English to Portuguese Translation
Author: Brigith Guimarães
The autonomy of translation, the textual features or strategies
that distinguish the target from the source, and from other texts
originally written in the target language, these are what prevents
translating from being a transparent and unmediated means of
communication.
Accuracy, adequacy, correctness, correspondence, fidelity,
identity, as well as the potentiality of the translated text to
release certain effects on the target language are some of the main
concerns of any qualified translator.
Translation is an instrument - social, cultural, economical,
political, historical - connecting at least two distinct worlds.
And as any other instrument, it must be handled with care and above
all correctness. The translator is the skilled professional who
plays that precision tool, adapting the source text to his/her own
lexicon and grammar.
In the particular case of the Portuguese, an immediate
assessment comes to mind and that is the difference between
Portuguese-Brazilian and the so-called Portuguese European. In
fact, the dissimilarities are far too many and in every field of
activity. If you are looking for a translation project in
Portuguese and you are new to the business, please pay attention to
your choice.
Generally speaking, a skilled translator is obliged to make
adjustments between source and target languages constantly,
shifting word order, using verbs instead of nouns, replacing nouns
for pronouns, according to the semantic requirements of the
receiver.
In English, words are usually shorter; there are three genders
(he, she, it) instead of two, since in Portuguese there is no
neutral; English requires indirect quotation more often; different
punctuation; lower and upper case in the English titles, whereas in
Portuguese only the first letter is in upper case; idiomatic
expressions and/or proverbs seldom correspond; the list is
endless.
Apart from the semantic difficulties, there are those originated
by the specific fields of activity any skilled translator is daily
faced with. Law concepts differ - The English legal system is
different from the Portuguese, its compatibility goes beyond the
terminology itself, in which cases the translator must try and
obtain the most adequate translation, for on him or her lies a
great responsibility.
Acronyms, names of public entities or world organizations should
not only be kept in their originals, but also be translated between
brackets. In IT, for example, many words, expressions or terms have
been naturally incorporated into our daily lives; some of them are
extremely difficult to translate, others utterly impossible, and
still others should not be translated at all.
Common sense tells us that, only whenever the circumstance so
requires, both the English and the Portuguese should appear in the
text, safeguarding the option with one short footnote reference.
Search for the correct word or expression, when indeed there is
equivalence, is quite often hard work, but also quite rewarding.
When equivalence cannot be found, the alternative is to choose the
best possible option.
The Translator is the middleman between two poles and the
Receiver may be not enough (or not at all) aware of the source
language to be able to understand the target.
When translating any sort of text, as small and simple as it may
be, a skilled translator is always alert as to how the receiver
will read it and one of the translator's main concerns is therefore
to make the target sound as natural and fluid as the source is.
This goes beyond knowledge of two languages, of two cultures
even. It lies on the cultural background of the translator
him/herself. There are hundreds of translators in every language
combination, only the best will survive. No machine will ever be
able to replace human reasoning.