Clarence Williams

Although the full definition of translation is to transfer from one to another, to convey using another medium, the term is commonly used to express the act or process of interpreting a text, especially from one language to another. The characteristics of a good translation in the literary sense and the history of the influence of one literature on another are significant. There is no doubt that texts have not always been translated out of artistic motives only. One of the hypotheses about the origin of translations is that they were undertaken out of educational purposes – to communicate new ideas and new facts to a badly informed public who did not care much about artistic form.

However, a good translation is not only to convey a message. The translator must never rely only on the exact meaning of the words the author of the document has used. He must try to convey the spirit of the text, its overall meaning, so that the final product has the same artistic value as the original text. If we take the Bible as an example, would its word-for-word translation, let’s say Martin Luther’s English to Russian Translation, convey the intended meanings and the holy spirit of the text?Another, more detailed example is that of translations from Russian to English. When it comes to Arabic Translation, the way Russians address people is quite different from the way English-speaking countries do. For example, in English translations of the novel, “Anna Karenina,” the Russian habit of addressing people by their first name and a patronymic is usually carried over into the English. So, if he name of the character is Vladimir and his father’s name is Peter, he will be called Peter Petrovich. We can guess that an English speaking person will find such a way of addressing people quite exotic and strange. Therefore, the new trend in Portuguese Translation is to forego the patronymic, as it does not add anything to the art of the text.

Various media imply various difficulty of translation.. To translate poetry is considered practically impossible, to translate scientific and factual text – much easier. That is, as long as the translator understands the subject matter. A legal translation is considered to be much easier compared to the translation of fiction. Certainly, this requires competence and experience in the field of law. Knowlege of legal terminology and of legal system differences is a must. However, a legal translator does not need to finesse the language like a literary translator does. In legal translation the communication of the exact literal meaning prevails over the artistic rendering. The talents of legal translation versus literary translation are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but do involve completely different skill sets.

There are many translations of the Bible from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The Latin Vulgate was dominant in Christianity through the Middle Ages. Since then, the Bible has been translated into many more languages. For example, attempts the Bible to be translated into English have been made for over a millennium.