What was going on when I was born?

ATRANSLATOR has been commissioned at 5 cents a word to render a 500-page Czech novel into English. He has three months to perform his task. The author is hot - the winner of a prestigious literary prize or a recently jailed dissident. Right on page 1, our speedy translator comes across the following line: ''Sam vsechno vyzvonil, a ted jsme v rejzi.'' The translator either knows the meaning of the idioms or looks them up in a Czech dictionary. There he finds: ''Vyzvonit [Informal] to divulge secret information,'' ''Byt v rejzi: [Informal] to be in a difficult situation.'' The idiomatic translation, of course, would be ''Sam has spilled the beans, and now we are in a jam.'' But, working at 5 cents a word and with the deadline looming, the translator does not search his memory for adequate phrases in English. He types, ''Sam has divulged our secret, and now we are in a difficult situation.'' Then he rushes on. Eventually he meets his deadline and comes up with a translation that contains no mistakes, for he is a conscientious worker. He also has a sense of English style, and so his editor, ignorant of the language of the original text, assures him that his translation ''reads well.'' Nobody in the 500 pages spills any beans; nobody pulls anybody's leg. The smooth text resembles a Van Gogh sunflower reproduced in black and white.

Two weeks before a visit to the United States, Prime Minister Milka Planinc says a faltering economy has brought Yugoslavia ''to the point of a rather dangerous limit of what people will tolerate.'' ''The most serious problem,'' the Government leader, 60 years old, said in an interview Friday, ''is that we have not been able to increase productivity as much as is needed, or to increase the standard of living.'' The inflation rate was nearly 80 percent for the first four months of the year; the unemployment rate of 15 percent is said to be Europe's highest; exports are stagnating. Determined Person Needed ''But we cannot allow ourselves to grow weary and give up, or return to uneconomic policies,'' she said.

There is no denying that West 23d Street is shedding its seedy image as Chelsea, the neighborhood around it, emerges as an area of choice for upwardly mobile Manhattanites. Still, it was a bold move for the developers of a new condominium at 118 West 23d Street to commission Der Scutt, the architect responsible for Trump Tower, to design their new building, which will go up on a block that is only begining to feel the impact of the area's gentrification.

IN the spring, sunrise comes to Long Island at about 6 o'clock, one hour after William Lieblein starts his workday at Port of Egypt Marine in Southold. Bulkheads and docks need to be repaired after a winter of ice damage. Hulls need to be scraped and painted. Plumbing and electric lines to marina slips need to be restored. And all of this needs to be done against the clock, according to Mr. Lieblein, if everything is to be ready in time for the summer boating season. It is a spring ritual that goes back to 1946, when Mr. Lieblein's father bought a small fishing station on Budd's Pond off Southold Bay and began building a boatyard and marina. A family tradition was built concurrently, rooted in what Mr. Lieblein called ''an emotional attachment to the land.''

After more than two decades of rejection and isolation, Fidel Castro is building new relationships in South America, dispelling many old suspicions and succeeding in dimming his image as a threatening revolutionary, many diplomats say. In the last year, Cuba has received a $600 million loan from Argentina. The right-of-center President of Ecuador, Leon Febres Cordero, made a formal visit to Cuba in April, and there have been signs that Uruguay, Peru and possibly Brazil may soon re-establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba. Cuba remains without diplomatic relations with Colombia, but Western diplomats and Cuban officials say that Mr. Castro has developed a personal relationship with President Belisario Betancur and that the two speak by telephone several times a week. In early May, Mr. Castro sent a shipment of medical supplies to Bolivia and 15 buses to Guyana. Both were gifts.

Wildfires described as the worst in Florida's history leaped highways today and menaced populated areas on the north-central Atlantic coast of the peninsula. About 150 firefighters using National Guard bulldozers attempted to block a wall of flames threatening residences in the town of Palm Coast in Flagler County. New fires were reported in all parts of the state today after 109 outbreaks on Friday, and hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes. From 150 to 200 homes, many valued at $55,000 to $100,000, were destroyed Friday in Palm Coast, Red Cross officials reported. Units of the National Guard were sent there today to patrol the burned-out area and prevent looting. #100-Mile Stretch Threatened Forestry rangers and local fire departments battled seven fires in a 100-mile stretch from St. Augustine to Cape Canaveral, described as the area where most homes were threatened.

