Translation Techniques

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss three translation techniques: literal, cultural, and artistic. Literal translation is a well-known technique, which means that it is quite easy to find sources on the topic. Cultural and artistic translation may be new terms. Whilst cultural translation focuses on matching contexts, artistic translation focuses on matching reactions. Because literal translation matches only words, it is not hard to find situations in which we should not use this technique.  Because artistic translation focuses on reactions, judging the quality of an artistic translation work is one of the most difficult things one can do. We end up having a score of complexity and humanity for each one of the mentioned techniques: Literal translation would be the closest thing we have to the machines world and artistic translation would be the closest thing we have to the purely human world. By creating these classifications and studying the subtleties of each one of them, we are adding degrees of quality to our courses and to translation as a professional field. The main contribution of this paper is then the formalization of such a piece of knowledge. We, however, also lay the foundations for studies of this type.