Back Translators as Photographers and How New Technologies Have Changed our Vision of the World Translation is a bit like photography. Two hundred years ago, the French inventor Joseph Niépce produced a fixed and permanent image of a view from a window using heliography – one the first photographic processes – which is now hailed as the world’s oldest surviving photograph. His achievement marked the start of a new era and the spread of photographic techniques, allowing accurate and objective images to be created that portrayed reality as it really was. Since then, photographs have revolutionised our view of the world. One entertaining (and perhaps surprising) example is in horse racing. In the early 1820s, French artist Théodore Géricault painted several pictures showing galloping horses with their legs stretched out simultaneously in front and behind, in a position that seemed obvious at the time but to the viewer today looks completely unnatural. As technology progressed, new techniques were developed and shutter speed became fast enough to produce in-focus images of fast-moving objects, allowing the creation of photographic sequences, which showed that horses do not gallop like that at all; in fact, their legs move alternately in a four-beat gait (see here for more information about horse gaits, for those interested!). In Géricault’s defence, he wasn’t the only one to have got it wrong ! But what has all that got to do with translation ? Everything. When horses gallop, their legs are just a blur. The spectators at a race understand that the horses are running from A to B, but they cannot see the way their legs actually move (hence the misunderstanding!). Translators are a bit like the photographer. When a person reads a text in a foreign language or uses a machine translation, they may understand the overall meaning but miss certain details. The translator’s job is to provide a full understanding by conveying all the subtleties – including word play, cultural references and idiomatic phrasing – in the appropriate linguistic style and register.  A good translation enhances the reader’s understanding, going beyond the general meaning and taking communication and knowledge transfer to a new level. It’s the difference between ‘getting the gist’ and fully grasping something. That’s the translator’s added value! Youtube Linkedin Fluent Planet Menu Home Our agency Blog Contact us Contact Wood Parc, Bâtiment C-D 274Ter Avenue de la marne Marcq en Baroeul +33 3 62 26 03 87 contact@fluent-planet.com

Back 5 Facts to Know about Translation One of the first Schools of Translators was not actually a school. The Toledo School of Translators, which was active in the 12th and 13th centuries CE, was more of a ‘hub’ of translators. Rather than teaching per ser, it was in fact a group of scholars working to translate ancient philosophical and scientific works from multiple languages into Latin, at the cathedral of Toledo. The name is a misnomer but was readily adopted in Spain and abroad from the late 12th century onwards.[1] EtymologyThe word ‘translation’ comes from the Latin translationem, meaning ‘a carrying across’ or ‘transfer of meaning’ and could also be applied to the removal of a saint’s body or relics.[2] The most-translated bookThe world’s most-translated book is the Bible, which is currently available in more than 3,000 languages. One of the best-known translations in Europe is the Latin Vulgate, which dates from the 4th century and is still a source of reference for scholars today. The most common language pairThe most common language pair in Google Translate is English to Spanish.[3] A key part of programmingThe name of the one of the main programming languages, Fortran, stands for ‘Formula Translation’. The language is used in cutting edge science and engineering projects and serves to test and benchmark the world’s fasted supercomputers. Fittingly, it is also an interoperable language that ‘enables seamless integration into multi-language projects’.[4]   [1] https://www.alandalusylahistoria.com/?p=5199 [2] https://www.etymonline.com/word/translation [3] https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/translate/fun-facts-google-translate-20-years/ [4] https://fortran-lang.org/ Youtube Linkedin Fluent Planet Menu Home Our agency Blog Contact us Contact Wood Parc, Bâtiment C-D 274Ter Avenue de la marne Marcq en Baroeul +33 3 62 26 03 87 contact@fluent-planet.com

Back Is Translation an Art? According to one definition, an art is an activity requiring skill that is learned through experience and instinct rather than by memorising facts. Examples include ‘the culinary arts’, ‘martial arts’ and the ‘art’ of sculpture, writing, discourse, etc. These activities involve expertise and know-how that are acquired and honed over time. Just like writers and poets, translators pay careful attention to their choice of words when composing their text. Their aim is to faithfully transcribe the original intention of the author, while making sure that their work is an exact reproduction of the text with all its nuances and ensuring it remains adapted to its audience. Like a sculptor, the translator takes their raw material and works on it to bring out what’s hidden inside. As Michelangelo once said, “every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculpture to discover it”. In the same way, the translator captures the meaning of their source text and reveals it to the eyes of their readers. Like all the arts, translation evolves over time and has been transformed by the development of new techniques and technologies. In craftsmanship, where cabinetmakers once cut and carved wood by hand, there are now electric and numerically controlled tools to do part of the work for them. For their part, translators have been using CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools for several decades already, which are now joined by those of machine translation. By adapting to these changes, the profession has demonstrated is strength and resilience in the face of new challenges. Admittedly, translation is not much like the sort of art you think of you see Michelangelo’s David, but without the spark of human genius – which characterises all the arts and which we could call creativity or inspiration – the true meaning of a text, with all its subtleties that cannot be translated literally, would remain inaccessible to foreign readers. This same human genius enabled the great artists and craftspeople of the past to make the masterpieces for which they are now famous. In short, while a translation is not quite a dazzling as a great piece of handiwork, it owes all its complexity and beauty to the translator’s know-how and expertise. So yes, we believe that translation is an art! Youtube Linkedin Fluent Planet Menu Home Our agency Blog Contact us Contact Wood Parc, Bâtiment C-D 274Ter Avenue de la marne Marcq en Baroeul +33 3 62 26 03 87 contact@fluent-planet.com