For those whose charge is translation, there exists an enduring struggle between accuracy, and elegance. Does one prioritize style or content? The dilemma can become a malignancy of the process. It cannot be cured or solved, and each choice is a bad choice. No amount of correction will alter the source of the problem.
There exists an old Italian saying: “traduttore traditore” which translates to “translator traitor.” Literally sometimes, as the Aztecs believed of La Malinche when she translated for Cortez. But it also speaks to something more subtle. That is to say, there is no absolute accuracy in translation; there is never a perfect translation. Translations are, by their very nature, only approximations of the original. When it comes to poetry, for example, the conundrum is amplified.
In his ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound outlines poetry's three effects: logopoeia (verbal impact), phanopoeia (visual imagery) and mellopoeia (rhythm or sound).
"Logopoeia, 'the dance of the intellect among words,' employs words not only for their direct meaning, but takes account in a special way of habits of usage, of the context we expect to find with the word. It holds the æsthetic content which is peculiarly the domain of verbal manifestation and cannot possibly be contained in plastic or in music." — Ezra Loomis Pound, NY Herald-Tribune, January 20th, 1929
Pound contends that when performing translations, especially of poetry, one of the three, especially mellopoeia, is inevitably sacrificed and the other two remain in a tense struggle. This is true even when translating prose and true too when translating technical material, and especially evident when confronted with marketing copy.
When attempting to promote a product or service, if the original writer, as is often the case, sprinkles clichés, TV show references and sports analogies throughout the text in frenzied abandon, the material can become difficult or impossible to translate. For example:
∙ “The CFO was looking for a silver bullet for the heartstopping logistical problems on the East Coast.”
∙ “Our company was sidelined when we failed to hit a home run at the sales conference.”
∙ “The leader of floor sales got his knickers in a twist when quotas were not met. “
Sometimes an equivalent cliché can be found in the target language but not often. More often than not something must be invented to match the original intent by the translator earnestly trying not to betray it.