What is a translation
A translation is an activity
that requires the interpretation of a text (called source
text) and the following drafting of a new text which is the
equivalent of the original text in another language (called
target language). The word “translation”
doesn't only refer to the act of translating, but it refers
to the translated text as a result of this activity. For
this reason, some experts and theoreticians prefer to avoid
ambiguity using a more specific term: for example, the noun
“translating” (Henri Meschonnic) or expressions such
as “activité traduisante” (translating activity),
opération traduisante (translating operation) (Georges
Mounin) and more. The term simultaneous translation
instead, more known like simultaneous interpreting, refers
to the direct translation of a speech from a language to
another language, to mediate in two or more interlocutors.
The latter one is the type of translation mainly used in
international conventions to allowed to a public composed of
people speaking different languages to follow the jobs'
development, each person in their native speaking language.
The translator's role
The aim of a translator is to
transfer the text from the source language to the target
language in a way to keep the more unaltered as possible its
meaning and style, using, if necessary, processes of
adaptation. Because of the many differences which can exist
between two or more languages it is often difficult (if not
impossible: many are those who support the theory of the
non-translatable languages) to preserve the exact sense and
the writing's style (sound, register, rhythm, metrics);
sometime the translator is forced to make a choice depending
on the type of text and on the translation's aim. For
example, in the case of a law's translation or a
translation of a technical text,
the priority will be the maximum coherency with the original
text; instead a
literary translation
can somehow move away from the exact meaning to maintain
unchanged the style and metrics of the original text.
Sometimes, it is necessary for a translator to add some
explicative notes or periphrasis, for example for word game,
rhymes, or for words sounding the same in the original
language but not in the target language, for proverbs or
typical concepts of the original language and its culture
which have not direct equivalents in the target language.
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It is important, from an
ethical point of view, that a translation is developed
working on the original text, even if sometimes can happen
to translate a translated text, for example if the original
language is not a widespread language.
Inter-textual space in
translations
Theories on translations are
many. One of those, supported by Peeter Torop, is the
Inter-textual space theory. The Estonian expert is convinced
that “culture..provokes unfailingly the comparison and
juxtaposition ”; therefore when translating a text, it
is natural that a translator refers to information already
known by him, partially altering the meaning. Michail
Bachtin affirms: “Any comprehension is a correlation of a
given text with others texts and the afterthought in the new
contest”. That's how this abstract concept, the
inter-textual space, has born as a place where literature is
created, acknowledged and interpreted. This theory improves
the translation's definition, from being a simple passage
from a language to another becomes a real interpretation of
someone else's speech. In his book entitled " Origins of
the philosophic modern terminology "(2006), Tullio
Gregory insists on the substantial importance of the
translators' work, often unfairly banished in the backstage
for a groundless prejudice on the non-originality of their
works. If, from one hand, the translation is made on a
cultural and linguistic different heritage, proposing always
an original and complete interpretation, on the other hand,
in front of unknown speculative dimensions, it imposes “in
an forced way” the creation of lexical structures suitable
to transcribe the original text.
(Source: Wikipedia)
The
Freelance
Translators
Technical Translation and Literary Translation
The Literary Translation
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