Translation Audience

Audience Appreciation

November 5th, 2009 · No Comments

Who is your audience?

Or should I say, Who are your audience? I’ll have to defer to M Lynne “Lynneguist” Murphy over at separated by a common language for that one. Lynne delves into the minute linguistic variations between our side of the pond and hers, which can be surpisingly practical when you’re considering whether to wear your vest under or over your shirt. Her latest post includes mashed potatoes, which I, for one, always eat in the plural.

Country-specific particularities are merely the most obvious consideration when we gear a translation to a specific audience. And most translators never even have to worry about it, because they translate only into the variety spoken in their own country. They are not qualified to do otherwise.

When we say audience, we are most often asking why we are translating something. Contract? Sure, but is this a draft yet to be executed or an exhibit in a litigation? Press release? OK, but is this for the company to ensure their message is intact, or will it go straight from our desk to publication? Medical brochure? For the doctor or the public?

Does the reader want to know what it says, or what it means?

Which is not always the same thing. Or would the client prefer we ignore the original altogether? We who work in legal translation are usually on a short leash. The author may have wanted to convey a certain message, but if he went about it in an awkward manner and ends up clouding that message, we usually feel we should retain all the awkwardness and make it just as cloudy for our reader. We don’t want to go sticking our neck out, and, how someone said something may be as important as what he said.

Of course we need to distinguish whether the writing is obtuse or if in fact the source language allows for much subtler turns of phrase to convey the same thing. In other words, if the original means something to a speaker of the original language, the translation better mean something to a speaker of the target language. Legal translators or not, we are not slaves to each word to the detriment of meaning.

Erring on the literal side of translation is not the legal translators only mode. We must also ask the purpose of the translation. This could determine how we treat everything from word choice to currency symbols, translator’s notes to formatting.

Of course each discipline has its default mode with its corresponding sense of freedom. The advertising translator wants to make the ad sell and often takes many liberties to do it. Someone who translates technical manuals wants to ensure the user understands the device even if the author of the source did not. Still, he often must check his creativity at the door.

The legal translator wants to be able to defend each word he puts on the page, sometimes despite his client’s wishes. He’s faithful to the text; not always to his customer. Each mode falls somewhere along a spectrum from word-for-word translation at one end, to adaptation at the other.

Beyond asking the general question, “Why do you want this translated?” we can narrow it down in more specific ways: