Translation difficulties and how to overcome them

   

       Translation is a very challenging activity as it is about transmitting intentions, feelings, and implicit messages while respecting the subtleties, idiosyncrasies and inherent beauty of the language.

      The quality of the translated document must be higher than the original one. In this manner, translators must be very careful about the comprehension of their translated document as it must be as clear and concise as possible without changing the meaning of the original text.

Structure and language

      Every language has a defined structure and translators must focus on this aspect in order to be idiomatic and for the readers not to notice that the text has been translated. For example, Korean has a structure of placing subject, object and then verb while English follows subject, verb and object structure.

• To overcome such an issue, you first need to understand the language structure of both languages and then remove, add or rearrange words in the source language.

Polysemy

     There are multiple meanings of a single word. Hence when you translate a specific word it becomes very difficult as the meaning of the word depends on its placement and use in the sentence.

       English words can also sound the same but are spelt differently like to, two and too. But there are also words that sound and are spelt the same such as rose can means flower or be the past tense of rise.

      False friends are these terms which, at first glance, can be translated literally, but actually have very different meanings. For instance, for French speakers casket sounds like “casquette” but in English casket is a synonym of coffin which has nothing to do with “casquette” -a cap-.

      The same problem exists with compound words because two words can be joined together to create a new word whose meaning may be utterly different. There are 3 kinds of compound words: The first one is when the meaning of each word is obvious. For example, you can consider moonlight or earring. The second type means only 50% of the two words’ literal meaning. The word “bookworm” made with “book” and “worm” have little in common when separate but together means someone who loves books. And the third kind presents meaning that literally has nothing to do with the individual words’ meaning like butterfly which is neither butter nor a fly.

• You must choose a niche and become an expert of one or two subjects. You can also learn the translation of the most commonly compound words, use translation memory tools, dictionaries and other software to make your job easier.

Sarcasm

       It is essential to understand the tone, style and context of every document you translate since they can’t be understood into the same manner. Sarcasm is a bitter, sharp or cutting expression that typically means the complete opposite of any literal meaning. Sarcasm is one type of expression that can be difficult to understand and transliterate. Due to its unique style of expressing things, sarcasm is often mistranslated and loses its meaning.

Word games

      In English, word games are used a great deal. Translators have few resources at their disposal which can easily help them to translate play on words – humour, references, among others – and they usually use their imagination to find an equivalent. In order to make people laugh translators must make cultural references without undermining the original joke.

      Let’s take Haribo original slogan: “Haribo macht Kinder Froh, und Erwachsene ebenso”, which literally means: Haribo makes children happy and adults as well. The words “froh” and “ebenso” rhyme, which led to “Haribo c’est beau la vie, pour les grands et les petits” in French, and to “Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo” in English-speaking countries.

Missing terms

      Another major issue is missing terminology. It is a challenging task to translate a word with no equivalent in the target language. Moreover, this word can be one of the most important in the text and if it’s mistranslated it can change the whole meaning of the text.

• More generally if you are stuck in translation it can be great help to consult the client in order to find the appropriate word that best represents the message they want to put across. Translators can also contact any local experts who have knowledge regarding the target language or culture.

• Even if back translation consumes a lot of time it is very useful. It will help to detect semantic errors and have a professional quality translation.

     In conclusion depending on the text’s country of origin translators must adapt to the target language and specialize in a few subjects to find answers to the translation problems.

Nolwen D.