the challenge for any translator Thread poster: Antonio Berbel Garcia
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I would like to know your opinion on this question:
Is it possible to translate texts with dense metaphor laden language and not replace it with a more idiomatic equivalent (which flows perfectly well but which loses some of the - at least intended - nuance)?
I would be very grateful if you contribute with a post. Thanks a million.
Gnomo
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:57
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| The point is.... | Apr 13, 2016 |
gnomo wrote:
I would like to know your opinion on this question:
Is it possible to translate texts with dense metaphor laden language and not replace it with a more idiomatic equivalent (which flows perfectly well but which loses some of the - at least intended - nuance)?
I would be very grateful if you contribute with a post. Thanks a million.
Gnomo
The point is that it *should not* lose any of the intended nuance. I don't know how my English translation of Don Quixote compares with the original but it's certainly rich in nuance, irony, ambiguity etc....
| | | | Julia Osina 
Italy
Local time: 22:57
Italian to Russian
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| The translation without the original mood has no sense | Apr 13, 2016 |
I think the translator should take more time for such kind of text in order to find a correct mood for all methafores. Maybe without exact interpretation. Sometimes it is necessary to apply also some individual fantasy. The world knows and remembers some splendid translations of lousy originals.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:57
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Controversial | Apr 13, 2016 |
Julia Osina wrote:
I think the translator should take more time for such kind of text in order to find a correct mood for all methafores. Maybe without exact interpretation. Sometimes it is necessary to apply also some individual fantasy. The world knows and remembers some splendid translations of lousy originals.
Indeed; this is a very controversial matter. Constance Garnett's English translations of Chekhov are widely admired by many English-language authors but are severely criticised by others.
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| translation Principles | Apr 13, 2016 |
I think the most important things when translating are transfer the original ideas of the author secondly, the target text should have all the ease of composition of the original thirdly, the translator should transfer the manner and style of the original finally translation should make a similar response lilk the original.
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 04:57
Chinese to English
gnomo wrote:
Is it possible...
Yes. Almost always, yes (exceptions: matches, soap, you know the drill). We can almost always translate a text in any way the customer wants. But there's a cost, and often it is our job to educate the customer on what those costs are, and why they should almost always just get it translated the way we recommend.
...to translate texts with dense metaphor laden language and not replace it with a more idiomatic equivalent (which flows perfectly well but which loses some of the - at least intended - nuance)?
Gnomo
A case in point.
Without seeing your text, and knowing the reasons for the request, of course we can't know. But here's my experience with such requests: they are almost always made from a place of ignorance.
You certainly can take a dense, metaphorical text, and translate it in a way which is not idiomatic, and does not flow. But then, no-one will read it. Seriously, no-one. Not ever. Is that what your customer really wants? Usually these requests are made by source text writers who believe that there is some special quality to their text (particularly good literature, or similar), and who fear its loss in translation. It is our job as translators to tell them that the one way to *absolutely guarantee* that the quality gets lost is to translate it in an unidiomatic way.
I suggest you sit down with your author, and explain to her/him that they are going to have to trust their translator. It's not easy, and authors deserve our support, but they must be told very clearly that if they try to impose their idea of "fidelity" on a translated text, they are very likely to ruin it.
There is one other possibility, which is that the author knows exactly what they are doing, and just really wants to convey those metaphors in an exotic way. That's also possible, but it's insanely hard, and it almost always means that the text will get much longer, as you will have to insert a lot of explanatory apparatus. If that's what the author wants, then go for it, but triple your rate.
| | | | | It may need some rewriting | Apr 13, 2016 |
If a text loses nuances and metaphors, it may make very dull reading.
Sometimes it will be necessary to replace metaphors or figures of speech rather than translating them.
I struggled with this question last year when translating a wonderful book about bringing up children, with quotes, anecdotes and actual children's comments. I was not able to find equivalents for all the colourful expressions in the source. However, by agreement with the author, I found them where I could,... See more If a text loses nuances and metaphors, it may make very dull reading.
Sometimes it will be necessary to replace metaphors or figures of speech rather than translating them.
I struggled with this question last year when translating a wonderful book about bringing up children, with quotes, anecdotes and actual children's comments. I was not able to find equivalents for all the colourful expressions in the source. However, by agreement with the author, I found them where I could, and compensated occasionally with English gems in passages where the Danish was more straightforward.
The author found a few English examples from her own reading, and indeed, she had wished she could include some in the Danish, but they did not work in translation. Without these illustrations, it would have been very dull and largely dry theory.
If the style and metaphors are not rendered somehow in translation, the text may not make sense, and it will lose its 'soul'.
Even with closely related languages and cultures like English and Danish, it can be difficult, and some things will inevitably be lost in translation. The question is how to compensate for them as faithfully as possible.
If you just dryly state that children say odd things, which adults misunderstand, and then punish the children unjustly, the response will be 'I suppose that is true'. The aim was to make readers remember incidents from their own childhood, and ask what the child actually meant before scolding and doling out punishments.
The point is made far more clearly in a tale about a boy who said he had a dog's dinner for lunch. That is not a polite expression in English, and quite rude in Danish. (He meant it literally - the dog was usually given left-overs from supper, but that day the boy had left-overs too instead of the usual flat sandwiches in his lunch pack. When he called it a dog's dinner, the kindergarten staff told him angrily not to complain about the food, and it took him years to work out why.) ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 16:57
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
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Thanks a million to all of you.
Gnomo
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