Sight Translation: Russian Power of Attorney With an Obscured Passport Digit
You are a freelance Russian-to-English translator retained by a U.S. title company for a residential closing in Chicago. At 2:00 p.m. you receive a three-page Russian power of attorney executed in Moscow. The closing is at 4:30 p.m. The document says the principal grants the agent authority to sell an apartment and contains 'без права передоверия'. The notary's round seal is partly over the passport number: '45** 123456' - one digit is obscured by the stamp. The seal text reads 'Нотариус г. Москвы ...' but the surname is illegible. The document also says 'настоящая доверенность выдана сроком на три года'. The title officer asks you to 'just put the full passport number from the copy' and to translate the seal as 'Notary Public, Moscow'. You have a clear scan of page 1 but no certified copy of the passport.
1. How do you handle the obscured passport digit and the illegible notary surname in the delivered translation?
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I would not guess either item. For the passport number I would translate it as '45[one digit obscured by seal] 123456' or '[illegible digit]' and add a translator's note describing the seal overlap. If the client later supplies a legible passport copy, I can issue a corrected translation, but I would not import a number from an unverified copy into a certified document. For the seal I would write '[seal: Notary of the City of Moscow, surname illegible]' rather than 'Notary Public, Moscow,' because the latter sounds complete and may imply verification I cannot make.
The translation should include a certificate of accuracy that identifies brackets and notes as translator's annotations. If the title officer needs a clean number, the proper fix is a reissued or better copy from the principal or notary, not a translator's guess.
2. How do you render без права передоверия and сроком на три года, and why?
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I would render без права передоверия as 'without the right of substitution' or 'with no right of sub-delegation.' Передоверие is the act of delegating authority to another person; it is not the same as revoking the power of attorney, and it is not 'irrevocable.' Adding 'irrevocable' would change the legal effect. If the title officer uses 'substitution,' I would keep that term consistently and note the Russian phrase in a translator's note only if needed.
Сроком на три года means 'valid for three years' or 'granted for a term of three years.' I would not compute an expiration date unless the document gives a start date and the client asks for a separate calculation. The translation should preserve the term as stated, not convert it into a fixed calendar date that the document does not supply.
3. The title officer insists on a clean translation with no brackets. What do you do?
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I would decline to remove the brackets and explain why: brackets are not stylistic clutter; they show where the source is illegible or where I am describing a seal rather than translating words. A clean text with a guessed digit or a completed notary name would misrepresent the document and could expose the closing to a fraud or recording problem.
I would offer practical alternatives: a cover letter identifying the illegible items, a corrected translation after a legible copy arrives, or a certificate that states exactly what is obscured. I would not certify a number I cannot see. If the officer says the closing cannot proceed, I would ask the client to obtain a duplicate or notarized copy. The professional judgment is to protect the record, not to meet the deadline by inventing certainty.