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Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language — the source text — and the production of another, equivalent text in another language — the target text or translation.
Traditionally, translation has always been a human activity, although attempts have been made to automate and computerize the translation of natural language texts, machine translation, or to use computers as an aid to translation, computer-assisted translation.
The goal of translation is to establish a relationship of equivalence between the source and the target texts (that is to say, both texts communicate the same message), while taking into account the various constraints placed on the translator. (These constraints include context, the rules of grammar of the source language, its writing conventions, its idioms and the like.)
A distinction is made between translation, which consists of transferring ideas expressed in writing from one language to another, from interpreting, which consists of transferring ideas expressed orally, or by the use of gestures (as in the case of sign language), from one language to another.
Although interpreting can be considered a subcategory of translation from the point of view of analyzing the processes involved (translation studies), in practice the talents required for these two activities are quite different.
The translation process, whether for translation per se or for interpreting, can be stated simply as:
To identify and capture the meaning of a text the translator must identify its component " translation units", that is to say the segments of the text (which may be a word, a phrase, one or more sentences, to be treated as a cognitive unit.
Behind this simple procedure there lies a complex cognitive operation. For example, to decode the meaning of the source text in its entirety, the translator proceeds more or less consciously and methodically to interpret and analyse all the features of the text, a process which requires in-depth knowledge of both the grammar, semantics, syntax, idioms and the like of the source language, as well as the culture of its speakers.
The translator needs the same in-depth knowledge to re-encode the meaning in the target language. In fact, many sources maintain that the translator's knowledge of the target language is more important, and needs to be deeper, than his knowledge of the source language. For this reason, most translators translate into a language of which they are native speakers.
In addition, knowledge of the subject matter being discussed is essential.
In recent years studies in cognitive linguisticsCognitive linguistics is a school of linguistics and cognitive science, which aims to provide accounts of language that mesh well with current understandings of the human mind. The guiding principle behind this area of linguistics is that language use mus have been able to provide valuable insights into the cognitive process of translation.
As the goal of translation is to establish a relationship of equivalence between the source and the target texts (that is to say, both texts communicate the same message), while taking into account the various constraints placed on the translator, a successful translation can be judged by how well it meets these two criteria:
A translation meeting the first criterion is said to be a "faithful translation"; a translation meeting the second criterion is said to be an "idiomatic translation".
The criteria used to judge the faithfulness of a translation vary according to the subject, the precision of the original contents, the type, function and use of the text, its literary qualities, its social context, its historical context, etc.
The criteria for judging the transparency of a translation would appear more straightforward: an unidiomatic translation "sounds" wrong, and in the extreme case of word-for-word translations generated by many machine translation systems, often result in patent nonsense.
Nevertheless, in certain contexts a translator may knowingly strive to produce a literal translation. For example, literary translators and translators of religious works often attempt to retain the model of the source text as much as possible. To do this they deliberately "stretch" the boundaries of the target language to produce an unidiomatic text. Likewise, a literary translator may wish to adopt words or expressions from the source language to provide "local colour" in the translation.
The concepts of fidelity and transparency are looked at differently in recent translation theories. The idea that acceptable translations should be as creative and original as their source text is gaining momentum.
The critique of these two concepts is also aided by the translation practices in non-western countries like India. The Indian epic Ramayana has numerous versions in many Indian languages and the stories in each are different from one another. If one looks into the words used for translation in Indian (either Aryan or Dravidian) languages, the freedom given to the translators is evident.
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