Writing in different languages

[ludwig1beethoven]

For example, you write a story and you want to show it to different people, but one of them does not speak the language that you wrote in, but they do speak in the other language you know. What would you do? Put it in the translator and call it a day? Write from scratch in the second language transmitting the same thoughts? Just translate it by yourself?

 

[Rudolphthered]

My family are the only non-english speakers I show my writing to. I use translator and then change some words, mainly with the purpose of a more comfortable read. But I don't translate word for word, because it's not the scope either.

 

[pmmg]

I think I do nothing. Sorry...but I can't overcome the language barrier. It too big an ask.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

For example, you write a story and you want to show it to different people, but one of them does not speak the language that you wrote in, but they do speak in the other language you know. What would you do? Put it in the translator and call it a day? Write from scratch in the second language transmitting the same thoughts? Just translate it by yourself?

It's really going to depend on how much you like this friend. Also how long is your story? 5k words and 500k words are different levels of difficulty.

 

[Mad Swede]

For example, you write a story and you want to show it to different people, but one of them does not speak the language that you wrote in, but they do speak in the other language you know. What would you do? Put it in the translator and call it a day? Write from scratch in the second language transmitting the same thoughts? Just translate it by yourself?

You haven't said how well you know this other language, so it's hard to say how much effort you'd need to put in.

I'm fluent in several languages, and I've had my stories translated. One thing I did learn was that it isn't enough to just translate. Sure, you can get software which will do a translation of your text. The truth is that the result of using software like that is a fairly rough translation and you (or the translator/intepreter if you're using their services) then have to go through the text line by line to enure that the translated text accurately reflects what your intentions were and how you expressed yourself. Things like colloquial expressions, implicit cultural references and the like will almost certainly have to be reworded into the equivalent expressions in the other language. In effect, you do an interpretation into the other language. It takes time and it requires care.

So how important is it to translate this story for your friend?

 

[Ban]

Translation is a craft. Conveying the same feel, pace, gravity, wit and poignancy in a translated work as intended in the original work, is quite a task. Unless you're only looking for a structural review of the chapter placement, chapter length and the overarching narrative, I wouldn't bother with creating a sub-par translation.

 

[ludwig1beethoven]

You haven't said how well you know this other language, so it's hard to say how much effort you'd need to put in.

I'm fluent in several languages, and I've had my stories translated. One thing I did learn was that it isn't enough to just translate. Sure, you can get software which will do a translation of your text. The truth is that the result of using software like that is a fairly rough translation and you (or the translator/intepreter if you're using their services) then have to go through the text line by line to enure that the translated text accurately reflects what your intentions were and how you expressed yourself. Things like colloquial expressions, implicit cultural references and the like will almost certainly have to be reworded into the equivalent expressions in the other language. In effect, you do an interpretation into the other language. It takes time and it requires care.

So how important is it to translate this story for your friend?

I am quite fluent in it and I usually show short excerpts. I tried both writing initially in the second language and going through a translator and then correcting by myself.

 

[MSadiq]

I am quite fluent in it and I usually show short excerpts. I tried both writing initially in the second language and going through a translator and then correcting by myself.

Translation is a separate art from writing. For a good translation, you'll have to do away with any machine translations. I have done many kinds of translations in college as part of different courses, and I can tell you definitely that machine translations are, at best, mediocre. They can hardly deal with legal and administrative texts, let alone fiction.

So, if you want to produce something good, and you think it's worth your time (large texts can take months), I'd say do it manually. I'm very proud of my translation of the first couple paragraphs of the Hobbit into Arabic, and a children story that I wrote in Arabic and translated into English.

If you're doing it manually, a key point to understand, so you don't frustrate yourself, is when you're translating a text, information gets lost. People say this often, but the implication that hangs in the air is that it is the translator's fault, but it is not. Languages aren't just different systems of sounds with some rules that are slightly different and weird. There are fundamental differences between every language.

For example, Arabic's morphology makes it so every word (except particles and many, but not all, loan words) carry two pieces of information at a time. The meaning of a root, like k t b, which contains the concept of writing, and the meaning of a pattern, which carries other types of information, like ma()()a(). Take this root and pattern, and you get maktab, a place that is related spatially or temporally to writing, which can apply to a ton of things: desk, office, bureau, home library, home office, and more.

Now, imagine you have a quirky character who writes fiction on top of a tree. Well, that is his maktab. How'd you translate this into English? It is going to be hard, and you're bound the lose the meaning of maktab, due to no fault of your own. There's just not direct translation of maktab in English. The grammar doesn't allow a new construction that has this sense either.

Moreover, don't be afraid to change things. Sometimes, you have to do it to get somethings across. The children story protagonist's name is Intefintefan, which means nothing, but implies that he's a piece of bread that has been torn from a loaf and has a sense of crumb, too. So I changed his name to Crumbilly. Silly, but it works.

 

[ludwig1beethoven]

Translation is a separate art from writing. For a good translation, you'll have to do away with any machine translations. I have done many kinds of translations in college as part of different courses, and I can tell you definitely that machine translations are, at best, mediocre. They can hardly deal with legal and administrative texts, let alone fiction.

So, if you want to produce something good, and you think it's worth your time (large texts can take months), I'd say do it manually. I'm very proud of my translation of the first couple paragraphs of the Hobbit into Arabic, and a children story that I wrote in Arabic and translated into English.

If you're doing it manually, a key point to understand, so you don't frustrate yourself, is when you're translating a text, information gets lost. People say this often, but the implication that hangs in the air is that it is the translator's fault, but it is not. Languages aren't just different systems of sounds with some rules that are slightly different and weird. There are fundamental differences between every language.

For example, Arabic's morphology makes it so every word (except particles and many, but not all, loan words) carries two meaning at a time. The meaning of a root, like k t b, which contains the concept of writing, and the meaning of a pattern, which carries other types of information, like ma()()a(). Take this root and pattern, and you get maktab, a place that is related spatially or temporally to writing, which can apply to a ton of things: desk, office, bureau, home library, home office, and more.

Now, imagine you have a quirky character who writes fiction on top of a tree. Well, that is his maktab. How'd you translate this into English? It is going to be hard, and you're bound the lose the meaning of maktab, due to no fault of your own. There's just not direct translation of maktab in English. The grammar doesn't allow it either.

Moreover, don't be afraid to change things. Sometimes, you have to do it to get somethings accross. The children story protagonist's name is Intefintefan, which means nothing, but implies that he's a piece of bread that has been torn from a loaf and has a meaning of crumb, too. So I changed his name to Crumbilly. Silly, but it works.

Very interesting! Thank you!

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

If you are as fluent in the other language as you are in this one. (assuming this is your 'native' language)
I say go for it, but bear in mind cultural differences between languages. And as others have said, bear in mind the length of the story.

I've seen some interesting videos on translating Japanese to English in a reasonable way and how doing so 'works' methodically.
In most cases you can't just translate 1:1 because the Japanese language is written so differently from English.

In one instance of that video they were (properly) translating a line about the view of the ocean looking alive/pretty. The translator went through about 5 revisions before they landed on 'the sea is beautiful today' even though it's quite distant from the Japanese line.