How to Translate a Technical Article?
Like other applied sciences, translation needs practice so translators can develop their language skills. Translation is not only about translating letters and sentences, but mainly about translating meanings. The more a translator focuses on understanding the source text (the original text), the more accurate the translation will be. However, if a translator considers translating the text as some words and sentences only, the meaning will be lost, and the translation (the target text) will be weak and incomprehensible. Starting from this, we can decide whether a translation is correct or not. As opposite to what most people think that translation only needs a person who is competent in two or more languages to be able to translate, translation is a drop from every sea because there are a lot of texts and specialized sciences that require a specialized translator or a person who has a long experience in translation. I will describe my experience as a translator. Despite my major and studies of translation, I have faced, and still facing, some challenges in translating some specialized texts. While I was studying at university, just as any translation student, we had to translate many specialized texts from different humanistic and scientific areas and learn the process of translating from and into Arabic. For instance, commercial translation curriculum provides a glimpse of commercial terminology, as well as medical, political, and literary translation... etc. All these curriculums are just the first step to each world of these scientific fields. I will not discuss the college’s curriculums and the issues they have. A good translator will steer through his experiences of translating different text types whether as a student in a translation major or as a person who practices translation. If translation only needs a person who is competent in more than one language, we would not find a lot of poor translated texts, and junior translators would not need to show their translations to some linguists to make them reasonable and almost free of mistakes!
As we know, translation is one of the oldest sciences that mankind has known, and was practiced to overcome the linguistic barriers between nations. you do not need to be perfect at a language in order to understand its culture because translation saved your time! Movies and books of all scientific and humanistic areas were also translated. I know some would argue that translators are not necessarily humans; there are countless examples of automatic dictionaries, Google translator as the best example. But there is a question to be asked: can Google Translator translate sentences in a good and correct manner? For sure it cannot, because it is developed to translate words, and then translating sentences using it produces a sentence with irrelevant words. Therefore, it would be difficult and even impossible to copy them to the translated text.
In addition, automatic translators do not differentiate between the different meanings of the same word nor the context where the words occur. One of the advantages of automatic translators is that they are a quick solution for those who want to learn some new words or synonyms, or for some other purposes except translating.
What’s more effective in translation is the use of old linguistic dictionaries, as Al-Baalbaki dictionary. I strongly recommend using it when translating any text of different areas because it includes all the vocabulary, and every single word is translated considering all contexts and areas.
Finally, I advise translators to translate faithfully by referring to reliable resources to help delivering the correct meanings from one language to another. Translation truly is: delivering meanings, not letters or words, to their synonyms in the target language. The source language: the language of the source text. The target language: the language that the text was translated to. For example, (a French text) the source text> translation> (an Arabic text) the target text.
An addition from Moaath Alduhaishi
I will be talking out of my experience and not of professional major as Ms. Sarah, my major is scientific\medical, and I may benefit you more on specialized scientific translation, at least to the edge of my knowledge. In the last two years, I have translated, edited, and proofread more than one hundred scientific articles from English into Arabic, and I have noticed some of the repeated mistakes of new and old translators. For example, as Sarah mentioned, many translators tend to use direct, literal translation that benefits no one; neither readers can understand the text, nor the meaning of the original text is delivered.
For example,
The text : If you`ve ever struggled to imagine how life will change over the next century thanks to technology, take comfort - you`re not alone.
Literal translation : إذا كنت أبداً ناضلت لتخيل كيف الحياة ستتغير على القرن القادم شكراً للتقنية - لست وحدك.
Direct translation : إذا حاولت جاهداً في يوم من الأيام أن تتخيل كيفية تغير الحياة خلال القرن القادم بفضل التقنية - فأنت لست وحدك.
Also, there are simple spelling mistakes, but it might affect the meaning, like differentiating between "ا" and "أ-إ", and between "ه" and "ة" as well.
Below are some other crucial advices to raise the quality of your translation:
● Scientific research usually “refers to” and “suggests” but does not “prove” decisively, so be careful not to exaggerate results on reality. ● Putting the original term in its original language and insert its translation between brackets so readers can refer to the word and check it in the original resource whenever they want. For example, Proteus syndrome (متلازمة بروتيوس). ● It is not advisable to translate proper names – whether it is magazines, universities, institutions, or people- but to write the name in Arabic as it is pronounced instead, for example (Science Magazine) should be written as “مجلة ساينس” but not “مجلة العلم”. ● Change the order of the phrases as what suits the Arabic language, for instance the phrase (“I saw you” John said.) should be written in this way (قال جون : لقد رأيتك) instead of (لقد رأيتك، قال جون).
As to the specialized scientific translation, there are many books and websites to be used. I will mention the ones I know down here: ● The Saudi Bank of scientific terminology, basm.kacst.edu.sa ● The Standard Terminology Bank of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization arabization.org.ma ● The set of scientific and technical terms approved by the Academy of the Arabic Language www.arabicacademy.org.eg
There are other dictionaries that are less reliable, as: ● Wiktionary wiktionary.org ● An Arabic page in Wikipedia and its alternative in the original language (if available).
Nevertheless, this is the last addition “the Arabic Researcher” which contains the largest Arabic dictionaries to those who want to know the meaning of Arabic words baheth.info.
Resource : http://www.scientificsaudi.com/ss/7610
Written by : Sarah Al-osaimi
Translated by : Raghad AL-fayez
Edited by : Nourah Al-salem
Reviewed by : Hind Al-omran
