THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LITERARY TRANSLATION. What it takes to be a Literary Translator.
Let’s start by explaining what Literary translation is…
Literary translation consists of the translation of poetry, plays, literary books, literary texts, as well as songs, rhymes, literary articles, fiction novels, novels, short stories, poems, etc.
One of the key challenges of literary translation is the need to balance staying faithful to the original work with the need to create something unique and distinctive that will evoke the same feelings and responses as the original. This can be particularly challenging when it comes to translating poetry.
By understanding that, we can say that to do a literary translation we must take in consideration not only the semantics, grammar, literary style, and fidelity but many other factors such as, a good knowledge of the source and target language, the author’s country and history. When we translate a language we also translate its culture.
A good literary translator should reflect a high grade of fidelity to the text to don’t miss any content and to be as coherent as possible to the original text. We should also reflect the beauty of the text and its message, its style, the flavour, the tone, the lexical, grammatical and phonological features, and all the things that make it exited for people to read.
Some translations may be more complex than others, such as poetry, prose poems and play translations, but in that case the translator must find words that express the fidelity and meaning of the original language. That’s why it is important to know and apply a good method for translating literary texts. Some of them are: The techniques of “Modulation”, “Equivalence/Reformulation, “Adaptation”, “Borrowing”, “Calque”, “Literal translations”, “Indirect translation”, “Compensation”, “Reduction”, “Expansion”, etc.
Choosing the right technique will vary on a case by case basis, taking into account the text type, target reader and end purpose of the translation.
3 Examples of translations that comply with theses aspects:
1. A French speaker will talk about the ‘dernier étage’ [literally; last stage] of a building, while an English speaker will refer to the ‘top floor’.
2. Soccer (US, Australia, Canada, Irlanda) = Football (Gran Bretaña, Trinidad & Tobago) = Fútbol (América Latina)
3. Cerveza, fria, birra, curda (Venezuela) = Chela, cheve (Mexico) = Pinta (Panama) = Pola (Colombia) = Birra (Argentina) = Caña (España) = Biela (Ecuador).
As linguistic extensions refers, one way to define the meaning of a word is to point to examples in the world of things the word means. That is why is essential to know the background, history, culture and idioms of the author’s country, in the source as well as in the target language.
In conclusion, Literary translation has aesthetic functions and involves incorporating the appropriate culture nuances, translating humour, feelings, emotions, and other subtle elements of a particular work, such as grammar, syntax, literary style, fidelity and more!
Check out the following link for more information about literary translations:
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