Translation: An Art or a Science?

[Music]

hi guys welcome back to the sty two

BAE's video is going to be a relatively

short and sweet one actually but it's

something that I wanted to talk about a

little bit and just as a little sort of

like one off topic basically if you

didn't know my name is Eve and I say

German or Spanish at the University of

Oxford and so as you can tell I am a

linguist and a lot of my degree involves

translation translation is a really

bizarre one because I think there are so

many different views of translation

especially these days because we have

like machines that can essentially do it

for us and so I wanted to talk about

whether translation is an art or whether

it is the science there are definitely

arguments for both and I just wanted to

touch on both and see what you guys

think because it is a really interesting

topic and I would love to do some more

video specific to German and Spanish

like words that can't be translated or

like things about the language that are

really interesting to English speakers

so if you would like me to do that then

definitely give this a thumbs up but

this is just more of a general overview

according to the dictionary translation

is the activity or process of changing

the words of one language into the words

of another language that have the same

meaning so essentially if I say I walked

the dog then that is the case of

translating that sentence I walked the

dog into whichever other language and

getting the meaning exactly the same so

that a person in Japan and a person in

England would both be understanding the

same situation from the words on the

page but when you put a sentence into

Google Translate obviously maybe not as

simple as I walked the dog it might mean

the same thing in the other language but

it doesn't mean the same thing in the

other language as in it's translated

literally from one into the other but to

the person in the new language they

maybe start scratching their head

because the word could be right in some

contexts but totally wrong in that

context translation is a career that

requires like a deep knowledge of the

language and like a very very refined

technique like a science but it also

requires a degree of freedom and

spontaneity but I'll get into this so

with the growing tendency of

increasingly intelligent translation

machines taking over the jobs of

translators there is a lot of people

arguing there are a lot of people

arguing Wow really bad language for me

there

there are a lot of people arguing that

translators human translators will soon

not be needed at all which I couldn't

agree less with and I shall tell you why

eventually in this video but first let's

talk about why some people do see it as

nothing more than a science so

essentially it could be said to be a

form of science because at the end of

the day many people would argue that it

can be done by machines

things like Reverso babble on Google

Translate can translate documents

literally in the press of a button

and yes most documents like legal

documents and things can be understood

by the speaker in a new language science

is about facts and it fundamentally

relies on accuracy as does translation

you need to know the grammar of the

language you need to know both languages

you need to understand the way that the

syntax works and the way that verbs are

inflected and everything like that and

at the end of the day most translation

is one would argue should just be as

exact as possible as in if one is

describing a car driving down the road

in a desert the other one should be

describing a car driving down the road

the desert and both readers should be

getting the same idea in their heads a

lot of people would argue that

translations should be unbiased as well

and that it's not your own work you are

trying to convey another person's work

in a new language and so a translator

should try and work without you know

putting their own ideas and opinions

into the work because then it would just

be a totally different work and you

wouldn't be translating you would be

adapting and that wouldn't be conveying

the same image also it's a technique

that can be refined over and over it's

like a craft almost you know like it's

like carpentry like you get better at it

over time and you can really hone it but

you could also apply that principle to

the arts as well just saying but whilst

machines use really intelligent

algorithms to create translations that

are by all means possible in the new

language and like will probably be

understood at the rate the machines are

working at the end of the day it still

needs a human person to edit and check

that which is what stops it from being

like a completely mechanical refined

scientific process as it were a machine

translation will lack so little rhythm

it will lack just a

basic concepts as a nuances of everyday

speech and everyday language because

what a dictionary tells you is not

what's being spoken in bars and clubs

and restaurants up and down a given

country so let's talk about why

translation can't be an exact science

how can translation be an exact science

when no two cultures are the same so

take a translation from English to

German for example if we were

translating an episode of Gavin & Stacey

where they talk about a fish supper the

concept of going to your local chip shop

and getting chips or wrapped up in paper

and taking it home and having out those

little polystyrene boxes is something

well known to the Brits we understand

and if someone says are you going to the

