WHEN A TRANSLATION IS UNFAITHFUL -

BY THE FOUCAULT OF TRANSLATION

“To what extent can a translation be referentially ‘unfaithful’?”

- Umberto Eco

🔵 This is a quote by the famous Italian writer Umberto Eco, famous for works such as The Name of the Rose and other novels/essays. In his quote, in the book 'Experiences in Translation' (p. 30), Eco is posing the question of how communicative a translation can possibly be until it loses its faithfulness to the original text.

Many, especially in Southeast Asian countries, including in the country where I am presently living, are focusing on the beauty and aesthetics of the outcome a work of translation in its new translated target language - one reason being that due to their lack of knowledge (especially with connotations) of the original language (be it English, French, or any other), it is much easier to focus on what is written in their target language. This is true both in literary translations and in translations done for international organizations and INGOs.

Many of the publishers and critics (in literary translations) and procuring staff (in different agencies) lack a proper knowledge of the original language, thus what is good or bad is mainly decided by how it looks in the translated outcome, with a fine disregard to what was written in the original, and a fine disregard to the original purpose of any translation - which is to capture the message of the original text in genuine faithfulness. It is true that the outcome in the target language also needs to be grammatically correct, smooth and aesthetically acceptable (especially with literary works), but the original purpose of any translation should never be disregarded.

With this, Umberto Eco has a clear message. The "SPIRIT" OF A TEXT IS THE ORIGINAL MEANING THE AUTHOR IS TRYING TO CONVEY. THE TRANSLATION BECOMES UNFAITHFUL WHEN THE TRANLATOR LOSES THE SPIRIT OF THE SOURCE TEXT IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE.

Maintaining a balance between keeping the language faithful while still having the meaning be the same in the target language is part of what makes translation a complexity. But when a translator translates in a way that is not in the spirit of what the author intended, it becomes “reverently unfaithful”.