September has rolled around all too quickly, and our summer’s coming to an end … even though in London yesterday we had that British rarity of a sunny and hot Bank Holiday Monday afternoon!

Regular readers of this blog will know that September is also the month of International Translation Day. The day itself isn’t for a few weeks yet, being on 30 September 2009. But following the popularity of last year’s International Translation Day greetings card, we’ve produced one for this year too.

As we explained last year, “The translation day was established in 1991 by the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (International Federation of Translators). The date of 30 September was chosen as it is the feast day of St. Jerome (347-420 AD), patron saint of translators, interpreters and librarians. The day celebrates and promotes translation as an essential activity in contemporary society – but one which too often remains invisible and ignored. Each year a particular theme, highlighting a different area of translation, is adopted”

The theme for 2009 is “Working together” and as the International Federation of Translators explains it presents an opportunity to “take a fresh look at why and how it pays to join forces.” That’s an idea that’s essential to me, running a firm that provides translation services across more than a hundred languages! I’ll return to discussing this theme in a later post but, for now, enjoy the card and feel free to pass it on to your friends, clients or colleagues.

Click below to download the International Translation Day 2009 greeting card as a PDF:

As well as bringing back some delicious cake, he took a snap of this amusing sign from the door of his train compartment:

Yes, that English translation really does read:

No, we can’t work out how they managed that either. We’re just fairly sure it wasn’t a native Italian to English translation!

Incidentally, if you are intrigued by the idea of getting the train to mainland Europe (or even further), have a look at the informative and enthusiastic train information site, seat61.com. Travelling by train across Europe may not be the quickest way to get there, but it’s a lot less trying on your state of mind (not to mention being the low carbon option).