Language profession is one where you have the chance to be a better version of yourself every single day. We translators come across new content, new thoughts, new domain every day, with every assignment and it enriches us in many ways.
Language profession is one where you have the chance to be a better version of yourself every single day. We translators come across new content, new thoughts, new domain every day, with every assignment and it enriches us in many ways.
Though some of the content we come across may be repetitive or technical; there is steady and definite increase in the demand for translation of creative content. Till a couple of years back, creative content was limited to fictions and films- at the most, advertorials. However, with the growing consumption of content in one’s own language, translation of creative content is increasingly in demand.
Now we see creative content used in books (of course!), webpages, social media posts, audio books, talk shows, advertisements, TV episodes, YouTube videos, feature film scripts-subtitles-dubbing and others. All these need to be translated in various desired languages to reach new markets and have better acceptance in new markets.
Translation of creative content needs a different approach due to its usage of language. The language used here may be indirect, referring to imagery and symbolism, full of humour, pun, sarcasm, or different emotions, using keywords from some other domain, even coining new words. It may also have a clever mix of two languages. So necessarily the translator has to go beyond the words – to ground zero – deep dive to the message and then surface in the target language , use the appropriate symbols and in equivalent words.
The whole process is highly creative and it is like re-creation rather than translation.
However, you cannot afford a luxury of leisure when you have made translation your profession or business. The client would still want the translation quickly and well formatted. Plus the client expects the local flavor in the resultant content. The translation of social media posts, news items, TV bytes has to be delivered immediately.
Translation of creative content can be a great joy and stimulus to the grey cells. Excellent command over both the languages, awareness of the purpose of the communication and interest in almost anything under the Sun makes translation of creative content as captivating as the original.
