It has been proven in translation theory and practice that any text can be adequately translated into a foreign language, while observing all the rules and preserving all stylistic features, if any. Translation may deviate from the original and then it is literary. If the form of expression of the original and the translated text are the same, then we can already speak of a literal translation.
What is such a translation
Translation, in which the order of words and the structure as a whole in the original language is preserved, is called verbatim. In this case, the words are taken only in their broad meaning. Context is not taken into account. In other words, literal translation is a mechanical substitution of the words of the native language for the words of the source language. The syntactic construction of the original and its lexical composition are preserved as much as possible. Often there is only a gap between content and form, when the idea and the main message of the author are clear, but the grammatical construction is alien to the Russian ear.
What is the difference between verbatim and word-for-word, literal, text translation
Do not confuse verbatimword-for-word translation. Sometimes it is also called literal, or subscript. In the latter case, the words are thoughtlessly mechanically translated, and their logical and grammatical connections are not taken into account. So, for example, translating word by word the sentence What are you thinking about, we get - “What do you think about?” (instead of "What are you thinking about?", if translated literally).
Another example: in German, the particle "not" is written at the end of a sentence. Thus, the phrase "I don't know" will sound like this: "I know not" (ich weiss nicht). That is, such a translation will be word for word. Such a proposal in Russian looks illogical. Translating literally, we get "I don't know." Thus, in literal translation, grammatical connections are taken into account. The literal tracing of words is not welcome in translation practice and should be banished from the language.
In what cases is this type of translation used
Often a literal translation violates the syntactic norms of the Russian language (as in the examples above), therefore it cannot be considered as the final version of the work on the text and requires literary processing. However, sometimes, for example in a formal, scientific style, or when it is necessary to translate terms and definitions, this form can be used.
For example, the English sentence This substance is in water corresponds to the Russian "This substance is dissolved in water." The syntactic structures of the first and second sentences coincide and are expressed by similar means. In literary texts, such coincidences are much more common.less often and only in very simple sentences, for example I was here corresponds to the Russian “I was here.”
Also, word-for-word translation is a frequently used tool for a quick, first translation of a text. A draft version is needed in order to understand the main message, the essence of the proposal. For work at the draft stage, this view is very suitable.
Transmission of words in the considered translation
Literal translation is only the beginning of any translation work. Then it is required to reflect the lexical meaning of the words. To do this, there are three ways of translation in linguistics. They are as follows:
- using analogues;
- equivalents;
- descriptive.
By the way, the last method cannot be made verbatim, because it implies a free transfer of semantic content. Equivalents are direct matches that are independent of context. For example, the word "package" is translated into English in two words - book parcel. The whole phrase is the equivalent of one word in Russian.
A literal translation can also be done with the help of analogues - synonymous words that match the context most fully.
Is a literal translation of a song or proverb possible
Proverbs and sayings are set expressions in the language, otherwise called idioms. A literal translation of them into a foreign language is impossible. It is possible to qualitatively translate idioms only in the following way: you need to find themanalogue in the target language. For example, the old English proverb It is raining cats and dogs cannot be translated literally as "it is raining cats and dogs." It would be more correct to say with an analogue of the stable construction of the Russian language: “it pours like a bucket”. The meaning is the same, but the rhetoric and presentation are completely different.
When translating a proverb, you need to pay attention to the mentality and thinking of the people into whose language you are translating. A literal translation is an almost identical reproduction of the original language. That is why verbatim reproduction is not possible here.
Translating songs verbatim is usually not possible either. After all, each song is a complete literary work, a rather extensive layer of text. As a rule, syntactic constructions do not match even if a couple of sentences are literally translated word for word. And what can we say about the translation of the whole song! This can only be done in a draft version, at the first stage of work.
