Ann Duffy says that working to deadlines is a central feature of her job as a translator - but the sense of satisfaction is tremendous. Catherine Foley reports

It's raining outside, but Ann Duffy is deeply engrossed in her work. She doesn't notice the time. She's lost in software-speak - concentrating hard on translating a software textbook from German into English. She's immersed in the work. She has a deadline looming. As the deadline draws nearer, her work becomes more intense.

"You do get lost in a text," she says. It's engrossing, interesting work that gives her a sense of satisfaction. "There's definitely a lot of brain effort involved. It is quite cerebral."

She works towards a deadline, pacing herself, preparing to complete her work and hand it over after about four weeks, ready to begin the next assignment. There's a completeness about it, a sense that she's responsible for a job well done.

She works alone at her desk, in charge of her own output. She sits in front of her computer all day, surrounded by dictionaries, glossaries and textbooks. It's challenging and involving, she says. There are software engineers and others to consult in the German-owned Lemoine International company where she works, however. Her job is in software localisation, which translates software into the local language.

"You need a certain amount of discipline," she says of her job. "You have to manage your time well, and you have to pay attention to detail. You are practically always working to deadlines."

Self-motivation is an important aspect of her job. She is the company's only translator based in this State, but no, it's not a lonely job, she says. "You have a sense of satisfaction that it's all your own work. I wouldn't call it lonely," she says. "There are certain advantages and disadvantages to working on your own. There are colleagues that I can contact. There's somebody there that I can talk to." She doesn't wear a uniform. She could work from home if she wanted to. Flexibility is one of the key bonuses of her job.

"The work I do is not that technical. You can go into all sorts of fields. A translator will always translate into their native language. It's not the same quality if it's done the other way."

On average, she translates approximately 2,000 words a day "more or less, but you can get faster than that".

The textbook she's working on at the moment is "not too dry", she says. "The advantage of a textbook that doesn't have much poetry or rhetoric in it is that there's a lot of repetition." With the translation tools on the computer, once a repeated phrase has been translated, the segments are automatically translated.

Growing up by the sea in beautiful Bundoran, Co Donegal, Duffy says she often dreamed about travelling to foreign places.

She studied French and German at her school, Ardlughaidh Secondary School, which has since closed - and her Irish was "quite good, too", she says. Today she is fluent in French, Spanish and German.

She studied French and German as part of her degree in applied languages at the University of Ulster, Coleraine. The four years included one year abraod, comprising six months in Pau in the south-west of France and six months in Erlangen in Germany. After graduating she went to Valencia to learn Spanish.

On her return, she did an MA in translation studies at DCU. Her thesis looked at the importance of subtitles in the film industry in Europe, where promotion of the film industry is central, but where she found the funding of subtitles services is not. "They don't give that much help in getting the film translated," she says.

She also worked with Eithne McCarthy in Abbey Translations in Glenageary, co Dublin. "It was good to put what you learn in college into practice," she says.

Translating means "you have to have a very, very good understanding of a foreign language - the whole context of the job - and you have to write good English." Yes, she adds, "you have to be meticulous. You have to be open-minded and you have to be very flexible."

She went to the European Parliament in Luxembourg for about three months. Then she went back to Spain again, "improving my Spanish" and working as a freelance translator for two years.

Now she's back in Ireland. "You are always learning more," says Duffy.