Translate meaning not words

In this increasingly globalized world of omnipresent communication, even across cultural barriers, translation is more important than ever.

But there are still those who believe that translation is a simple task that can be carried out by anyone with knowledge of the two languages involved, transferring word for word or sentence for sentence.

This is not true.

Translation is more about meaning and sense than just words. Conveying meaning is not an "extra" and it is not optional, it is essential.

Translation is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as "the activity or process of changing the words of one language into the words of another language that have the same meaning". But there’s more to it: the aim of translation is to convey the intended meaning of the source, taking into account the cultural values and level of knowledge of the target audience. The aim is to produce a natural text in the target language, avoiding any misunderstandings.

A translator doesn't just transfer word for word and phrase for phrase, as that would be a literal translation.

In literary texts, the original writers have an intended style and use artistic expressions to embellish their work. If the translator merely transfers the words into the target language without reflecting these artistic values, the text produced loses its artistic quality and becomes a plain text with no literary value. Even in poetry, if the creative or artistic aspects of a work can be understood by logic, then they can be transferred with an equivalent artistic value to the target language.

In fact, the translation of literary and creative texts can be considered a branch of art.

Why? Because the aim of literary translation should be to recreate the effect of the source.

During the translation process, rather than translating the source so that the target reader can clearly understand the message, the translator must also have the ability to retain the artistic and aesthetic values of the source.

The better the analysis of the source text, the more satisfactory the translation will be. If the translator focuses only on words or phrases during translation, the result will not be effective or even faithful to the original.

In short, the text must be interpreted as a whole and viewed in terms of both content and form, and the translation process must also focus on the target audience, while preserving sense, intent, and effect.