The Untranslatable: When Literature Travels Between Cultures
Did you come to realize that there are things that cannot be translated? Did you see words or
even names that were not adapted to other languages? So, is there something untranslatable?
It can happen because of intranslatability. In other words, phrases/expressions/texts that lose
all meaning when translated, something that cannot be adequately localized.
You will find this especially in literature, certain cultures, or even in advertising and marketing.
We will talk about the untranslatable in this article.
What does “intranslatability” mean?
What do we understand by intranslatability? Let’s define it as words, phrases, names, or
references that cannot be (or are not recommended to be) translated. When translating, you
can face this problem for plenty of reasons: culture, politics, history, phonetics, etc.
But almost everything has a certain degree of “translatability”, right? Even specific proper
names have linguistic equivalents in other countries. The question of intranslatability does not
start from the fact that something cannot be translated. It means that a translation may
present problems of meaning and understanding.
Literary elements that are hard to translate
Untranslatable words or phrases are found in many languages and countless expressions. Here
are some examples:
● Idioms. Local expressions that only have a meaning within a specific space of meaning
(usually a geographical space). For example, “trimardito”, an expression in Venezuelan
Spanish from Maracaibo (a state), meaning “three times doomed”, is never used
anywhere else, even the phonetics of Spanish are molded in this word, and requires
several words to be translated.
● Puns. These are jokes that can be interpreted in multiple ways. For example, “Tongue-
tied in two tongues”, we recognize it as an English pun on “tongue” meaning both
language & literal tongue. You’re so confused that you can’t speak in either language.
● Metaphors. A figure that describes something to you by saying it is something else. For
example, Walt Whitman, in Song of Myself, uses the metaphor “Leaves of Grass,”
suggesting that each leaf, like each person, is part of a larger, interconnected whole.
Famous literary examples
Let’s look at some additional examples, specifically in the literature:
- Alice in Wonderland. “We called him Tortoise because he taught us.” Pun on “Tortoise” (the animal) vs. “taught us.” It replaces a species name with a homophone, suggesting school lessons.
- Langston Hughes. “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” He shows us the idiomatic image of “life is a climb,” but not an easy/glittering one; he reinforces hardship by twisting an expected elegant idiom.
How professional translators handle this:
It is possible to deal with untranslatable words or phrases. While some of the original symbolism may be lost, some resources emulate the original words:
- Adaptation. Some prefer to modify the expression completely and replace it with a local expression for a target audience to identify with.
- Footnotes. In books, in case you want to keep the original idea (whether we translate or keep the original word), a footnote is added to put the reader in context.
- Cultural equivalents. Often, certain expressions have equivalents or phrases that are pretty similar. This is very common in lingua francas or languages that are mutually familiar (such as Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish).
The role of the editorial team
It’s mandatory to maintain the author’s voice and intent. The editorial responsibility starts from the fact that the texts are always addressed and published for an audience, but the author has a specific authority over their texts.
It is vital to have a professional editorial team with the linguistic and writing skills to know the details of each language they work with.
Emphasis on the value of the human touch in tackling these challenges
The human touch and understanding of the cultural value of the language is essential to address intranslatability in texts.
CGC Translation is a company dedicated to the translation and localization of content, paying attention to the most minor details of language in each of its texts, including issues of intranslatability.
We offer an extensive service that ranges from adapting and optimizing content for the web, to editorial work for other types of content
