Nessie School of Languages

I I I must admit that, before enrolling on the
university course called ?Translation 1? in October 2003, I was not specially
interested in the complex process of translation. I took for granted that
writings about the theory of translation were too speculative, too wordy and
too unreadable for my taste. I must even add that three years ago, I was asked
by the Amposta Council to translate quite a few tourist brochures about the
local ancient heritage and environmental richness, but I didn?t follow any
particular method, as I just tried to make the target text understandable and,
it goes without saying, to be as faithful as possible to the Catalan text (the
source text). I definitely believed at the time that theoretical methods were
worthless, and we ought to rely on the translator?s good knowledge of both the
source and target language, his skill and intuition.

If we must come to terms with a proper
definition of translation, the following one should be considered to be truly
accurate[1]: Translation is a process based on the theory
that it is possible to abstract the meaning of a text from its forms and
reproduce that meaning with the very different forms of a second language.
It consists  of studying the lexicon,
grammatical structure, communication situation, and also cultural context of
the source language text, analysing it in order to determine its meaning, and
then reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical
structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural
context[2].

I have learnt from this course basically that there is not a best
translation, although the ideal one should be accurate: reproducing as exactly
as possible the meaning of the source text. The success of a  translation depends mainly on getting both a
natural and a communicative approach. Natural in the way of using habitual
forms of the receptor language that are appropriate to the kind of text being
translated; whereas by Communicative we understand: expressing all aspects of
the meaning in a way that is readily understandable to the intended audience.

I was particularly interested in the different texts I have been reading
about the question of fluency on translation. I understood that this is another
outstanding and controversial matter, as it does depend on what the people who
are going to receive the translation expects from it[3]. On
the one hand, there are some theorists who say that what matters is getting the
message across, pleasing the reader, making things clear and interpreting. On
the other hand, others state that fluent translations are often too free,
contain a large number of errors and are unethical, because they encourage
cultural imperialism.

 All in all, I do believe
translators do (and accomplish) a very important task, which can be compared to
any other kind of art. What I am stating may be a bit controversial, as some
people may wonder: how can anyone possibly compare translators with artists?
After all, everyone knows that musicians, painters, writers and dancers are
true artists. They do creative work whilst translators, as  is popularly known, are merely copiers and
hacks. On the contrary, I am willing to state that when highly reknown Catalan
translator Joaquim Mallafré finished his brilliant and accurate translation of
Joyce?s Ulisses[4], right
away it became part of the Catalan culture. The translator built a new world of
sensations, all of which were suitable for potential customers, in this case,
the Catalan readers.

 We will take a step beyond. In
the case of texts from an ancient era or from divergent cultures, the
translator may even be called upon or play the role of an historical restorer
or an archaeologist. Translation then is a far more demanding profession than
many are capable of understanding, which of course determines many of the
profession?s problems and challenges. In practice, there are considerable
variation in the types of translations. Some professionals work only in two
languages and are competent in both. Others work from their first language to
their second one, and still others from their second language to their first
one. Depending on these matters of language proficiency, the procedures used
will vary. There is also some variation depending on the purpose of a given
translation and the type of translation that will be accepted by the intended
audience.

Finally, I should mention something about machine translation, a matter
which has really surprised me a lot. Can machines translate? That?s the
question of the million (if it?s possible to translate literally into another
language this traditional Catalan sentence). I am very interested in the
development of these machines that can solve a great deal of problems, as far
as communication is concerned. I think its proper development is going to be
difficult, as there is a strong semantic barrier in order to interpret
sentences correctly, especially ambiguous ones, as we often need to look at the
context and appeal to our knowledge of the world. We must keep  in mind once again, that translating takes
place in a cultural context, as part of cultural transfer and evolution.

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