Language to Language

Here’s a little bit of background to the girls here in The Bookwhore Diaries. We’re three ladies from a country near the equator in Asia, called the Philippines. We have many dialects here in our country but the languages being taught all over the Philippines are Tagalog and English. Translating from language to another is a tough challenge. When I was in college, we we’re given an assignment to translate an English song to Tagalog. We came up with a comedic version. That wass not the adjective we were trying to achieve.

So what aspect of writing do we want to preserve in the process? The structure and soul of the book. It’s vital how the word structure is translated from the original to the next. Would it carry the same effect to the readers as the original has magnificently done? There are even companies out there that use translation memory to ensure that nothing gets lost in translation. They preserve the original intent and purpose of the text through translations.

I can’t imagine how my life would be if my favourite books weren’t in English. I would still probably be oblivious to the world beyond the pages within a book. I wasn’t much of a reader when I was younger. No books without picture – Tagalog or English – could hold my attention for long. What changed? The soul fulfilling effect that filled me when I read a book like Harry Potter, The Fault in our Stars and many more.

Some might be lost in translation or perhaps others will be successfully translated. At the end of the day, it’s not much about the language but the story being told by those words. The one that's translating should be able to see the bigger picture and be able to translate what the author intends to tell. In that sense, though the story may be translated in different languages, the core of each and every translation should remain true.

Source: http://www.cosmo.ph/images/1-nagaapoy.jpg

How about you? What are your views in translating a book to different languages? For PH residents, have you read the tagalog versions of popular english books? What did you think of them?