Okodia translation services

Literary translation is the translation of creative and dramatic prose and poetry into other languages. This includes thetranslation of literature from ancient languages and the translation of fictionso that it can be read by a wider audience.

So why is literary translation important?

Literary translation is hugely important. It helps shape our understanding of the world around us in so many ways. Reading Homer and Sophocles as part of a classical school education helps develop an understanding of history, politics, philosophy and much more. In addition, reading contemporary translations provides a fascinating insight into life in other cultures and countries. In a fast-paced world so plagued with misunderstanding and confusion, such efforts to share knowledge and experiences across cultural boundaries are to be applauded.

Poems are written with incredible attention to detail. While the words and phrases are important, so are the number of syllables and the entire rhythm of the poem. The literary translation of these texts into a single language is a real challenge. The challenge becomes even greater when it comes to recreating the work of a poet through a translation.

As literary translators will attest, almost every single word can be extremely troublesome. The author of a novel has chosen that word for good reason, so the translator must ensure that they have accurately conveyedthis in the target language. However, what if there is no direct translation available?

What skills does a literary translator need?

Literary translation requires a very particular skill set. Literature translation is a much more creative art than many other areas of translation. When translating an information leaflet for a pharmaceutical product, for example, it is essential to provide text that is a word-for-word interpretation of the original. However, for prose and poetry translation, creative writing skills are just as important as language skills.

Confidence in their ability is critical. While there is no problem in taking time to think about how to truly represent the meaning of a sentence, or even a single word, a translator also needs to know when it is time to decide and move on.

The ability to offer continuity is also essential, especially in long novels. Remembering facts (like the minor character mentioned a long time ago being related to the hero by marriage rather than by blood) will save the user having to go back and forth to check the facts.

We have already talked in previous posts about the risks of thinking that your employees can do the job of professional translators and whether it is better to hire the services of a professional translator or use an automatic translator. However, there is another question we need to ask before having that discussion, which is: does my company really need to translate anything at all?

Why waste time and money translating into more languages if we already have our website in English? To consider this issue we have gone back to theForrester Researchreport from a few years ago, which could have been written only yesterday. What this report tells us is that selling in the language spoken by our customers is always the best option, but we can look at some figures that help us understand why this is true.

According to Forrester Research, 80% of consumers expect to be served in their own language, and not only that, they will not buy a product if it does not have all the important information translated into their language. In addition, half of all consumers are willing to pay more if everything related to the product they are buying is in their language. For example, only 7% of Chinese people and 5% of Japanese people feel comfortable buying in another language.

Online information

The report also gives us some figures for the digital environment. Potential customers are more suspicious if the online information about a company is not in English. It has also been demonstrated that visitorsto a website stay for twice as long if the page is in their language, making it more likely that they will buy something.

In fact, half of all consumers only buy from websitesin their own language. In short, what the report tells us is that if the information is translated,the customer feels more comfortable and this will improve the success of the products. If the buyer understands what they are buying, there is a better chance that they will like the product or service, feel satisfied and repeat their purchase or experience.

Moreover, if we translate our website, we can increase our market since we have access to more customers. It will also improve our image, since customers will feel that we are closer to them and this will increase their confidence in our products. “But in my company, we have nothing to translateapart from the website”.Are you sure? We will talk about this at a later date and see what you think then.