Lost in Translation

Apart from being a critically acclaimed motionToday, most translation firms ensure that very
picture, 'lost in translation' is a phenomenon thatlittle is lost in translation, but sometimes it is
translators the world over frequently encounter.impossible to replicate the humour, irony, or the
To further discuss lost in translation, it isunderlying sentiment in a sentence, no matter
important to understand the meaning of the termhow good the translation is. In fact, the most
lost in translation. For example, let's examine thedifficult things to replicate are humour and irony.
popular French term "Sacré bleu" (noThe works of iconic writers like Voltaire have
profanity intended), the literal and correct Englishbeen translated into major languages; but it is
translation of Sacré bleu is "Sacred Blue"widely accepted that to truly appreciate Voltaire's
(which, as is evident makes no sense at all).wit, one has to read his original works (which are
However in French, Sacré bleu is a popularin French). It is important to note that Voltaire's
expression usually used to express anger. In thetranslated works are standard textbooks in
example above, the term completely lost itscolleges and universities the world over. Such
relevance in English even though the translation istranslated works are testimony to the fact that
perfect; essentially the term was lost inthere has been improvement in the quality of
translation. It is important to note that the loss intranslation services the world over.
translation occurred due to a difference in cultureEnglish has the unique distinction of being the only
and not because the quality of the translation was'universal language'. It is not surprising that the
not up to the mark.English dictionary is constantly updated to include
Loss in translation can occur due to other reasonsforeign words that do not have an accurate
too; sometimes there is no word that can bestmeaning in English. Already, popular French terms
capture the essence of a local word. For example,like adieu and attaché are part of the
the French words bouclé, frisé andstandard Oxford dictionary. French is not the only
crépu all translate into frizzy in English.language that has influenced English vocabulary;
However, the term crépu meansnon-English words like Raj (from the Hindi word
'extremely frizzy hair like those most Blackthat means the 'rule of') have now come to
Africans have' for which there is no particularsignify the British rule over Asian countries, in
word in English. Obviously a sentence cannot readparticular modern day India and Pakistan.
"She had frizzy hair like those of Black Africans",In conclusion, over a period of time languages
instead the English translation of a Frenchhave evolved to allow greater cross language
sentence with the term crépu will simplycompatibility, and it is only a matter of time
read "She had frizzy hair". Once again there isbefore languages evolve to a level where nothing
nothing wrong the translation; the essence hasis lost in translation..
been lost in translation.