chippy or are you going to get chips all

like are you getting fish supper we

understand the cultural reference that

that is making like specific reference

to how do we translate that into German

because if we translate it as a fish

supper they're gonna picture like you

know like a plate of like lovely you

know like sea bass and you know like

really like a completely different thing

to the actual cultural practice that

we're talking about because that

cultural practice does not exist in

Germany and so do you focus on

translating it literally and getting

them to understand the concept of a fish

supper or do you take some liberties and

translate it into a similar cultural

reference that Germans would understand

for example like getting a doner kebab

or like something similar like a snack

bar or something that they would get

because fish and chips isn't as

widespread in Germany as it is in

England you know so they're ultimately

you would need a human to make that

final call it's not something that a

robot could do because a robot would

just say fish suffer similarly the the

boundaries are blurred so for example

the Japanese word for blue encompasses a

lot of colors that English speakers

would understand to be green and so at

that point what's of blue are we talking

about here how would a robot know

exactly what's or blue there is no right

or wrong answer there it's not like you

know a scientific or mathematical value

that's either right or it's wrong it's a

question of interpretation and of

understanding there are also words in

some languages that don't exist in

another language so for example

commercia means grief bacon so that's a

german word and that basically means

weight that you get

from like emotionally overeating after

something really bad happened and so

obviously we have that concept in

English like everyone knows Bridget

Jones sat there with her ice cream but

how do we translate grief bacon we can't

say grief bacon because who the hell is

gonna understand that or saw but I miss

her in Spanish basically means the time

that you spend socializing like over a

meal and obviously that's such an

intrinsic part of Hispanic culture like

food is so deeply connected with social

events way more so than in England and

how would we translate that concept into

English without making like sentences

and sentences trying to explain the

cultural phenomenon that that is the

same thing goes with understanding

ingrained ideals and cultural values and

idiomatic nuances that mean that

something that literally means something

also to most native speakers will not

mean that the best example I can think

of is American Airlines oh this actually

makes me laugh so much so their slogan

in English it's fly in leather so in

Spanish that's Weller and Gretel which

does literally mean fly in leather but

Cuero and like a lot of idiomatic

phrases that go around that phrase

basically means naked so they translated

fly in leather yes that's literally what

it means but the idiom means to fly

naked so how would you translate a

slogan like that when the literal

meaning will always get mistaken for the

idiomatic meaning and needs to be an

artist because they need to think of

ways to get around this to communicate

the meaning that they're trying to

understand aka flying in a stylish

leather seat rather than imagining

somebody literally flying through the

air with their genitals hanging out a

lot of people argue that work of

translated literature or anything is

essentially you know an original work in

that it will never be exactly the same

and if the literal words remain similar

you've got to think about the style the

tone the cultural nuances that are going

to be infused into that text obviously

less so for like legal documents and

like manuals and stuff they're much more

sort of like matter-of-fact but think

about any other piece of literature

whether it's like advertising or like

novels or plays or TV shows they're

always going to be slightly different

they're always going to have to require

some degree of creativity by the

translator you need to be able to convey

the exact cultural

meaning in taken from the target

language with all the ease and flow eNOS

and rhythm of the new language

essentially so there's so much to think

about and every single translator will

do that differently that's why if you

look at any given novel and there are

gonna be three or four translations of

it they're all read slightly differently

in any English speaker that reads a

Spanish novel we'll get a slightly

different feel for what that books about

depending on which translator they pick

because it is at the end of the day a

subjective or I have you enjoyed this

video it was basically like not really

like learning anything but it is just

something to think about when you're

thinking about translation it's not just

as easy as putting you know words into

Google Translate and hoping that it all

comes out okay so I hope that you enjoy

this video nonetheless we know if you

have any requests for videos that you'd

like me to do I definitely I'm gonna do

a video and Don Quixote that is next on

my list of things to do if you would

like me to do that in Spanish then do

let me know because I could definitely

do it in Spanish I give it a go at least

and an obviously subtitle it obviously

subtitled it

um but yeah that's all from me today I

hope you're enjoying your week and that

you're holding up okay stay safe and

we'll see you very soon for a new video

on the slighty project

bye nice