LOST IN TRANSLATION
*Beyond Words
ABSTRACT: “Language is the source of misunderstandings” –(A. de Saint-Exupery), and we must agree
with this statement when it comes to the particular problems, such as cultural and linguistic differences
in the translation process. In this presentation, I would like to focus on several aspects: (1) Cloud 7- A
brief overview of translation methods: word-for-word translation, literal, faithful, semantic, adaptive,
free translation, idiomatic and communicative. (2) Humans or Machines? A focus on the emergence of
Machine Translation and its evolution vs. Human Translators with examples of texts translated by two
types of translators and with a reference to both Academic and Literary Translations. Human’s
Translation’s Effect. (3)To Guess or Not to Guess -The challenges of translations that we all face:
problems of ambiguity, problems that originate from structural and lexical differences between
languages and idioms or collocations; several constructions of grammar poorly understood. (4) I think I
can…I think I can! The linguistic and cultural untranslatability – the impossibility to convey the meaning
as it requires to be conveyed when the sense of a particular sentence or document cannot be expressed
in the target language.
“Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.”
(Anthony Burgess). I will conclude the presentation with a few solutions and approaches to the
problems faced by translators nowadays, pinpointing the necessity to look at and appreciate the whole
forest -aka culture, and not to stumble on bushes or tree stumps.