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barkmagicman New user 92 Posts |
This isn't a 100Percent magic oriented, but I feel it is a good question. When you translate books to english (don't know how many you have done) do you get a feel for the effects your writing about. Like, were you going through mnemonica, were you like, that's good, that's not, simply because when you translate it you say it better? Not only that, when you are translating to English, do you still think in Spanish while your writing it. I know the question stumbles across the scope of relative cognition, but I would enjoy your response to it. I feel it would allow us a peer into how amazing the duality of language and your approach to it can be.
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Rafael Benatar V.I.P. Spain 165 Posts |
I have only translated two books into English (both thick, though), but have translated many more from English into Spanish and I think the question applies either way. The more I do it, the less literal I am. Let's say you translate a book from English into Spanish, then back into English and back into Spanish and so on. If you are being too literal, the book is going to get longer and longer. The reason is that we tend to account for every word we see, and then there are things that are simply longer in one language than in the other. A perfect translation (if such a thing existed) would keep the text exactly the same length in the same language (considering that some languages are simply "longer" than others). The question is how would the author say it if he spoke the other language. Often it's not even the same number of phrases. The process in the mind is somewhat abstract but, to a certain extent, it depends on how well you know each language. In Spanish/English, I think I translate words into thoughts and then thoughts into words. But thoughts are closely linked to words, especially when being consciously formulated. The process is almost immediate. Then, when revising the translated text, I take a lot of "weight" off it and find better ways to express certain things. The translator should not be afraid of not accounting for every word.
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