Conflict issues and special topics in translation

As I mentioned in my last post, translation has a lot of conflicting issues in regards to how something should be translated. No language translates one-hundred percent perfectly into any other, and even dialects can have very contrasting uses of words (consider the American vs. Australian use of "barbie"). One of the most obvious arguments between methods of translation is deciding between translating something word for word, known as metaphrase, and translating something based on its context, a.k.a. paraphrase.

A typical sight of this occurrence would be between two translators working on the same text, and arguing back and forth which usage of translation would be more beneficial.

"Look Johnson, I need you to go back through these documents and re-translate everything. The client is expecting her book to be understood properly and your work is too awkwardly written.

Johnson sighed. "But sir, I'm doing exactly what the client asked for. She wanted understood like it's supposed to, so I used a direct translation to better context how it is meant to be used in her own language."

"I disagree. stated his boss. The wording isn't flowing like it should and it will leave readers confused and estranged from the importance of the story in general.

"If I replace it though, the original meaning and beauty will be lost in the translation!" Johnson argued.

"The beauty is already being lost with your slipshod grasp of the readers's attention spans." his boss countered. "If no one understands it, then no one will read it. I expect you to review your work and perform a re-translation of the text that's more reader friendly."

An example of bad literal translation

This conversation is meant to show the key special topic of invention: direct vs. indirect translation. Each side has advantages and disadvantages that contrast one another, and must be determined with care by the translator based on several factors. There are several more common topics of invention that gain a large amount of emphasis. One's audience is key to determining the translation type, as six-year-olds will not understand the appreciation of purposely presenting phrases as they are in their original form. Cause and effect is also vital because a poor translation can be confusing and alienate the audience.