Indeed, translation of texts from a source language to a target language isn’t a very easy job. Geo-anthropological and cultural differences in the societies linked with the languages, among other things, are the reasons behind this. These differences cause significant divergence in the expressions of people.
Translation in each and every field isn’t at the same level of difficulties. It varies on subjects, peculiarities of items, languages involved and the style of expressions.
Everybody knows that translation relating to advanced science and technology is tough, but it’s mainly due to scarcity of terminologies, as all target languages have not yet been enriched with these. However, there’s a custom of using the English terminologies in the cases where there’s lack in this regard in the target language. This approach has made the translation of hi-tech issues much easier than it’s widely thought.
This is also true for translation of academic issues where, in some cases, a lot of terminologies are used. What’s also needed here in a translator is the basic things- word stock of the target language and also knowledge of sentence structure of that. It means in these cases one can show excellent performance as a translator mainly based on his language proficiency.
What about the other fields of translation? Actually there are versatile fields and mentioning all of these fields in a short article is difficult. So attention might be given on some categories where a huge volume of translation is performed regularly.
For Example, news is a field of huge translation and it has, at the same time, varieties of items. These are newspaper articles, items on politics, administration, finance and economics, law, agriculture, fisheries, science and technology, development, various socio-cultural and religious issues, nature, natural calamities and disasters, international organizations, sports, culture and others. A translator needs language skill as well as knowledge of the respective fields during conversion of language for the items, drawn from different fields. Certainly language skill is considered an essential quality for the people engaged in the profession of translation.
Besides, a professional translator has to work on some rare items like reports, presentations of programs, lyrics and so on. Translating a different form of item such as presentation of a cultural or other podium based program needs knowledge of that particular issue, in addition to language efficiency.
Translation of lyrics is the toughest among the fields mentioned, especially while the rhyme is maintained. A translator needs the deepest understanding of cultures of both the societies linked with the source and target languages while dealing with lyrics.
If maintaining the rhyme isn’t essential, it’s easier, but still one needs realizing the inner feelings and other matters regarding human psychology in translating these items.
Of course, there are some hassles while performing translations in any of the fields mentioned and fields from other sectors too. There’s no denying that performing a good translation work also needs realization of the inner significance and purport of the subject by the translator.
Significant difference is observed while analyzing the translation of the same source topic accomplished by different people. In fact a good translation work also needs creativity in the translator. So it can be said that apart from language skills, knowledge on respective issues, understanding of cultures and realizing human feelings, competent translators should also have creativity in them.
This is why, with all the difficulties, translation of lyrics is interesting and it brings satisfaction for the translators and gives them insight pleasure after the job is done. This joy and satisfaction arises in view of their creation of the work, though the entire activities are not fundamental for them.