UntranslatabilityUsuf Hussain

http://www.extranslation.com/

Author

James Nolan is Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service and Deputy Director of the Interpretation, Meetings and Publishing Division of the United Nations. He previously served as a UN Senior Interpreter and as Head of Linguistic and Conference Services of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Mr. Nolan is a graduate of the School of Translation and Interpretation of the University of Geneva and of New York Law School. He has taught interpretation at Marymount Manhattan College and New York University.

Definition

Untranslatability is a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language when translated (Wikipedia).

Mission Impossible

There is an Italian proverb "traduttore, traditore": a literal translation is "translator, traitor". (“les belles infidels”)

No matter how good the translation, something always seems to be lost.

This proverb itself is an example of untranslatability. The pun is lost (The importance of being Earnest).

The inevitable loss in translation leads some linguists to proclaim that in a theoretical sense translation is “impossible”.

Untranslatability…Why? Different cultures divide up the universe in different ways,

their languages therefore contain ideas, words, and expressions to describe those different concepts and culture-specific features.

Kyoikumama, Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement.”

“Untranslatability” is chiefly due to the inherent features of cultures and languages, not to the individual abilities of the translator or the limitations of the craft.

Examples

Desert peoples have many words for what English speakers simply call “sand”.

The Inuit language has many words for “ice”. French has many words to describe wine (e.g. “gouleyant” and

“charpenté”), for which English has no satisfactory translation. Ahmad bin Khalaweeh in Kitab Asma’ Alasad lists 500 names

and attributes for Alasad.

No Word for It

Specific realities recognized by the source language speakers should not be treated as unrecognizable to the target language speakers simply because they “don’t have a word for it”.

If the word “Ouch!” did not exist, an English speaker would still feel pain, but the English translator would have one less English word available to translate “Zut!”.

Untranslatability or Difficulty Sometimes, the problem of “untranslatability” is

insurmountable. The translator can only leave the word in the original language

and insert a footnote or paraphrase. The interpreter can only paraphrase, describe, keep the word

in the original, or skip the word. But one must not confuse difficulty with untranslatability. There are many ways to translate words and expressions that

do not travel well from one language to another.

Ask Yourself

What am I translating? A word? An idea? The title of a person? The name of a cultural institution or artifact? A technical term? An idiomatic expression? A figure of speech? A newly-coined term?

Should I look for a different part of speech? Is there anything in my culture which plays the same role? Does the context or the text make clear the untranslatable

implications? Is the target audience expecting a complete translation?

Equivalent Register

Sometimes “untranslatability” can be solved by finding the equivalent register, or level of language.

The speeches of Winston Churchill might provide a good model to help you translate a speech by Charles de Gaulle.

American urban “rap” or old Chicago gangster-slang might provide an equivalent register with which to translate a French screenplay containing Marseilles “argot du milieu”.

Idioms

Because meaning is largely contextual, the context may make the word “untranslatable”.

The French word corde may mean “cord” or “string” or “rope”, but in translating “Il pleut des cordes”, you need to know it is a French colloquial idiom conveying the idea of very heavy rainfall, and the best translation would be : “It’s raining cats and dogs”. Arabic?

Coinages or Neologisms Equivalents can often be found for “untranslatable” recent

coinages or neologisms. If a French speaker tried to translate “yuppie”, he will probably

hit upon “BCBG”, the French acronym bon chic bon genre or (good style, good class), which is close enough to “yuppie”: a young, ambitious, stylish social-climber.

A Term Not a Word

There is no one-word English equivalent of the contemporary Japanese word karoshi (“death from overwork”). But if you ask yourself what is the English phrase for overworked executives?”, you will find “executive stress”, which would be a proper translation.

Another Part of Speech

Consider using other parts of speech, or figures of speech. The Spanish expression régimen carcelario may seem

untranslatable because English does not have a special adjectival form corresponding to “prison” or “jail”, but with focus on the meaning, you can translate it as “police state”. Arabic?

Translate the Idea

The French word dirigisme is not translatable by any single English word. Economists have adopted it as if it were an English word.

But if we ask ourselves what English words are usually used in the context of discussions about government regulation of business, we find at least one possible equivalent noun phrase: “command economy”. Arabic?

Helpful Exercise

Quite often “untranslatability” is a misnomer, because an exact or complete translation is not necessary, and an approximate equivalent may be all that is needed in a given context.

An interpreter should try to devise some way of getting the idea across.

An interpreter should try always to have more than one way to express any given idea.

A helpful exercise is to form the habit of writing out “strings” of related words and ideas.

Thank You

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