Human beings today ultimately rule the world of
professional translation services. In the age of computers and state-of–the-art
technical inventions, there still are certain fields that computers cannot compete in and one of
these fields is the art of translation. There is special emphasis on the word “art” in this
case.
The sole reason that computers are unable to
compete with human beings is that translation is not a mechanical process. It requires brain cell
activity to find the most suitable sentence structure and within that, phrases and expressions that
clearly reflect the original meaning and at the same time completely adapt to the host language.
Now, if all you need is to translate simply constructed sentences, the computer will be up to the
task. Furthermore, in case, you have a document that you would like to get the “gist” of, with a
few words that need clarification here and there, these programs do the trick.
However, if you are looking for a professional
adaptation of the source text, with all the messages, underlying meanings, unique phrases and
characteristic nuances getting through, only professional translation services can do the job. Now
we reached an interesting phenomenon that could be explored for hours, have we had the time and
space. That is, the idea of ‘free translations’. When we refer to free translations, we hardly
refer to the actual cost of the work done. In fact, all it means is that the source material has
been translated freely, without keeping to a word-by- word order, yet at the same time preserving
the overall message of the text. Unless we are dealing with documents that require precise
translations, this form is highly popular with speeches, essays and even literary works. Imagine
the classic works of Shakespeare translated strictly word-by-word! The essence, the literary value
would simply disappear.
Professional translation services ideally keep
all these objectives in mind when they are assigned a task. As each and every piece of translation
is different, so is the method of translation that is to be implemented. One common element that
can never be omitted is the need for human brains and involvement in the process, an intrinsic
requirement that no computer can replace at the present time.
