The theme tag of the 2023 International Translation Day is “Translation unveils the many faces of humanity”. This is a timely reminder of the power of translation to bring the world closer together, and show the commonality of human experience. It also highlights the challenging world of the translator.
Although translation is an ancient art and science, today’s globalised world makes its efforts even more necessary and urgent. How else can we become aware of the rich cultures, histories and knowledge existing in various communities across the world?
Historically, Romans encouraged the translation of Greek texts and Arabic translators kept this knowledge alive throughout the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East. In fact, it is through translation that science, mathematics and even literature spread from far corners of the world like China and India, via the Middle East, through Arabic, to Europe and the western world.
Translation is a challenging skill and ensuring that the target text shares features of the source text is entirely in the hands of the translator. Questions like whether accuracy is more important than cultural context, and if a glossary needs to be included in a translated text are issues that every professional or amateur translator must grapple with.
In the world of commerce and law, translation is of vital importance in bringing different parties together. The choice of words and their translations have been known to impact trade deals, and even contributed to historical wrongs, such as the famous treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand which led to much confusion among the British and the native Maori community over the exact provisions of the treaty due to the language used.
Literary translation is another important form that continues to be important in today’s world. In fact, translation is the only way in which a literary work can be widely reached and read. A literary translator requires immense skills of both cultures, and be able to recreate the original text, duplicating it in style, image, tone as well as cultural accuracy. This is not a mean task.
Today, translation has been digitalised to the extent that there is real time translation available in online applications and in various websites. Machine translation is routinely used to generate official translations at record speed. However, the accuracy of such translations are always in doubt as machines may not be able to duplicate the subtle nuances and styles of language as used by humans.
However, technology is here to stay and the only way forward is to leverage the use of Artificial Intelligence by translators to produce texts which evoke the feel of the original. As more cultures are brought under the umbrella of technology, machine translations may become more sensitised to these emerging voices.
The future of translation is very bright: from opportunities in subtitling of videos, simultaneous interpreting and medical translations, there is an increasing demand for skilled translators, but as always, the human touch will continue to be valued.
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