An In-Depth Dive into Translation
Hungry for a more in-depth discussion? Let's talk translation.
Understanding Professional Translation
While translation can be done beautifully and adequately by any person with a good knowledge of both source and target languages, a professional translator goes beyond that. This person is able to write in the target language (typically their native tongue in today's world) with an author's level of fluency and nuance. At the same time, they have excellent knowledge of the source language, not merely at a conversational level, but a deep understanding of its structures and subtexts. Lastly, true professionals have subject-matter expertise: legal translators understand legal systems; financial translators understand markets; medical translators understand clinical trials, biology, and chemical compounds.
But there's more. Translation also requires the systematic application of research skills, analytical judgment, and quality control. Every word, expression, and grammatical structure is the result of deliberate decision-making. The final product is a result of a long process of verification and refinement, often invisible to readers.
Here's a simple example: translating "Elaboração de indicadores de desempenho" in a résumé or academic abstract. How should "elaboração" be rendered in English? Elaboration, development, preparation, creation, design? What about "indicadores de desempenho"? Performance indicators, output indicators, outcome indicators, results metrics? Even this brief exercise yields dozens of possible combinations. In most cases, no dictionary or machine translation tool will provide the definitive answer — and many will point to suboptimal or outright incorrect solutions.
In our example, a translator familiar with résumé conventions in English would know that job duties are typically expressed using verbal forms rather than nouns. Thus, instead of any of the forementioned noun-based options, a more natural solution would be: Creating performance indicators.
What may seem like minutiae is in fact a core skill in a professional translator: every sentence involves layers of analysis, judgment calls, and trade-offs — many of which operate beneath the surface of conscious awareness.
Idiomatic Translation: The Core of a Translation's Quality (Sometimes)
One of the most common misconceptions among non-specialists is that translation involves finding direct word-for-word equivalents. In reality, skilled translators work not with words, but with meaning.
For example, when rendering "How old are you? " into Portuguese, no competent translator would produce "Quão velho você é?", even though old literally means "velho". Instead, the translator draws from the natural forms used by native speakers: "Qual a sua idade?" or "Você tem quantos anos?". This process of deverbalizing (extracting the underlying idea from the source language) and reverbalizing (re-expressing it idiomatically in the target language) is central to professional translation.
Idiomatic (or simply natural) translation, which I regard as the highest standard in translation, requires the translator to mentally detach from the original wording and reconstruct the message as if it had been conceived in the target language. This approach ensures that the translation not only conveys the intended meaning, but also feels fully natural and native to the target audience.
There are, of course, exceptions to this. These will include situations where the translation needs to stay close to the original wording, as the target audience must be able to access the technical aspects of the source text, rather than absorb a natural text in their own language. This is true for legal, finance, biosciences, manufacturing, engineering, and many other fields, with the most extreme example being the translation of religious texts considered sacred (when translating for study or exegesis purposes). These will often focus on a literal or even word-by-word rendering of the source text, which better serves their purpose.
The Complexity of Translation
Most people think of translation as a straightforward task, where the only real skill needed is an advanced level of the language. But if you’ve ever tried dropping a text into a translation tool, you’ve probably noticed that simply swapping one word for another with the same meaning often doesn’t work. Even with just a single word, you’ll likely get a list of possible translations—and some that don’t even show up might still be the best fit depending on the context. So how do you know which one to choose?
That’s the tricky part. Sometimes all of them are correct. Sometimes none are. Different languages are, well… different. It’s nearly impossible to convey exactly the same idea, with the same nuance and tone, in two separate languages. Things get even more complex when the languages come from completely different roots (like Latin vs. Germanic): the way words have evolved gives them subtle cultural baggage that changes how they sound, even when they "mean the same thing." So, in theory, translating a text perfectly—no matter how short—could take a lifetime. Especially if the text is a complex one.
