Translation of non-specialised texts

Literal, word-for-word and literary translation.

Talking about specifics of this type of translation, it is important to understand what types of text belong to this category. Besides traditional genres, like short stories, memoires, letters and magazine articles, we can also include advertising materials (brochures and presentations), film and book précis, brand standards, games content, etc. Translating in general demands a lot from the translator, but literary translation is even harder as the translator besides holding a high qualification, should also be a talented poet or a writer him/herself.

What does translating mean? It seems easy enough. All you need to do is to present the same text in a different language ensuring that the sentence structure is correct and conveying the meaning of the original text. But it is not as simple as it seems. An old story comes to mind about a student who was asked to translate from Latin the following phrase: «Spiritus quidem promptus est, caro autem infirma» («The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak»). The student’s translation however read: «Alcohol is good, meat is rotten». The grammar is correct, but the meaning is completely different.

Conveying the meaning of the original text is the most difficult task. The more complex the meaning is, the harder it is to preserve it in the translation and this is the reason why many consider translating to be a type of art.

There are three main types of translating:

1. Literal or direct translation is a technical translation when syntactic or logical connections are not taken into consideration. Although this type of translation is not ideal, there is still a need for it: it serves as a basis for future work with the text.

2. Word-for-word translation. With this type of translation, translator tries to preserve the syntax and vocabulary of the original text as well as convey its meaning perfectly. Although the syntactic rules can be often broken, this type of translation can be used effectively during the initial stages as the writer of the original text may have used new words or introduced new senses of existing words or wrote in a specific style where particular syntactic constructions are used. All of these features can make the text hard to understand and especially when the translator is pressed for time it makes sense to translate these types of texts word-for-word. During the later stages of the process, when the editor receives the translated text, it is his/her job to turn the word-for-word translation into literary translation.

3. Literary translation. This type of translation is the most popular, the most ‘correct’ type as it preserves the original meaning as well syntactic rules of the literary language. However, this type of translation often becomes the subject for discussions in the professional circles. Some professionals believe that the main purpose of translation is not to preserve the exact vocabulary or syntax, but to use effective literary means. Others define translating as re-creating the original text using particular features of the other language. This of course highlights the issues of correctness and adequacy of translation.

The main feature of literary translation is the use of tropes and figures of speech. This particular characteristic of literary texts was noticed a long time ago and we still use ancient terminology to define certain stylistic aspects of the texts.

Translators face many translating obstacles: synonyms, puns and jokes, etc. Here is one of the examples, an old English joke based on the play of words. A man comes to the funeral and asks: ‘I’m late?’ Someone replies: ‘Not you, sir. She is’. The problem is that the English expression ‘to be late’ can mean both: ‘to arrive late’ and ‘to be dead’. In Russian it is almost impossible to preserve this play of words, but the translator solved the problem creatively: ‘All finished?’ – ‘Not for you sir, for her.’

There are two main ways to approach translation based on the principle of ‘transparency’. Transparency in translation determines to what extent the reader regards the translated text as an original text in his/her native language rather than a translation. The most transparent translation is called ‘idiomatic’, and the less transparent is called literal or direct translation. Unlike the direct translation, idiomatic translation is characterised by rules of vocabulary and grammar compatibility. It is often used when translating proverbs, set phrases, etc. The quality of translation is down to the professionalism of the translator, his/her knowledge of the country and the mentality of its citizens, etc. Without this particular background knowledge, it wouldn’t occur to the translator that ‘public house’ is not a brothel but a pub, or that a ‘fair girl’ is simply a blond lady.

The opposite of idiomatic translation which is the highest form of translation is the literal or direct translation when grammar and syntactic structure of the translated text often match the original. This type of translation is often used when translating ‘sacred’ texts: we all have heard such expressions as ‘byword’, ‘the holies of holies, ‘vanity of vanities’, etc.

You must not neglect the importance of cultural differences either. For example, Arab reader would recognise quotations from the Holy Quran as easy as the European reader would identify quotes from the Bible. In translation these quotes can sometimes become unrecognisable. Literary traditions also vary immensely: a European reader will find the comparison of a pretty woman to the giraffe rather odd, while in Arabic poetry this comparison is quite common. And here is another hopeless translation situation: how would you translate “снегурочка” (‘‘snow maiden’’) into languages of African countries whose citizens have never ever seen snow or ice? At times cultural differences can create more obstacles than particular language features.