People have always looked for ways to learn from other nations and to pass that knowledge on to the next generation. The main obstacle is the difference between the world's languages, and translation is how that gap is crossed. Put simply, translation is the conversion of spoken or written words from one language into another.

Why translation is a skill

A good translator needs a solid grounding in the field. That means knowing what scholars and theorists have said about translation theory, equivalence, untranslatability, machine translation and literary translation. Schools for translators and interpreters teach these procedures along with practical exercises, and for good reason. A professional has to know the basic rules of translation and have enough subject knowledge to handle specific terms, idioms and sentences when moving from the source text to the target text.

Technical skills alone, however, produce translations that are mostly correct and useful but often flat. They lack rhythm and spirit, sound artificial, and would never pass as the work of a native speaker. Our article on why human feeling matters in translation looks at this from another angle.

Why translation is an art

You can think of a translator as someone who takes a picture drawn in one language and repaints it in the words of another. This takes imagination. Once you move past the mechanical parts, word choice, grammatical interpretation, tone and style can change the meaning of a text even when the words stay the same.

Translators rarely work word for word. Numbers and some health and safety procedures can be translated literally, but most other text cannot. The translator first works out what the speaker meant, then expresses that meaning for readers in a different culture, with cultural sensitivity added on top. Sometimes a speaker says something that cannot be passed on as it stands, because it would be disrespectful to the people hearing it. The translator then has to find another way to carry the message without insulting the speaker. This is why the true intention behind a message matters more than its literal form.

Does the type of text matter?

It does. A court judgment, a scientific paper or an engine manual leans towards skill. A novel, a personal letter or marketing copy leans towards art. Most people think of literary work first, such as novels, poetry and comics. Yet there are many other kinds of translation, including patent and technical work, marketing, transcreation and localisation. Each needs a different mix of technique, accuracy and creativity.

A user manual or a patent demands exact, field-specific terminology. Marketing translation and localisation ask for something else: knowledge of the target culture, local habits and the ideas behind effective slogans. A professional translator therefore needs fluency in the languages, an understanding of their cultures, and expertise in the chosen specialisation.

Conclusion

Translation is both an art and a skill. It is an art because the translator must recreate the original in a form that works for readers who may know nothing about it. It is a skill because it requires a deep understanding of how both languages are built, and the ability to solve difficulties and find a rendering for ideas that have no direct equivalent in the target language.

Related reading: Where translation is heading in the next 10 years.