ENGLISH FORM FIVE - TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

Translation

- Is the process of translating words or text from one language into another.

- is the communication of meaning from one language (the source) to another language (the target).

- Is a process by which ideas that are written in one language are represented by words of a different language.

- it is the process was the meaning of expression in one language is turned in to the meaning of another language.

The language from which the information is taken is known as source language {SL}   and the one into which the meaning is turned is known as target language {TL}.

Example

SL- I wish you all the best (English)
TL- nakutakia  kila la heri  (Swahili)

Interpretation

Interpreting is the facilitation of spoken or signed language communication between users of different languages.

OR

Is the process that involves the transfer of messages from one language in to another inform of speech. Or it involves one person speaking in one language and another person speaking the same message into another language; it involves oral presentation of what one person says in one language into another.

Translation and interpretation involves converting the meaning of written or spoken content from one language to another. While translation deals with written materials, interpreting refers to oral translation or through sign language. Professionals in the field have advanced knowledge of the languages used, but they also need to understand properly the subject matter of the translation.

Translation and interpretion

Principles of Translation

The translation process is a very challenging one the following are some prerequisites if one has to be a successful translator;

i) The translator has to be very competent in both the source language and the target language. Or he or she needs to have a very good command of both languages this can be supplemented by the use of dictionaries.

ii) The translator has to understand the field covered by the source text. For example science text as opposed to religious text. This means that the translators are supposed to be very hard working if  they are understand text of various fields

iii) The translator has to consider the style used by the person who wrote the text of the source language. Or the translator has to preserve or violate the style used in the source language by so doing, he or she to balance between the side of the author and that of the readers of the work being translated.

iv) Some content items in both the source language and the target language are not easily to translate due to the facts that it is not always the case that there is one to one correspondence in two languages involved, hence the translation needs a lot of hard work and patience for example one word in one language may be expressed in a sentence in another language or some words in one language are missing in another language.
Nakupenda= I love you

v) The translator has to consider his or her views and prejudice i.e. what is translated into biased, subjected personal or cultural depending on the translator’s point of  view. This implies that if the translator puts his or her opinions about what is translated, there is likely- hood  that the  translated words will be different from that of the source language hence the translator needs to be objective avoiding the influence of  ideology or attitude.

vi) The translator has to consider the expectations of the readers i.e. He or she needs to put himself or herself on the shoes of the readers; he or she has to use the language style that will make the readers of the translated words understand.  This consideration may make the style of the text in TL to be different from that in SL.   

For example; a science text being translated by ordinary people will make the text assume a style that is not scientific.

Methods of Translation

There are a number of translation methods, the following are some of these methods

a)  Word to word translation

This is translation method in which TL words are immediately below SL words. The SL word order is not changed.

This method is mainly used by people (especially linguists) who want to show how SL is morphologically structured.

E.g. M- Toto m-zuri  a-Li-kula nyama yote.

       The  child good ate  the meat all. Child good ate the meat all.

b) Semantics translation

This is a translation method in which the translator is said to be biased to the source language in that he or she translates every word in SL but using the grammatical features of TL.

The emphasis in this type of translation is on the meaning of the text in SL.

E.g. - He went up to his home.

- Alikwenda mpaka nyumbani kwake.

- yours sincerely.

- wako mtiiifu.

- mabibi na  mabwana.

- ladies and gentleman.

- naomba nichukue  fursa hiii

- may I take this opportunity to

- usiku mwema

- good night

c)  Communicative translation

This is the kind of translation that pays attention to the contextual meaning of the original text
I.e. the translator is focusing the meaning of what is written and the context.
This is a common method in translating the figurative expressions such as idioms, sayings and proverbs
For example;
      →do not cry on split milk
       →a friend in need is a friend indeed
       →that old man is very aged

Things that are difficult to translate

In the process of translation there are some things that the translator faces difficulty in their translation
These are as follow

A).  Proper nouns
       I.e. the names referring to particular persons or places

     E.g.    - my father lives in Mbeya
               -Baba yangu anaishi Mbeya

               -jumbe is my friend.
               -jumbe ni rafiki yangu.

B).  Idioms (idiomatic expressions)
There are the expressions whose meanings are quite different from the words constituting them.     

  

     

THE ACTUAL TRANSLATION PROCESS

Basic things to be considered in translation course;

a) Read the text to be translated to get the general idea that it contains, it makes you know what tools you will need according to the subject matter

e.g. the need for legal dictionary if the translation is based on the legal document.

b) Look for dictionaries both technical and general purpose ones. The dictionaries should be of bilingual and monolingual types.

c) Translate the first draft i.e. we do not translate straight away but rather stage by stage. This given us a chance to make any necessary corrections.

d) Vise the translation by making improvement to the first draft this gives you the second draft.

e) Write the final draft after you has made all the necessary revision then you can submit the final to the client.

Qualities of Good Translation

The following are said to be the qualities of a well done translation

1. A good transaction should be capable of being translated back i.e. the work translated into language y from language x by one person should be able to be translated by another translator from language by back to language yielding the meaning.

2. Performance testing : this is done by asking speakers of language y to carry out action based on the translation the same is some done to speakers of x to perform activities on the original text. If the results are the same, then the translation will be referred to have been done well.

NB: - Thus technique is very time consuming

3. Knowledge testing; this is done by asking questions usually using questionnaire to speakers of language y, the questions asked are about the content of text,   the some questions are asked to speakers of language x of responses gives are the same, translation is considered to have been done well.

Principles of Interpretation

The principles of interpretation are more or less the same as those translations but since interpretation deal with orally translated message.

(i) The interpreter is supposed to be very quick in interpretation.

(ii) The interpreter needs to have the general knowledge of the subject matter i.e. a good interpreter will be a person who is knowledge in the subject matter been talked about.

(iii) The interpreter needs to be very hardworking reading a lot of literature to enrich himself or herself with information from various fields.

(iv) The interpreter should have enough knowledge on various issues, this will give him or her flexibility to translate or interpret any text brought to him or her

Things to be noted during interpretation

In the course of interpretation, the following are the things to be noted.

a) Use gesture like those used the speaker in SL.

b) We the style that you think your audience will understand e.g. you maybe casual is your audience seems to like.

c) When the speaker stresses a point, do the same so that you do not seem to be speaking something different from what the speaker is saying.

d) Observe the audience keenly so that you can elaborate when they do not understand. This is very important because the audience communicate through you.

e) If you think you have not understood, tell the speaker in SL to repeat or clarify so that you know what exactly you ought to tell the audience
i.e. Do not interpret until your sure of what to say, this is done to avoid misleading the listeners.