Since we can’t afford to spend our lives perfecting a single paragraph, choices have to be made. And that’s where a good translator makes all the difference. It’s not just about knowing how to speak the language—it’s about understanding the cultural context the audience is in, and what the text is trying to achieve. Let me give you a basic analogy: before you leave the house, you need to know where you’re going. Is it hot or cold outside? Will it rain, will it be windy or sunny—either on the way or once you get there? Based on that, you decide what to wear, whether to bring an umbrella, how you’re getting there, and so on.
The same goes for translating. You need to know the type of text, the field it belongs to, where it will be published, and who it’s meant for. Then you can decide what to prioritize.
The Decision-Making Process
High-quality translation is essentially a series of cascading decisions, each influenced by multiple, often competing, parameters. Much like a multi-variable optimization problem or even a role-playing game where improving one skill diminishes another, the translator constantly weighs factors such as:
Fidelity to the source text’s form: How closely should the target text follow the original syntax and structure?
Fidelity to informational content: Are all nuances and implications accurately conveyed?
Level of formality: Does the translation maintain the appropriate level of formality or informality?
Tone: Is the original tone — whether authoritative, conversational, technical, persuasive, or ironic — preserved?
Connotation: Does the word choice carry unintended positive, negative, or neutral implications?
Terminological precision: Are the terms aligned with industry/legal standards and client terminology?
Readability: Does the text flow smoothly for the target audience?
Idiomaticity: Does the text read naturally, as if originally written by a native speaker?
Elegance: Is the prose stylistically polished?
Production cost: How much time, mental effort, and energy must be invested into optimizing this particular segment?
Sometimes, achieving a near-perfect rendering for a single sentence may require 15 minutes of research, multiple rounds of reflection, and substantial cognitive effort: resources that must be balanced against overall project deadlines and workloads. Each translation decision consumes limited mental energy, and depleting that dopamine storage too early in a project can jeopardize consistency and quality down the line.
This is why professional translation cannot be reduced to a simplistic question of "getting it right". There is rarely a single "correct" translation. Instead, there are solutions that are more or less appropriate, depending on the team's (translator, client) choice, considering the context, the client’s goals, the intended audience, etc. Additionally, when we talk about high-quality professional translation, putting "time" and "cost" as top priorities will necessarily take a heavy toll on these other factors – namely, quality.An Anatomy of Translation Styles
This is what the "cascading, sometimes mutually exclusive decisions" look like. You only have so many points to distribute and you must choose wisely. Should the translation be clear, above all, flow and read smoothly? Should it be faithful to the original? Culturally adapted? Is it important that it sounds like a native wrote it? And you'll soon be facing a series of trade-offs. More accuracy? Well, less reading flow, then. More speed? Less quality overall, then. More natural-sounding (idiomaticity)? You'll lose a little on the faithfulness to the original, then.
The chart has 3 main examples that cover most translation types ("literal" here will include finance, legal, and sometimes institutional translation, while "natural" will include marketing, sometimes literary translation.).
A legal document, for example, needs to be as faithful, clear, and technical as possible (otherwise you or someone else might get into serious legal trouble) – but that often makes the text more rigid and dull. Marketing content, on the other hand, needs to be culturally adapted, sound natural, and flow for the reader – but you'll need to drop word-for-word accuracy, since a potential customer is not really interested in unveiling the deep meaning of each word chosen by the writer of the source text – they were not writing a technical handbook or a religious text, they were hired as copywriters to engage the audience, and so should the translator be.
Both the translator and the client need to be aware that choosing the best version of a text always means giving something up. In the end, there’s no absolute right or wrong – just the version that best serves the purpose it was meant for.
More Examples of Decisions, if You're Hyperfocused on This like Me
Yeah, I'm passionate about translation, if you hadn't figured it so far. It's fascinating how meaning – which simply gives order and purpose to everything around us – can be seen, coded, and decoded in various ways depending on your the angle from which you look.
