: Re: Is there an accepted (or 'correct') way to write translations/subtitles for different materials (videos, articles, books, etc)? There are many ways to go about translating various materials. For

@Annie587

Vote Up Vote Down

It's 3 years since the question was posted, but I just stumbled across it.

I read something by Martin Luther many years ago where he discussed his efforts to translate the Bible into German. He said that he first made a word-for-word translation. Then he made a free translation that he felt conveyed the sense of the original. Then he took the two translation and tried to reconcile them, in an effort to convey the intended meaning while retaining as much of the original phrasing as possible.

Okay, the translations you're talking about probably bring less of a sense of weighty responsibility than Luther likely felt about translating scripture.

But any translation has to balance a word-for-word translation to rigorously preserve the original writer's words with a free translation to capture the sense and avoid confusing the reader with idioms from another language.

If the work is scholarly or technical, I'd lean more toward the word-for-word to avoid losing potentially important technical distinctions. Likewise if it's political, religious, or controversial, I'd lean toward the word-for-word to avoid putting your words and ideas in someone else's mouth.

But if it's more light and popular -- like the title of a video of a comedy -- I'd lean more toward capturing the sense. No one is going to be carefully studying these words and critiquing them. They just want to know what the movie is about.

A particular problem with titles is that they often involve word-play or other poetic elements, which are notoriously difficult to translate. Some of these don't even make it between two different cultures that speak (theoretically) the same language. I recall that when the British movie "The Madness of George V" was released in the US, they changed the title to "The Madness of King George", out of fear that an American audience might not recognize "George V" as the name of a monarch, and think that this was the fifth installment in a "Madness of George" series. (Like "Fast and Furious 2", etc.) Or even within a single nation, when I first heard the song title, "It's All About the Benjamins, Baby", I had no idea what a "Benjamin" was.

(0)

Login to post a comment!