By

Dr. Montasser M. A. Mahmoud

Assistant Professor
Al Imam Mohamed bin Saud University
Newmark (1981: 7) indicates that translation is
“rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the
way that the author intended the text”.

Nida and Taber (1982: 12), on the other hand, state that
“translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language
the closest natural equivalent of the source language
message”.
Hatim and Munday (2004: 6) define translation as “the process
of transferring a written text from source language (SL) to
target language (TL)”.

Bell (1991) views translation as the replacement of a text in

one language by an equivalent text in another language.
 Translation consists of studying the lexis, grammatical
structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the
source language text; all these are analyzed in order to
determine its meaning.

 This same meaning is then reconstructed using the lexicon and

grammatical structure which are appropriate in the target
language and its cultural context.
 For example, if we use Arabic as a source language and
English as the target, “Ana Muslim” becomes the source text
whose lexicon, grammatical structure, communication
situation and cultural context are analyzed in order to
determine its meaning.

The meaning is then reconstructed using the lexicon and

grammatical structure which are appropriate in the target
language. To that extent,
“Ana Muslim” is restructured thus: ‘I am Muslim’.
(1) Excellent writing skills
Translators are expected to be professional writers,
so they need to be knowledgeable about grammar,
vocabulary, and style of two languages at least.
In popular belief, to translate, a person only needs:
 Writing skills : Translators are expected to be professional writers, so

they need to be knowledgeable about grammar, vocabulary, and style of

two languages at least.
 Research. Translators may get very different texts to translate from one

day to the next, so they have to do research as much as possible.

 Good cultural awareness : Intended meaning mostly determined by

the cultural implication in addition to the textual meaning.

 Reasonable knowledge of a foreign language ; You need to be

able to read widely and easily in your foreign language and understand
not only what it says, but what it really means – not always the same
thing! Lots of practice reading, watching TV and films, listening to radio in
your foreign language(s) will help.
 long and varied experience; and

 a few good dictionaries

 It is in fact virtually impossible , except in extreme cases, to
draw a line between what counts as a good translation and
what counts as a bad translation.

 Every translation has points of strength and points of

weakness and every translation is open to improvement.
 Nida (1964) stated the following requirements of good
translation:

(1) It must make sense.

(2) It must convey the spirit and manner of the original.
(3) It must have a natural and easy form of expression.
(4) It must produce a similar response.
It must be many things:
1)Easily understood,
2) well-written,
3) true to the spirit of the original as well as the
meaning,
4) true to the context of the original in terms of
history and culture, and
5) able to make explicit that which is implicit in the
original without destroying the meaning.
 Creating a good translation is a matter of
grammar, vocabulary, and cultural knowledge.

 You must be familiar with all aspects of the

source and target languages in order to render
one.