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Can you give a few examples of terms that are highly likely to be lost in translation?

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Question added by Lina Samer , Digital Media Graphic Designer , iDirection
Date Posted: 2017/03/05
Hamza Toghoj
by Hamza Toghoj , Lecturer/ Field Training Supervisor , Isra Private University

This mostly has to do with culture-bound terms; terms that are specific to a certain culture and do not necessarily have a one to one equivalent in the target language. Indeed, a great deal of mistranslations, especially those produced by inexperienced translators, are due to their failure in recognizing that no two cultures are exactly the same. Consider for example the connotations of the word 'owl' in both Arabic and English. The owl is a symbol of wisdom in English while in Arabic it is associated with pessimism and ornithomancy. Thus, translating فلان مثل البومة  into 'he is like an owl' completely misses the mark and does not convey the intended meaning. 

We could translate from language A to language B. When we re-translate from B to A, I doubt it would be the same text! Some of its terms can be "lost in translation". Also, translating a text from an already translated text, and not the original, might cause it to get lost in translation as well.

There are so many different examples of words, idioms or terms that are not easy to be translated and can be lost in translation. This is mainly related to culture specific terms or phrases that do not have one-to-one word equivalent in the other language. For example: you have the idiom after my own heart which means a person with similar preferences or values. You cannot go literal with this, you need to look at the content in which it came from and you try to translate accordingly. Also you have the word “facepalm” which describes the gesture of slapping the palm of one’s hand to the face to show exasperation or shame. There isn’t a word that can give a literal meaning of this word. In Arabic as well, we find numerous examples of culture related words that are not easy to be translated, take for example the word “yo’aburnee” the literal translation would be “you bury me” which would be very ridiculous because it is a statement or declaration of one’s hope to die before another person because life would be unbearable without such person.

Abullah Arsad
by Abullah Arsad , Translator/Investor Relations &Customer Care Officer , Jiwar Real Estate Development & Marketing Co.

Yet there’s a whole bunch of foreign words that are equally quirky but not nearly as well known. While they may put a smile on your face (some of them really do convey great ideas), for translators they’re nothing short of a nightmare. Some examples include:

  1. Abbiocco (Italian): Drowsiness from eating a big meal.
  2. Backpfeifengesicht (German): A face that needs to be slapped.
  3. Cafuné (Portuguese): The act of running your fingers through a lover’s hair.
  4. Fernweh (German): Feeling homesick for a place you have never been to.
  5. Friolero (Spanish): Someone who is particularly sensitive to cold weather and temperatures.
  6. Gattara (Italian): A woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats.
  7. Gökotta (Swedish): To wake up early in the morning with the purpose of going outside to hear the first birds 

Kareem  Essam Eldeen Abd Elftah
by Kareem Essam Eldeen Abd Elftah , supervisor & distributer , HM

     Summary is one of the translation techniques. The purpose of summary is to compress a lengthy passage while retaining ideas, concepts and key terms.

To write a summary:

-You should omit extra examples and redundancy.

-You shouldn't add your own opinion.

-You should make an opening sentence gives the objective of the source passage.

EX.Source Text:

   Egypt these days is facing economic dangers by blowing tourism with rumours of the bomb on board of the Russian plane. Many tourists died in the crash, and thus, many tourists  (from UK, Russian and other western countries) decided to cancel their flights to the beautiful and famous resort of Sharm Sheikh, a major tourist attraction in Egypt. 

After Summary: 

   The Russian plane crash has negatively affected tourism; many Western countries cancelled their flights to the Egyptian resort of Sharm Sheikh.

 

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