Translation unit 1

Unit 1
Introduction
Love at first sight

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1) Translate the sentences below.
1. No smoking!

2. No entrance!

3. Will you have another scone? They're freshly baked.

4. He claims she always insults him and I don't.

5. This film has been playing for 6 months.

6. They pay me peanuts but, you know, I can't let them down.

7. I overslept and missed breakfast so I had a snack on my way to the office.

8. Get going! I'm running out of patience.

9. It's raining cats and dogs.

10. The last gentleman died sixty years ago.

11. She needs glasses badly but is too vain to wear them.

12. Why doesn't she wear a wedding ring?

13. In the fifties, Canada encouraged immigration from Holland.

14. The mass immigration in 1949 was not easy to absorb.

15. "Children should be seen but not heard."

16. Take the 95. There are no traffic jams at this hour.

17. Don't take so much with you. There are 7-11s all over.

2) Write down the numbers of those sentences which
were difficult to translate.

For each:

a) Try to explain the difficulty.

b) Write down additional translations where possible.

c) Write the advantages / disadvantages of each.

d) Choose the translation you prefer.

Some linguistic background
Each of these sentences presents some problem of translation
from English into Hebrew. Among the problems you dealt with
when translating were problems of: grammar (e.g. tenses, the
passive); of syntax (e.g. word order); and of lexis (words /
expressions). Idioms and metaphors pose a challenge to
the translator because of the addition of flavour and colouring to
the text. Missing knowledge poses another problem. If the
translator doesn't know what is being referred to in the text, he
has to search for the knowledge and then decide how to convey
this information without making the translation clumsy.

3) a) In the sentences, find as many examples as
you can of the following difficulties. One sentence might present more than one difficulty.
i) grammar - sentence(s) number:

ii) lexis - sentence(s) number:

iii) idiom / metaphor - sentence(s) number:

iv) missing knowledge - sentence(s) number:

b) Make up 1 example of your own for each of the difficulties.
i) example of grammar:

ii) example of lexis:

iii) example of idiom / metaphor:

iv) example of missing knowledge:

To sum up
In this unit, you have translated your first sentences.
Only when attempting to cope with them did you realise that
translation is conveying meaning for meaning and not word
for word. The translation of even simple and straightforward
sentences is a process involving many considerations. You
have also been introduced to difficulties of various types of
grammar, syntax and lexis, as well as of idiom metaphor and
missing knowledge. In the next unit you will move from
single sentences to a full passage.
Good luck!

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