How Grave Can a Translation Mistake Be? Part 2.
Potentially Catastrophic Consequences due to inexact translations
As we mentioned in our very last articled, we have seen hundreds of serious translating fiascos. The causes of these failures were poor reading skills, carelessness, miscomprehension of subject matter or the inability to convey the meaning from language to language.
Consider the following example: An aspiring linguist translated a Russian blog post in which the author was describing the events of a dream he had. The narrative explained how in the dream the author saw himself taking part in a lecture being given by one of his favorite professors. This professor was calling on the formation of a secret movement that will declare war, “in the name of god”, on a particular friendly nation.
Although the author had made it clear in his writing that these were the events of a dream, the translator unfortunately overlooked that detail when producing his translation – possibly due to not fully understanding the source text – and the document was translated with the following sensational Title: “Country A Makes Secret Plans For Holy War Against Country B.”
Due to the fact that the two nations in question were already experiencing tension between them this could have put an end to the diplomatic process. Fortunately, the error was detected before anything was released and the disaster was prevented.
What are professional translators?
Translation is not an easy task. A qualified translator must have a resource of knowledge on current international events, world leaders and many other pertinent details. It goes without saying that a functional knowledge of both source and target languages is mandatory. A linguist operating without this essential trisect is a hazard to the agency that employed him, the client and his own career and reputation.
Occasionally, an error in translations may be relatively harmless, but can certainly be humiliating; as in the following example:
A segment of a statement released by an incendiary extremist faction contained a sentence that said: “The jihadists have gone to Ard al-Ribat (the outpost or the frontier), declining but to knock on the Gates of Heaven with their Skulls.” (This is emphatic prose used by Muslim warriors to describe their fierce commitment to fight till their last breath)
The linguist at work on the translation was unable to fully comprehend the meaning behind the words that had been used and produced the following translation “And So, en route to the land of ties and triumph and answer [to the call] for they do smack their heads against the gate of madness.”
The translation the linguist produces shows some clear examples of insufficient experience in the Classical Arabic text, a fault he compensates for by substituting unknown words for words that were not even in the original text. Furthermore, the linguist exhibits an extreme lack of commitment to the task at hand by producing such a nonsensical sentence and making no effort to clarify its meaning.
It is crucial to understand how these errors were made in order to ensure they are not repeated. The translator expressed the word “jinan” as “madness or dementia” as it would be in his country, Egypt. However in the Classical Arabic the source text was written in the correct translation is “heaven” or “paradise.”
Due to the translator’s lack of experience in Classical Arabic and knowledge of Islamic expressions, the precise definition of Ard al-Ribat also slipped his understanding, as did the expression “Heavens Gates.”
In the end the mistakes that were made in the above example were made by a linguist who lacked a full understanding of the source language and failed bring the meaning to a precise translation in the target language. Novice linguists often make this mistake when beginning as they have not developed the ability to adopt the author’s perspective and detailed scope on the subject matter.
In order to avoid unwanted consequences caused by inaccurate translations, hire professional translation services to assist you with translating your documents.
If you have questions regarding your project, feel free to contact Apoling Solutions. We provide certified translation services from 52+ foreign languages and ensure that any document translated by us will meet requirements of official or legal authorities in the USA or overseas.