The Art of Translation

When I was younger, I was curious about a book I saw on my dad’s shelf: The Art of Translation. Back then I was wondering, what’s so difficult about translation that it takes some art? Isn’t it just a matter of finding words of two different languages with equivalent meaning?

I found out how wrong I was a few years later when I worked for a humanitarian organization which often uses an external translator when producing bilingual documents. In my position back then, I had to double check the translation to make sure that it was using proper terminology. More often than not, I had to change a lot of the terms used by the external translator because it didn’t make sense. By then, I could start to sense why translation is such an art.

For a short period of time in between jobs, I received a translation order from one of the partners of my previous organization. Then it became even more clear to me why someone would write a book about the art of translation and actually make money out of it.

One thing I learned, was that translation is not just about finding a word in a different language which has the same meaning. It also needs to be usable in the same context, have the same or similar connotation, and in general, the use of the word in the sentence should make sense.

Another thing I learned was the importance of research and referring to existing documents of the relevant company/organization. This is to ensure proper use of terminology, so that the translated version would be consistent with other documents throughout your client’s entity. Naturally you would think ‘ensuring consistency’ would be the job of your clients. Well, maybe so. But if you did it right in the first place, your client is happy. And a happy client means more jobs coming your way.

Here is an example of inappropriate use of terminology. The Indonesian Red Cross’s structure throughout the country consists of offices in the provincial level (propinsi) and in the district level (kecamatan). Within their statutes and by laws (Anggaran Dasar/Anggaran Rumah Tangga), they refer to their provincial level offices as Markas Daerah which literally in English means Area Quarters (markas is [head]quarters, daerah is area). However, what they officially use in their English documentations (reflected in the official translation of their statutes) is ‘Chapter (office)’.

Imagine if you took a translation job from them and ended up submitting a translated document which reads “Participants from 33 Area Quarters gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of PMI”. Not only will your client end up having to change all the terms throughout the document, they may also decide to delete you from their contact list.

So, remember the art of translation:

• Don’t only translate literally, read the whole context of the original paragraph and make sure the translated paragraph gives the same idea;
• Ask your client to provide you with previously translated documents that they were happy with which you can use as a reference to the use of terminology. If you don’t feel comfortable with this, do some research. Their website will most probably have the official terms used in both languages;
• Don’t only use a dictionary. Keep a thesaurus of both languages nearby to look for possible alternate words to use to provide the right connotation.

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