
- Legal advice on what a clause means for you
05 Written quote
send the file; receive a figure in writing.
A quote, itemised by file, reaches your inbox within one business day. Nothing is billed until you approve it.