Why
have a technical text translated by an engineer?
For a good technical translation
it is not enough that the translator speaks the target language like
a mother-tongue native, though this is obviously essential for a good
translation.
Getting inside the technical
jargon
The translator must be able to understand
the technical terminology of the source language, and be able to use
the most suitable technical terminology in the target language. He needs
to get inside the technical jargon used by the authors and has to use
the technical jargon that the recipients of the target language translation
expect, so that the translated text does not sound strange to those
who will eventually work with it.
The necessity of being
a technician
In general, to get a good result it is not
enough to be a good translator, nor to use good bilingual dictionaries,
that, moreover, are often inadequate and out of date. One needs to have
sufficient technical skill to understand the meaning – in technical
terms – of the source text and understand, or know how to find,
the right technical term for the target text.
One needs to be a technician and have an aptitude for researching information,
know where to find the sources, know the specialised magazines, have
a technical library, and know how to use the many resources available
today on the Internet.
The role of the Internet
The Internet is a very important topic –
and a tool – and is becoming more so every day. Every company,
every research or development organisation has a place on the Internet,
where all kinds of materials are put, generally connected to their own
activities, production, sales and usually written in their own language
(but often translated into the most important business languages).
So on the web we can find product catalogues, specifications, manuals
of every level, specialist studies, popular articles, written by specialists
in their own language, advertising, and dictionaries, glossaries, encyclopedias,
newspapers and newsletters. The technical translator needs to know how
to move through these in search of terminology, with a shrewd use of
the most suitable search engines, intuitively and cleverly, disregarding
the irrelevant, identifying those that have not been written in the
author’s language (but have been more or less translated well),
conveniently ordering the terminology information collected.
One needs to be a technician,
but that is not enough
To be a good technical translator one needs
to have an adequate basic technical skill – a solid knowledge
of the principles: to be an engineer, for example – and have good
research and investigative skills, and curiosity for all technology
matters; one needs to know how to consistently apply an orderly method
of working and adapt it to developments in information technology.
Can an
engineer translate well a text that is not purely technical?
Often documents are not purely technical,
have important marketing content, because they have to present technical
products in an appealing way; or else they have to describe technical
objects in non-technical language, but rather in everyday language,
or they also have to develop economic or political arguments concerning
technical objects, to which reference must however be made with impeccable
technical language.
Knowing how to write well
In all of these cases it is not enough to
be a good technician, to produce a good translation of the text into
one’s own language; one needs to know how to write well, in a
style that is appropriate to the character of the text and right for
the audience the text is aimed at.
Even though writing well, communicating effectively and convincingly
are so important for work and everyday life, these topics are not in
general covered by university education, never mind technical and scientific
training.
Nor on the other hand, does writing well consist simply of applying
a few memorised rules. On the contrary, it requires to love the art
of writing and to have matured it with adequate professional training,
consisting of trials, examinations, improvements and finally success
and satisfaction over many years of writing, presenting, communicating,
to inform, to explain, to demonstrate, to persuade, and to inspire.
To be a good translator, in a sphere that is not purely technical, it is important, then, to have a professional background that allows initial good writing habits to be refined, and the most effective techniques for constructing clear and convincing text to be applied.
English
Italian translation: technical translation
An
introduction
Why an engineer?
Translation
works done
A
few suggestions
Dictionaries,
specialist tools
This
site in Italian:
Traduzioni
inglese italiano, traduzioni tecniche
U. Boccioni, Dynamism of a Cyclist, Milan, Mattioli Coll., detail