Monday, August 11, 2008

Laws of translation - continued

Law of translation: a layman in translation hardly ever acknowledges the effort required from a translator to deliver an acceptable rendition.

Banality? Indeed. But a painfully true banality all the same. The most widespread approach to translation, presented by laymen, might be summarized as follows:

'You know the language so, like, you can translate. What's the difficulty in that?'

Well, you can't. Just like having a driver's license does not automatically make you eligible for WRC. I wish that some day people would acknowledge the simple fact that translation IS a hard and demanding job that not everyone can do. But I guess that I might as well wish for a universal peace on Earth.