How to translate Idioms?

Mona Baker, Egyptian professor of translation studies and Director of the Centre for Translation, declares in her book ‘In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation’ four solving strategies to translate idioms:

1) using an idiom of similar meaning and form.
2) using an idiom of similar meaning but dissmiliar form.
3) translation by paraphrase.
4) translation by omission.

In other words, if you want to translate an Idiom you:

* try to find an idiom in the target language (is the language you're translating into) which uses the same words, the same structure and has the same exact meaning.

* try to find an idiom in your language which uses different words but has the same structure and the same meaning.

* try to find an idiom in your language that has different words, different structure but the same exact meaning. 

* try to find an idiom in your language that has different words, different structure and slighlty different meaning and complete it with a short explanation.

Don't try to use an automatic translation tool because the results will be very funny and sometimes embarrassing.

For example:

In English language we have the idiom 'once in a blue moon'. To describe the same idiom in Polish it's tempting to translate this expression literally into: 'raz na niebieski księżyc'. And now we try to tell a Polish person that something happes 'raz na niebieski księżyc'

 

-> Chodzimy do restauracji raz na niebieski księżyc. <?>

This expression usually makes Polish people feel embarrassed. So, a Polish idiom that means exactly the same as the English idiom is 'raz na ruski rok', which literally in English would be 'once in a Russian year'. The English people don't understand it.

In Italian language 'once in a blue moon' means 'ad ogni morte di Papa' (literally: a every dead of pope).

"Hello of his pendrive" - how we cannot translate idioms? (part one)

The translation of idioms is very difficult. We can remember that idioms have rich cultural connotations so we cannot translate it word for word. Idioms are well-established and what you need to do is to find equivalent. Use a good dictionary, ask a native speaker or try to search in the Internet.

The Italian idioms menare il can per l’aia is a good example of the kind of shift that takes place in the translation process. Translated literally, the sentence:

Matteo sta menando il can pe l’aia becomes Matthew is leanding his dog around the threshing floor. The English sentences is senseless. We can find the English idiom that most closely corresponds to the Italian, example: to beat about the bush. The sentence correctly translated becomes: Matthew is beating about the bush.


When we study English or Italian language we can remeber that both languages are very rich in the use of idioms. However, both Englis and Italian have corresponding idiomatic expressions that render the idea of prevarication, and so in the process of interlingual translation one idiom is substituted for another.

                                                                                                           Source: Google Image

Eugene Nida and his methods of translation

Eugene Nida, american linguist, established the dynamic equivalence which was one of the theory of the modern discipline of Translation Studies. In 1943 Nida began his career as a linguist with the American Bible Society where he coined two methods of translation,  dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence, describing ways of translation the Bible.

                                                                                           Eugene Nida   google images

When the translator can try to find expressions in the target language that mean very similar things. With this approach, the translation will sound more natural and will be easier to read. This is known as dynamic equivalence.


Example:

Baranek boży, The Lamb Of God, Angello di Dio -> In the European culture the lamb symbolizes innocence.

But in the Inuit (Eskimo language) this espression is translated as the Seal of God because in this culture seal represents innocence.

So, this translation sounds more natural for Ekimo peoples.

A literal translation may mean that the text is translated word for word. Some expressions that are there in the source language may not be there in the target language. Such translations are called formal equivalence.

   Example: 

            Ala ma kota. – Alice has a cat. – Alice ha un gatto.

Roman Jakobson - Three manners of interpreting a lingual sing

Roman Jakobson - russian linguist in 1959 writes the essay ‘on linguistic aspects of translation’ in which states that meaning of one world is a linguistic phenomenon and he notes three manners of interpreting a lingual sign:

Rewording (intralingual) – which consists of intrepreting lingual sings by means of other sings form the same language (italian-italian, synonyms). For example:

                                           Ragazzo – fanciullo, adoloscente

                                           Boy – a male child, adoloscent, a young man

                                           Chłopak – młodzieniec, młodziak, małolatek

Translation (interlingual) – which consists of interpreting lingual sings by means of sings from another language, so between two languages (english-italian)

                                            Scuola – school – szkoła

                                            Matita – pencil – ołówek

                                            Negozio – sklep - shop

Transmutation (intersemiotic) – which consists of interpreting sings by means of sings forn non-lingual sings system.

                                             Even version of a painting in words

                                                                                                                 Resource: Google

Roman Jakobson was fascinated by the fact what translation means and he was devoloping the first theory about equivalence. According to he, this notion means the similarity between a word in one language and its translation in other. However, Roman Jakobson’s study of equivalence gave new impetus to the theoretical analysis of translation. We can conclude that Jakobson’s theory is essentially based on his semiotic approach to translation according to which the translator would like be to able to search the equivalences.