Tank's Prospect charged down the stretch at Pimlico Race Course today to snatch victory from Chief's Crown in the final stride and win the 110th Preakness Stakes by a head. The winner's time of 1:53 2/5 for a mile and three-sixteenths under Pat Day was one-fifth of a second faster than Gate Dancer's official track record set in last year's Preakness and equaled Secretariat's disputed and unofficial 1973 record. The track was not unusually fast today, suggesting that this was an excellent race for the first two finishers. The quality of the race suggests a lively rivalry for 3-year-old honors among Tank's Prospect, Chief's Crown and Spend a Buck, the Kentucky Derby winner, who skipped this race in favor of a chance for a $2.6 million payday in the Jersey Derby on Memorial Day. Tank's Prospect, who paid $11.40 for $2 to win as the third choice in in a field of 11, is owned by Eugene V. Klein and trained by D. Wayne Lukas. Chief's Crown, who was the even-money favorite, finished 2 1/2 lengths in front of Eternal Prince. I Am the Game was another three lengths back in fourth. The order of finish was completed by Cutlass Reality, Tajawa, Southern Sultan, Sparrowvon, Skip Trial and Sport Jet.

Of Prices and Profits Inflation watchers should be pleased Tuesday, when the Government releases its monthly report on the Consumer Price Index. April's rise in the C.P.I. is expected to be just three tenths of 1 percent, which translates into an annual inflation rate of about 4 percent. ''But the return to a 4-percent-a-year inflation rate will hardly please producers of industrial goods,'' said David D. Hale, chief economist at Kemper Financial Services in Chicago. Caught between low inflation and low-cost foreign imports, industrial companies in the United States face a bleak year, says Mr. Hale, because they cannot raise prices to increase profits in this environment. ''While this situation will continue to benefit consumers in the short term, it results in the deterioration of our industrial sector,'' he warned. Paltry profits prevent America's smokestack businesses from modernizing, he says. So even if the dollar falls sharply, they may be unable to compete worldwide.

Frank Capra, who became a Hollywood legend by making movies about the common man often battling forces greater than himself, is battling a segment of Hollywood that is trying to give a new life to one of his best loved films, ''It's a Wonderful Life.'' ''I'm going to fight like hell,'' he says. ''People used to say, 'You preach in your pictures,' and here I'd be the first one giving up my integrity if I stood by and let this happen.'' Mr. Capra, who is 88 years old, said that he gave his tentative consent last October to a plan by Hal Roach Studios to add color to his ''It's a Wonderful Life.'' That 1946 black and white movie starred James Stewart as an ordinary fellow who considered himself such a failure that he planned to commit suicide until an angel appeared and showed him how much worse the world would have been had he not been around.

DR. Donald Grunewald has a very brief job description. ''I'm a professional beggar,'' he said. ''That's how I earn my living.'' On July 15, Dr. Grunewald, hat in hand, will be earning his living on a different street corner. He is moving from Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, where he served 12 years as president, to the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, where he will take over as president and chief executive officer. It is no secret that Dr. Grunewald, who has been a distinguished professor at Mercy College since since leaving as its president last July, was asked to go to the financially troubled museum to do what he does best: raise money.

Argentine officials said today that the Government had frozen all dollar accounts for 120 days. The move, announced near midnight, was made to stem an increase in withdrawals that began a week ago when the Government closed a large bank. In the last two months, eight private banks have been closed. The decision to freeze dollar accounts was looked on by bankers as a positive move because they believe it will probably avert more bank failures. However, financial sources said the Government's mishandling of the bank closure had provoked the run on dollars and had thrown into doubt the completion of a $4.2 billion loan from foreign banks. The loan is contingent on a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Civil rights groups and lobbyists for the poor, long accustomed to seeking solutions in Washington, say they now often get a more favorable response from state and local officials than from the Reagan Administration. As a result, they say, they have shifted much of their effort to the state and local levels. On a wide range of social issues, including education, civil rights and health care for poor people, they said the states had been quicker to respond to their appeals than the Federal Government in the last few years. In the last few weeks, while Congress has been debating how much to cut Federal spending on domestic social programs, state legislatures around the country have been taking steps to increase state spending on education, health care for the poor and housing assistance to homeless people. 'The New Federalism' ''It's a paradox,'' said Prof. Richard P. Nathan, director of the Urban and Regional Research Center at Princeton University. ''President Reagan wants a decentralization of power because he wants to limit government. But the states are reacting in ways that will, in many areas, increase government services.''