Amending the text. How should the translator deal with the possibility of amending the text? If he realizes the person writing the source text made a bad lexical choice, should he correct it? If he realizes the source text misquoted another text that is publicly available, should he amend it to match the original quote?
Narrowing (or maintaining through explanation?) the semantic field. I take this example from the translation of the Bible. Greek and Hebrew will often present us with words or expressions that have a wide range of possible meanings that can't be easily conveyed in a translation. The same expression can be legitimately read as [...] And so translations will often include paraphrase, expansion, and interpretive choices. Most modern versions, because they intend to be translations (not commentaries), will choose only one of the possible meanings (which is, in itself, an interpretive decision). More rarely, versions like Alfred Kuen's "transcription dynamique" series will expand the text to include all possible meanings [example].
Case Study 1: Coining a Term in French
Sometimes translating requires more than adapting – it can be straight out creating new terms.
I was tasked with translating the name of a very common Brazilian government department: “Ouvidoria”. Its basically an office or department that receives, processes, and responds to complaints, suggestions, reports, and/or inquiries from citizens, clients, or users, usually of a public institution. Moreover, each institution's "ouvidoria" can have different attributions, focuses, duties, and powers. They needed a French translation, and it was specifically for the TCU's Ouvidoria. Needless to say, this was not an everyday, "tell me how this is in French" translation. The term has no perfect equivalent in many languages and is in great part a Brazilian thing. Even knowing French institutions and websites, research didn't get me very far, as there was no equivalent institution or government body that I could use as a reference.
So, the basic reasoning, common to every translator was: “'Ouvidoria'” needs a translation into French."
A beyond-the-basics reasoning was: "it carries cultural and historical significance specific to Brazil."
A more advanced, senior reasoning was: "this translation needs to respect French institutional naming conventions. I might need to coin one right now."
After asking about what exactly were the duties of the TCU's Ouvidoria, I remembered the naming conventions of institutions I saw when I was in France for my master's. I distinctively remember they love to ommit prepositions in names, and you'll see a lot of "Bureau Accueil", "Point Recherche", "Service Client". I tried going in that direction and started thinking. I knew I wanted something that began with either bureau/service/espace, and finished at écoute/citoyen/accueil. So I basically went through lexical combinatorial analysis of potential terms and came up with a few options:
- Bureau écoute
- Service écoute
- Espace écoute
- Bureau citoyen
- Point accueil
- Service accueil
These would not necessarily be the most descriptive, but they would be the most idiomatic. It is natural in France to see a department named with a generic expression and only figuring it's exact scope by inquiring.
However, after careful consideration with a work colleague, we determined that the newly coined term would best serve the project's needs if it was a little more simple, descriptive, and straightforward.
The final translation: "Bureau des plaintes et suggestions". Simple, straight to the point, not exhaustingly descriptive, but perfectly functional. The perfect translation for that project, for that institution, for that use, and for that audience.
Case Study 2: Localizing a Publication Title
I was asked, on a special occasion, to translate the title of a formal report for a government body. The original English title read: “NAVIGATING GLOBAL TRENDS: FUTURE IMPLICATIONS FOR SAIs”.
The first draft followed a literal translation: “Naviguer à travers les tendances mondiales : implications futures pour les ISC". But, while technically accurate, I felt like this version could be improved. This is where "being suspicious", which I emphasize so much on my daily work, comes in.
I asked myself: Is “naviguer” commmonly used as a metaphore in French? Is it used in institutional contexts? Does this title follow the same structure used in French?
It took a lot of research and previous knowledge of French publications (mostly from my master's), but the final result I came up with was: “L’évolution des tendances mondiales : quelles implications pour les ISC ?”. It has:
- A noun instead of a verb;
= An article preceding the noun;
- "Mondiales" instead of "globales";
= A question asked after the colon.
All markers of native French writing.
This is where 2 of a translator's essential skills – the ability to be suspicious and deep fluency – come together to produce a truly professional output.
