Literature in Translation

When one translates a literary text one is creating a connection between the languages it was written and the language it is translated into. Thus creating a link between the language’s ideas, beliefs, and traditions. Being a translator is more difficult than just translating words into words, because they have to understand specific idioms, proverbs and metaphors and create literal substitutes into the new language. For me personally (being a bilingual speaker of languages) it is easier to understand what I mean by translating is difficult, because often times when I want to translate words that I know from Arabic to English or vice versa, I can never find the exact meaning to fit what I am trying to say. For example: When one uses the word inch’allah in Arabic, they use it in the context of ‘I wish’ or ‘hopefully’, but when it is translated to English the literal meaning means ‘if God wills’. That being said it is easy to understand why translating literature is a very demanding task on anyone, because they not only need to fully know another language they have to understand the way the text is written, the context, the specific way of writing etc. This creative translation involves synthesizing a series of elements, such as rhythm, punctuation, syntax, mood, and meaning (or, in other words, content and form). In conclusion, it is an extremely hard task to be able to translate literature, however it is a very beneficial task considering the people that want to learn about someone else’s culture and history, or just wanting be able to read a specific text in the language they understand.