Literary translation
Literary translation refers to the translation of literary works such as novels, poetry, short stories, plays, and other works of literature from one language to another. The goal of literary translation is to capture the essence, style, and cultural context of the original work in the target language.
A literary translator must not only have a deep understanding of the languages involved but also a thorough understanding of the culture and literary traditions associated with the original work. They must be skilled at conveying the nuances of the text, including the tone, style, and imagery.
The translation of literary works is an important part of cultural exchange and can help to bridge gaps between different cultures. It allows readers from different linguistic backgrounds to appreciate and enjoy works of literature from around the world.
A work of art is always the result of a complex creative process. It contains information, but at the same time has an emotional colouring, which is very important to convey accurately when adapting it. At the same time, good literature always reflects certain linguistic and national characteristics that also need to be conveyed to the reader. That is why a literary translation is a task that should be handled by professionals. The employees at TechPerevod will translate texts of any degree of complexity.
PECULIARITIES OF LITERARY TRANSLATION
The main purpose that novels, novellas and short stories have is to aesthetically and emotionally affect the reader. Therefore, the essence of translating a literary work is not limited to conveying the same message as in the original. The translated text must have the same emotional impact as the original. This is difficult to achieve.
That is why a literary translation uses various tools. These are:
- Syntactic specificity. The translator tries to preserve if not the length of sentences, at least the rhythm of the original work of literature.
Wordplay. This does not mean that the translation has to contain their tracing. Perhaps the language has its own analogues for such a technique. - Dialectisms and slang. Such words and expressions are difficult to translate, but they are what give the text its stylistic flavour.
- Metaphors. This is both emotional colouring and the preservation of the author’s individuality. They are not transmitted word-for-word, a copy of the original, but express the essence of speech turnover.
- The irony, if it is used by the author of the original work, allows you to make the narrative more vivid, somewhere even play on the contrast.
All this requires knowledge not only of the foreign language but also of national literature and history. It also requires a special flair, an intuition that allows him to highlight the most important things in stories or novels. Sometimes, translators joke that a quality fiction translation is practically a newly written work.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
A translator who works on literary works becomes a researcher. He or she examines the context in which the work was written, the author’s biography, and other factors that influenced the stylistics and content of the original.
Our employees perform literary translations according to the following basic principles:
- Accuracy. A translation communicates the ideas of the author of the text to the reader in the fullest possible form. Not only the essence but also the emotional connotation of the utterance is preserved. A translator does not add anything of his/her own, or explain the author’s thoughts.
- Clarity. The translation takes into account the stylistics of the author, but not to the detriment of the ease of understanding of the text. Translators avoid ambiguous phrases which can be interpreted in different ways.
- Literality. The text is translated according to the rules of literary language.
With our company, it is possible to order translations of literary texts written in various styles. This style is fully retained.
WHY ATT IS THE RIGHT COMPANY TO WORK FOR
Our agency offers translations of any complexity. Addressing us our clients receive:
- High-quality translation in a short period of time.
- Exact reproduction of the original stylistics. This is the preservation of cultural and linguistic peculiarities of the text, adaptation and interpretation of idiomatic expressions, humorous passages, etc. Verbatim reproductions and copies are excluded – our translation agency employs professionals who have a good feel for the text and can adapt it.
- Transparent terms and conditions of collaboration.
- A clear formula for calculating the cost of services, with no extra fees or surcharges.
- Choice of the convenient form of payment.
We translate into dozens of languages. You can order our services in several ways – you can leave your request on our website, complete a call-back form or use the phone number to place your order. All terms and conditions of cooperation including order price are agreed upon with the customer in advance, just leave your order form!
You can ask your questions about professional literary translations here. We will be happy to answer them.