subject: How Do You Choose Translation Candidates? [print this page] As you translate, your brain generates a large number of translation candidates and discards all of them, except for the one you "put on paper" so to say. You can either use the think-before-you-leap method or start writing only when you are sure you have the right solution; or you can opt for the think-as-you-go method and write, amend, edit, correct back and forth; in either case you have to make decisions.
How do you choose between those translation candidates? You can hardly coax the candidates into playing rock-paper-scissors, you know. So we developed this series of steps to help you in the task.
Choose the alternative that best reflects the message of the source document
Our first duty is to convey the same message as the original. Like it or not, the reader is interested in knowing what the author said, not in what we think. It is well known that all translations involve a degree of distortion, that a translation always adds something to the original and subtracts something from it. A good professional translator should minimize distortion, the opinion of several academics notwithstanding.
Our first duty is to convey the same message as the original.
Too many of us are bent on "improving" other people's texts. Sometimes, it is just a question of form: a professional translator is expected to write well and many of the documents we translate are badly written, especially in the case of technical translations. If the translation reads as badly as the original, chances are that readers will think it is the translator's fault, so we caulk a few cracks here and there.
To improve or not to improve, that is the question. We do not see much harm in patching up a badly written text, and, to be honest, more than once we have pretended not to see "principle" written where Mr. Fowler would claim "principal" should be used. But redoing the whole thing in our fashion is surely out of bounds.
However, the point at issue here is the message, the content. If the original is a nasty piece of work full of racist prejudice, those characteristics should also be seen in the translation. Watering the text down to make it more palatable is outright lying. What the author said may be a bunch of lies, but it is true that the author said them and readers are entitled to know that and take such measures as may be appropriate in their opinion.
If more than one translation meets the preceding condition, use the one that cannot possibly be misinterpreted
Ambiguity is our enemy. Murphy's first law of translation says that if a phrase can be understood in two different ways, readers will always interpret it the way that makes the sentence read like a mistranslation.
Since our job is to transmit someone else's message as accurately as possible, the only reason to present a translation with more than one interpretation is to reflect ambiguity found in our source text, a task far more difficult than most of us would believe.
If more than one translation meets the preceding condition, use the one that is more widely accepted as correct
Once a translation conveys the message and is unambiguous, the time has come to bow to the purists, to those people who keep telling you that it is wrong to use a preposition to end a sentence with.
If more than one translation meets the preceding condition, use the one that better reflects the form of the original
To the extent possible, that is after the three above conditions are met, a translation should reflect the style of the original.
If more than one translation meets the preceding condition, use the one that flows better
It's horrible to read a translation that does not flow well, a bumpy text that reads like a translation. We know that some people advocate exactly this type of work, translations that are hard to read and that smack of the syntax of the original.
If more than one translation meets the preceding condition, use the one that your reader is more likely to understand
Some people consider translating a fine opportunity to demonstrate their sapience and vocabulary. They think they are justified in using any word that can be found in the largest dictionary of their languageand that the reader will have that dictionary handy and use it all the time.
This does not mean that you should limit your vocabulary to the three thousand most frequently used words of your language. It means that some words suit Immanuel Kant but not the blockbusters people read in airport waiting rooms.
Most translations are far too wordy. Translators tend to translate short source-text expressions with longer target phrases when and as necessary, but often forget that many long source-text expressions have shorter target counterparts.
Aunes Oversettelser AS has been in the business for 26 years, and we are specialized in technical translations. We are specializing in the Nordic languages, and can offer services into Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic. The premier translation agency for Norway and the Nordic region! Technical translation services for businesses in the Nordic countries and translation agencies world-wide.
