What strategies can you use to translate words and phrases with no direct equivalent?

When faced with untranslatable gems, I like to play the linguistic architect, constructing a bridge of context and cultural nuances. First, I delve into the word's roots, understanding its emotional blueprint. Then, I explore idioms and metaphors that resonate in the target language, aiming for a parallel impact. Sometimes, a dash of creativity helps fashion a linguistic doppelg?nger. If all else fails, a brief cultural preamble can lay the groundwork for comprehension. It's a dance between precision and poetic license, a linguistic maze where I navigate with the compass of cultural sensitivity and a touch of lexical artistry.

In my work as an Arabic LocQA and translator, I often encounter terms in English, French, and Italian that don't have a direct equivalent in Arabic. Paraphrasing is a strategy I employ to convey the essence of such terms, providing a description or explanation that captures their meaning within the right context.

When translating words or phrases with no direct equivalent, consider paraphrasing to convey the intended meaning. Utilize context, cultural nuances and idiomatic expressions to capture the essence. If possible, provide additional explanations or examples to help bridge the linguistic gap. It's essential to prioritize conveying the intended message accurately, even if the literal translation may not exist.

My strategy is simple, understand the core meaning of the word, and re-phrase it, keep it simple and straight as much as you can, unless you are obliged to keep it complex.

Paraphrasing is great, the real question is which direction to take the paraphrasing. For that I would consider the purpose of the translation. What is the target audience? Are you going for a general understanding of the feeling or do you need a complete understanding with context? Are footnotes permitted or inappropriate for the context of the work?

Sometimes the translation requires maintaining the original term's nuance, which is where footnotes or endnotes are invaluable. They allow me to give a deeper explanation without disrupting the flow of the text, ensuring the reader understands the term's cultural or conceptual background.

With simultaneous translation/interpreting this method is less important. Because most of the time, for me in a health-care, it is hard to have something to write with!

The footnotes and endnotes can be a useful mechanism to offer different ways to provide additional information or a specific context to be elaborated. For instance, languages like Khasi which has multiple terms for different shades of color, while translating from khasi to another language, can be a viable tool for the translation to pass the appropriate context attached to the meaning.

There are instances where the sound of a word is as important as its meaning, especially with brand names or jargon. Transliteration or transcription helps to preserve the word's original pronunciation when introducing it to the Arabic-speaking audience, maintaining its recognizability.

Well, I may use this method with certain less important things just to keep everybody safe and happy, like I use the Arabic/Iraqi word "Sammoon" for certain type of Iraqi buns just to designate it, although I can use "Iraqi Buns", but when it comes to a more serious terminology, it is not my cup of tea.

Transliteration or transcription is a very important technique while translating into a target language. Transliteration helps to retain the original word in the target language by using the target language alphabets or script. Transcription helps to preserve the sound/pronunciation of the original term and retain the cultural identity of the original language in the target language.

Loanwords and calques are a testament to the dynamism of language. I integrate them into translations when they are already familiar to the target language speakers or when they fill a lexical gap, ensuring the translated content is both accurate and relatable.

Arabic is rich in analogies and metaphors, which can be powerful tools to translate complex or abstract terms. I craft analogies that resonate with the Arabic cultural context, making the unfamiliar familiar.

You will find that different individuals have a different meaning behind the word saudade. We need to ask ourselves what the original author’s intent was, if that can be identified we have a clear direction to take the translation. Recognize that even though we have that direction we may “lose something in translation.” Imagine this, a person walking down the street sees a restaurant they used to visit with a late family member and feels saudade. This would not be the same version of saudade one would get from seeing something you enjoyed as a child being enjoyed by a new generation.

As an LocQA engineer, I focus on localization, which goes beyond literal translation. It's about adapting the content to fit the cultural context of the target audience, ensuring that it feels as though it was created specifically for them.

This method is applicable in simultaneous translation/interpretation and actually it is very useful especially with the most difficult or complex medical terms! it gives a good range of flexibility in delivering the context of the original word(s)-phrase(s).

Translation isn't just linguistic—it's cultural. It's about conveying the original message's intent, style, tone, and context. I always consider how each translation will be perceived by the Arabic-speaking audience, aiming to bridge cultures as much as languages.

When it comes to the person-to-person interpreting, I feel it so challenging as your target population levels of everything may, it is not a novel or a play translation, yet can be harder, but you have time, while in the first example, you do not have that "safety margin" if I can say, or it is very minimum depends on the situation, like being in the operating room or a busy Emergency Room, you should be quick, precise, accurate, etc... while maybe in a floor or everyday clinic settings you have a little space to work on. Regards to all

I want to summarize my favorite points to consider: Target Audience Author’s Original Intent Format for the Translation These encompass most of what we need to get a functional translation going.

In translation I do it two ways: one is translating word by word every sentence or paragraph and after that I read and I interpret the original sentence and I convert the sentence in a way that the interpretation is same as the original sentence. It takes time but is the best way of translating a word, a phrase or sentence. Why because interpretation is the key in any translation.