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| [Tug of war*] |
Achievable challenges make for interesting work. Fundamentally, constant routine tasks are rather dulling. This week, my brain experienced the pleasure of performing two curiously different translation tasks, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I had accepted two week-long translations orders with similar deadlines. One was a Russian to English translation of medical questionnaires while the others was a Hebrew to English translation of a consulting contract and its appendices. The challenge was not the languages but the type of translations. The first was a back translation while the second was a forward translation.
To clarify, back translation is the process, required in many medical
projects to be conducted in many languages, where the content of the proposed
translation is confirmed by having the translation rendered back into a text in
the original language, generally English. The producing company and contracting
agency wish to confirm the content is identical to the
original. In practice, the back translator must produce a text that reflects
the word choice and essential meaning of the target language as well as the syntactical
correctness. Consequently, the key elements are ensuring that the correct word
was used and that the sentence structure reflects the intended meaning. In the
case of Russian to English, this is more complicated as Russian syntax is so
different from English. For example, “to me is wanted” is a weaker form of “I
want”, not an absurd passive. Therefore, the back translator must thoroughly
understand each word and structure and express them in the target language to
the level of correctness of the source text. As a result, the resulting
sentence often sounds completely unnatural and awkward, even non-sensical, in
order to reflect those same characteristics of the source. That artificiality
is not considered poor quality as long as the back translation completely corresponds to the content and correctness of the text.
On the other hand, forward technical translation aims to produce a
seamless, i.e., native sounding, text whose content is identical to the original
but form is localized for the target language and audience. The translator must
fully understand the meaning, both explicit and implicit, of the text and
recreate it in another language. This process involves transcreation by nature
as vocabulary is not universal i.e., each language has unique words as well as specific definitions for common words, and structure, i.e., the natural manner
of expressing an idea varies. Extreme loyalty to the word choice and syntax of
the original text will generally result in an unsatisfactory translation to one
degree or another. The ultimate test here is not only whether the content is
identical but also if the text sounds natural. Therefore, the choice of words
and syntax are largely at the discretion of the translator as long as the first
two conditions are met.
The challenge I faced this week was far more than switching languages.
It involved changing approaches. I began the morning carefully checking each
term regarding which I had any doubt of its meaning, often placing English equivalent
in a “clunky” manner in an English sentence, and then comparing the original
and back translation to make sure I was accurate no matter how unnatural it
sounded. In the afternoon, I had to focus on the English and strive to produce
a natural equivalent of the sentence to be translated. carefully considering
how much freedom I had taken. I was far more concerned about the choices of the
English version than applying the Hebrew structure. I have to admit that this
change of thinking did not occur instantaneously each day but required a little
effort and reminding of myself during the first few sentences that I was
working on a different project. While both tasks were technically translation,
they were in a certain sense quite different.
At the end of each day, I felt quite tired but satisfied. On the one
hand, it apparently takes additional mental effort to change approaches. On the
other hand, I found it fascinating to gain a deeper awareness of the
differences of the two types of translations as it is rare that I work on two
large projects at the same time. (Being male, I find it difficult to focus on more
than one task at a time.) I enjoyed the contrast between the projects. It felt
that I was working in two completely different worlds. In work, variety is the
spice of life especially if it expands your understanding.
* Pictures captions allow the blind to fully access the Internet.
Picture credit: Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/dehaasbe-24609490/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6947572">Benoît DE HAAS</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6947572">Pixabay</a>
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