Translation insights
- www.goihata.com
I recently read a very interesting interview to Mrs. Brett J. Epstein who works as a writer, Translator, editor, and English teacher in Sweden. She shares insights on the essential elements of the Translator’s craft and business.
She describes, and I totally agree with it, the job of Translators as the art and craft of bringing the authors’ real expressions, as well as their ideas, inferences, disposition, voice, style, and so forth, from the source language to the target language, without being either excessively literal and strict with the text or overly free and loose. In her opinion, a Translator must consider what and how would the author have written the document if he were writing in the target language. So, for her, translation is the delicate and formidable job of perfectly recreating the authors’ original document and I consider this statement is accurate and truly honors our efforts in a very nice way.
Due to her activities she considers that translating creative work like literature is more challenging and more interesting and thinks that writers are the ideal people to be Translators as they have experience with writing, the writing process, analyzing literature, and editing. She suggests that one of the best ways to learn about translation is to carefully read and study a document in both its original language and its translation trying to understand what words and phrases really meant and why the Translator had made certain choices comparing it to what you would have done, had you been the Translator in charge.
During the interview she also mentioned some reading material that I would like to read myself like William Weaver’s essay “The Process of Translation”, Vladimir Nabokov’s essay “The Art of Translation”, and “Performing Without a Stage: The Art of Literary Translation” by Robert Wechsler.
Paulina Torres De Witt
- www.goihata.com
Tags: , France, Japanese French translator, Japanese interpreter in Europe, Japanese Spanish technical translators, Japanese translator, Japanese translator in Europe, Japanese translators in Spain