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“Top of the mornin to ya!” means a heartfelt “Good morning!” in idiomatic Irish/American. Yet none of the following word for word translations convey the true meaning of the phrase.
French: “Top des Mornin à Ya!”
German: “Spitze der Mornin zu Ya!”
Simplified Chinese: “顶部以遐的早晨！
When most people think of translation, they may think of someone flipping through a dictionary and finding a direct substitute. However, a translator who literally translates a document word for word does not necessarily create a readable document.
Translation is more than using a dictionary; it’s also a form of writing. In order to write a clearly understandable document, you must fully understand the nuances of the meaning and the culture into which you’re translating. Then, instead of just looking at one word at a time, you must find a way to convey that same meaning into the second language. This may mean adapting idiomatic expressions, as we saw in “Top of the mornin to ya!”
A different way of seeing the problem is with machine translation programs. A friend of mine used a machine translator and the result often came out laughable. A prime example is her nickname, “Moonshine”. The machine translator communicated it as “Alcool de contrebande”. Yes, this does mean Moonshine in French, but it means the illegal hooch created during Prohibition. We found it much funnier than her usual nickname, which refers to the moonlight.
Another important point is to think of your audience. You may be translating for high-level technical people, in which case a more direct approach might work. However, you may be translating for people who don’t have a great understanding of the subject. In this case, you may need to find a clearer way of stating the subject.
Monterey Language Service specializes in clear and meaningful translation/interpretation. We can assist you in all your translation and interpretation needs in every language.
By Heidi Ripplinger
Speaking of literal translations, I don’t know if anyone’s heard the story (possibly true, possibly not) of the first time that they attempted natural word processing. They took the phrase “the spirit is strong but the flesh is weak” and translated it word-to-word into Russian. When they back-translated it, they got “the vodka is strong but the meat is rotten”.