The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2017 - 10

READING BEYOND THE LINES: THE TRANSLATOR'S QUEST FOR EXTRA-TEXTUAL INFORMATION continued

Translators must develop work habits and a methodology that
allow them to make the best possible use of search tools and
other resources.

be edited carefully, but not all clients are
ready to allocate the necessary resources
to do this.
Finally, there are cases of deliberate
ambiguity, especially in diplomatic
discourse. The example of intended
ambiguity in the withdrawal clause
in United Nations Security Council
resolution 242 is notorious.3
Some may argue that all the translator
needs to do when faced with ambiguity is
simply to carry it over to the target language
(i.e., keep the translation ambiguous in
the same way). However, it is not always
possible to find a word or phrase in the
target language that carries the same
multiple meanings. Add to this that
tolerance for ambiguity may vary depending
on the audience or even the culture.
Faced with ambiguity, research is
again the best tool in the translator's
hands. Specific tools include relating the
text to other texts on the same topic to
see if they can shed light on the ambiguity
(rel-texting, chron-texting). Previously
translated documents (bi-texting) can also
give the translator new ideas based on how
other translators approached the issue.4
10

The ATA Chronicle | November/December 2017

COMMON OBSTACLES TO THE
TRANSFER OF MEANING
Having overcome novelties and
ambiguities, the translator now has a
clear idea of what was said in the source
sentence. The ensuing journey is to
transfer the meaning to a new cultural
and linguistic context and to dress it
appropriately so that it can be presented
to a new audience. That journey can also
be fraught with challenges. Here are two
challenges that we have often encountered
while translating or revising:
1. Equivalency: Equivalency is about
finding an expression in the target
language to convey the same idea
expressed in the source language. It is
one of the most intractable difficulties
in translation because some words or
expressions may not yet have been coined
in the target language, or they may not
have a well delimited equivalence. For
example, the abovementioned expression
"disruptive technology" does not seem to
have a definitive equivalent in a number
of languages. In Spanish, you may find
tecnología desestabilizadora, tecnología

perturbadora, tecnología revolucionaria, or
any number of variants.
Sometimes even an apparently simple
term such as "default position" can be
troublesome. In some cases, words seem
to be ganging up against the translator.
For example, a word like "chair" or
"stool" should not cause any translation
issues. But if you were translating
into a language like Arabic and had
to distinguish chairs from stools, you
would be hard-pressed to come up with
a good solution. In other cases, cultural
gaps between languages make it difficult
to coin an equivalent expression that will
be understood and accepted by users
of the target language. For example,
finding neutral equivalents for gender
orientation concepts in Arabic has been
a long process. Even now, neutral terms
for gays and lesbians have not been
universally adopted.
True and accurate equivalency
is a rare gem, which can only be
encountered, with a little bit of luck,
after a lot of digging. Sometimes
the best equivalent is not strictly
an equivalent, but a much longer
explanation. In some cases, the choice
of equivalent is dictated by established
usage. This is why using idiomatically
appropriate equivalents is an essential
element of a good translation.
A special type of equivalency is the
problem of back translation when you
have names (especially geographical
names), quotations, or other references in
your source language that are originally
from the same target language into which
you are translating. For example, "local
plant" in a text about the situation in
the Palestinian occupied territories was
back translated in Arabic after thorough
research as "
," (gundelia), which is
an edible plant that the local Palestinian
population gathers and sells in the
market. In this case, the best scenario
would be to find the original reference
and copy it as is. For instance, when
translating a document into English
containing references to the United States
Constitution, the translator needs to quote
the English text of the Constitution.
How do we go about solving an
equivalency problem? The best way
is to exhaust all available resources to
understand the concept and find the
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2017
