Language translation services
Let’s define translation
Translation is the art of transferring the meaning and purpose of discourse to a completely different linguistic system. On a surface level, translation is understood as the act of replacing a text from a source language to a target language with words that carry similar meanings. In reality, it is more than what it appears to be.
What a translator does while translating
When a translator translates words from one language to the other, they try to transfer the entire ecosystem of that discourse. The translator chooses words that stay close to not just the meaning of the source language but also the intent and the tonality of the source discourse.
Different kinds of discourse demand different ways of translation.
How genre plays a role in translation
Translating a news article is not the same as translating a work of fiction. The discourse genre plays a crucial role in the nature of translation it demands. For example, even among books, translating a non-fiction book is not similar to translating a piece of fiction. The genres, at times, demand you to bend the target language a bit to achieve a desirable effect.
What can be the translation style
Based on the requirements, the act of translation can be either free or literal, full or partial, or total or restricted. Some types of translation require you to translate the discourse inside its prescribed form. A befitting example of this kind is translation is a piece of poetry.
Translating such literary pieces by consciously addressing the form and meter of the work is arduous.
While translating subtitles requires different criteria to be kept in mind. They are mainly about the choice of a word concerning its length. In subtitle translations, words of short lengths that match the span of utterance in the source language are preferred.
In some translations, we keep certain words from the source text untouched. These choices are mostly based on the cultural relevance of the word or how the word can lose its effect in the discourse if it gets translated.
Processes for the perfect translation
And in all cases, the question of ‘perfect translation’ always remains a great conundrum. The idea of perfect translation is very fluid. It does largely depend on answering the questions:
1. Why does the text get translated?
2. What is the level of impact the translation process wants to create for the source text?
3. To whom is the text translated?
4. What is the chosen medium for the text… like text or digital?
Again, these are questions that a writer needs to ask for even writing an original piece of work. The necessity of these questions affirms that a translator is as similar to an original writer in recreating a piece of text. Hence, by finding suitable answers to the above questions, a translator takes their piece of translation closer to its original work. And a perfect translation happens when the translated piece gives an impact equivalent to the original work. Several canonized works of fiction stand as a testimony to this.
However, the art of translation is perfected through only practice. From practicing to asking appropriate questions for translation to practicing and re-practicing to choose the appropriate words for the target text, the art of translation is always a work in progress.
A translation service provider can help you
In case you want to translate your work, there are professional translation service providers that can help your work get translated naturally. Translation service providers in India, like Content Connects, carry out content translation work in several languages with the help of highly skilled translators.