According to Merriam-Webster, the word “redundant” can be defined as: Characterized by similarity or repetition. In the case of translations, if the original text contains redundancy for the sake of clarity, the translation ought to maintain said redundancy. Nevertheless, if the idea is clearly expressed in the translation without the need for repetition of [...]
Author Archive
Redundancy As A Translation Style
Monday, April 23rd, 2012Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da: Translating Songs
Friday, April 20th, 2012In a recent post, Pablo questioned whether or not music should be considered a form of language.The textual component of music, that is, the song lyrics, is on a more superficial level of the topic: we can, without fear of being wrong, affirm that there we are effectively dealing with language. As such, the lyrics [...]
Translation-Proof Graphic Design
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012Oftentimes translation companies like Trusted Translations can take care of the entire production process, from source file preparation to the final file design in the target language. Nevertheless, it’s never redundant to remind ourselves of a few fundamental guidelines for a design adaptable to any language, for more efficient communication on a global level. Here [...]
What Is An .ini File?
Monday, April 16th, 2012Freelance translators and translation agencies often use TagEditor, among other options, to process all sorts of files: design files from InDesign, Quark, MS PowerPoint presentations or simple documents from Word, amongst others. It’s a favorite tool for translators, given how easy it is to use. Still, it’s normal that errors pop up when it’s time [...]
Translating Poetry
Friday, April 13th, 2012As translators, we know that one of the hardest things to translate is poetry.Rhyme, meter, cadence, word selection, rhythm: we could spend weeks on end trying to translate one short poem. A poem emerges from the unique combination of select words and makes use of the music of a specific language. How, then, should we [...]
Portuguese and Tetum in the same country?
Thursday, April 12th, 2012What is and where can we find East Timor? East Timor, just the eastern part, is a country located in the southeast of Asia. As its name explains quite clearly, it occupies just half of the island of Timor. The other half, towards the west, forms part of Indonesia. Other neighboring islands include Atauro, Jaco, [...]
Expressing Time
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012When faced with an original text in another language, we translators usually tend to copy the same format to express time. For example, if in an original Spanish document we have “9 de la mañana” [lit. “9 in the morning”] or “9 a. m.,” in English we can translate “9:00 am” or “9 AM.” Why [...]
The Usefulness of Back-translation
Monday, April 9th, 2012As has been mentioned before, when we speak of back-translation, we’re referring to translating a text (that’s already been translated) back to its original language. This is done without consulting the original text, as a way of ensuring the quality of the translation. Just as we may calculate the inverse operation to confirm the product [...]
