Hi guys,

I would like to thank everybody who is going to read this whole blog and has genuine interest in it, those who read it for leisure, and I keep my biggest thanks for those who participate and ask questions. If I could tip you for asking questions, I would.

Now, let's get to business.

This is my first snippet. It is a short thought on translation in general and how anybody can be lost in translation.

If you hear anything and you want to repeat what you understood out of it, say a paragraph from a book, I believe that no two people will use the exact same set of words to deliver the ideas they got from the paragraph. Now, imagine that you have to translate something from one language to another. The problem becomes really complex. Yes, you can always give a good approximate meaning of what you just read or heard, but you will never be able to capture emotions, deeper thoughts of the originator, or the essence of the language that you translate from and the language that you translate to.

I've read a lot of translations of the Holy Quran for instance. Most of these translations are written by Non-Arabic scholars, whose original mother-tongue is not Arabic. They are good at explaining what verses mean, but the beauty and essence of the Arabic language is almost entirely ignored. 

A simple example of things you don't normally look it when you read English translations of Arabic texts is the gender of things. If I try to project how I think in Arabic into English, some very interesting things start to appear about English itself. In English for instance, the word "sun" seems to me as if a masculine, tough, and striking thing, but in Arabic, "sun" is a feminine noun that provides warmth, hope, and guidance. This striking difference in the feeling of the same word between languages entirely disappears with translation. It is either:

1. You don't notice it as a translator, or

2. You notice it but you intentionally ignore it, or

3. You notice it, understand its importance, but feel overwhelmed to communicate it, so you just give up trying to put it in words.

The same word that is feminine in Arabic feels so masculine in English, which is very interesting, but this is not the end of fun. Did you know that the word for "moon" is masculine in Arabic? In fact, when I hear the Arabic word for "moon", I feel audacity, masculinity, and brightness. In English, in comparison, the word "moon" feels more feminine, shy, and bright, still with elegance and beauty. The two languages (at least from my point of view) agree on few aspects like brightness, but the gender, which might be the most important aspect of an entity, is completely the opposite.

You might feel strange on why I go into the gender issue, but you have to understand that cultures are different, and each culture adds something new to  humanity's collective knowledge. So, when I go through the English words and try to impose my own feelings on them, interpret them in light of my original brain wiring schemes as an Arab, or "genderize" them, then I'm not actually ruining the English language. I'm plainly adding another layer of depth to these words their meanings.

By the way, I know that many linguistic scholars will disagree with this approach. Each language should have its own essence that should be preserved if that language is to survive. But what if they try to take another stand on this and find value in what I just proposed?

Also, for translators, I understand the pressures they have to finish their tasks on time. But when you translate Quran or old Arabic poetry, please don't butcher it with your literal translations that google translator may do a better job at. I've read many of these "I-would-call-catastrophes" and I lost interest in continuing to read.

Conclusion

To sum, translation is not an easy job, and keeping the essence of that special feeling that you have when you read or hear a word in a language, is what "good translation" should be doing. A translator should have mastery of the two languages he/she is working with, and should add his/her own feelings to the mix to make it touch someone else's heart and mind. Yes, "mechanical translation" might be necessary at times, but the essence of the language itself should be included, otherwise, a verse of Quran or a verse of an old Arabic poem would not provide the beauty, depth, and elegance they inherently possess.

If you did get this far and you've read the whole article, please do make a comment and provide some feedback. I know this kind of topics might be very boring for some, but I'm sure, or at least I hope, that some will be interested and will communicate their thoughts and feelings on such topics.