Solving Translation Problems aimed at raising awareness of the presence of cultural elements in source texts, as well as providing tools that would increase effectiveness in translation. Lesson 1: Translation as Negotiation between Cultures Lesson 2: Identifying Translation Problems 1. Idiomatic Expressions 2. Jargon 3. Metaphoric Expressions Lesson 3: How to Overcome Translation Problems 1. The principle of respect 2. The principle of adaptation 3. The synergy principle Lesson 4: Further Solutions to Translation Problems 1. Reference gloss. 2. Sense gloss 3. Effect gloss. Lesson 5: Conclusions

1. SOLVING TRANSLATION PROBLEMS
Lesson 1: Translation as Negotiation between Cultures
Translation involves much more than figuring out word equivalents for an author’s text. Translation is
a negotiation and understanding between cultures in the middle of two languages, the source (SL) and the
target (TL). It is a tension between what is translatable and what is untranslatable.
The translator’s relation with the author of a text is full of surprises and revelations. In looking for
similar, familiar experiences in the target culture to convey a working sense of the author’s meaning, the
translator, all solitarily and anonymously, interacts with the author through the text in ways that go beyond
the ordinary reader’s.
The following are the opinions of a select group of contemporary experienced translators and
authors that have dealt with translation problems: Kate Griffin, Anthea Bell, Daniel Hahn, Anne McLean and
Frank Wynne.
Kate Griffin
When a publishing company in another part of the world buys the rights to one of my books, they
also hire a translator, and what that translator does to the words is, for the most part, an absolute mystery
to me.
Anthea Bell
A translation is successful if it is invisible – a reader is reading not a translation but the real thing. To
do so, there should be cultural negotiation between SL and TL.
When translating dialogue, if there is dialect or language specific to one region or historic period, I
opt for a colloquial spoken language, a non-specific demotic, a language that is not linked to any particular
place and may vary from book to book.
While it is preferable to be able to consult directly with an author, it is not always possible. If the
author is alive, it is a great privilege, and fascinating, but it is very, very dense work. It is all about finding
the tone of voice in the original.
Daniel Hahn
There are certain components to a text that are likely to present particular challenges to a translator,
things that feel like absolute impossibilities. And conversely there are moments when you are translating
and a clever solution presents itself, or when a new voice you are creating comes into focus, and the sheer
rightness seems miraculous, the fact of it being so very possible feels exhilarating.
My aim when translating is not perfection, my aim is to use English to make a piece of writing that
does the same things another writer has done before me in some other language; my aim is to take one
superb piece of writing and make another superb piece of writing that can stand in for it with a new set of
readers.
Anne McLean
When translating text into English, we are not really trying to convey parts of the Spanish language.
We are rewriting a text in English that was originally written in Spanish. In translation what we try to do is
not rely on our “normal” tones or syntax in order to allow the author´s crafted tone to come through in the
new language. In some ways, it is similar to what an actor does with a script, or what a musician does with

2. a score. It is an interpretation, but the goal is to reproduce, or get as close as possible to the artist´s original
vision.
I usually try to follow the syntax of the original (as much as English allows) in my first drafts, but it
also depends on what the prose is meant to do. If it is a passage of dialogue in a novel, meant to be spoken
by plausible characters, and we want the reader to be able to suspend disbelief and hear these characters
speaking to each other as if they were real people, then you have to forego some of the specificities of
Spanish and make the phrasing sound believable in English. There are lots of things the Spanish language
does that English would doing a different way, but then there are also lots of variations within Spanish – all
the various ways of saying ‘you’ (usted, tú, vos, ustedes, vosotros), for example, depending on who you are
talking to and where and how many; and the fact that verb endings allow Spanish speakers to let the
pronouns remain unspoken quite often. But this is something that points to the dangers of literal
translation (if such a thing were even possible). A Spanish writer can write 10-sentence-long
paragraph with each sentence starting with a different verb (With its implied subject), and a
translator seeking to mimic that syntax could end up with 10 sentences each starting with the exact
same pronoun, which might result in a less lively piece of prose.
The translator has to rely on his or her own writerly ear in the final draft, and then on her
editor’s judgment and ear in the next phrase.
Frank Wynne
When dealing with, for example, Argentine Spanish slang, translators are usually advised to
stick to what Anthea Bell has called ‘nonspecific demontic’, that is, a lexical register that is not tied
to a particular country or locality.
Sometimes, the colour and life of a book, and its humanity, came from the crackle of
dialogue. In those cases, my solution is to use something translators generally avoid – the calque.
By preserving Hispanic words, but making their meaning clear contextually, it is possible to keep
the clipped rhythm and cadence of the dialogue, something of the flavour of the novel and the
sense of ‘otherness’, which seemed to me crucial. Hence the characters in the translation do not
refer to each other as bro, brah, blood, buddy, but as socio, pibe, loco, compañero. Similarly, using
constructions like ‘I’m off my face on coke. Chueco´s fifty-peso bill might have been snide, but it
was real enough to get us three grams of merca, and we’ve already snorted the lot’, makes it
possible to casually gloss words like merca (cocaine), leaving me free to use them again (and to
trust the reader to remember).
My decision to preserve some of the porteño slang is informed in part by the fact that one of
the things I discovered when I first began to translate from Spanish is that it is not a single,
homogenous language but one of that varies wildly from Argentina to Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, or
Spain itself. I feel comfortable creating a hybrid slang, since, even in the original, one could not
assume Hispanic readers would understand many of the words.
Something not uncommon, even among adults in Argentina, is the use of nicknames. I
normally decide to leave these unchanged – although the English reader loses something as a
result – deciding that, on balance, more would be lost than gained by having characters called
Bandy-legs (El Chueco), Blondie (Gringo), Babyface (El Jetita), and The Jellyfish (El Medusa).
Lesson 2: Identifying Translation Problems
Languages, as all cultural phenomena, have a history, and the history of every language is
made up of innumerable phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic changes.
Following the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, languages can be studied from a
double standpoint: synchronically, at a particular time in its development, and diachronically, in its
evolution.

3. When reading a text, we only see the tip of an iceberg, the ‘now’ of a language, a present
synchronism; but behind it there is an array of diachronic changes that made that text what it is
today: a complex system of interrelated phonemes, morphemes, structures and semantic units that
was shaped in time through multiple transformations.
Languages change because the needs of their speakers change, and this applies to
phonology as well as to the lexicon, morphology and syntax. In other words, language change
because they are ‘used’.
Every time the contents to be transmitted change, language changes; new concepts require
new words, and new facts confer old words a modified content.
The influence of social practice upon linguistic changes is clear evidence of the relation
between language and culture. This may sound trivial, but the problems that need to be resolved
when translating from one language into another are not.
What is expressed by means of language is intimately related with culture. A speaking
community that does not know metaphysics does not need a word to designate it; and vice versa:
when a new object or concept is brought into that community’s culture, it is necessary to create,
adapt or borrow from another language a word to name it.
Advances in science and techniques broaden a language´s vocabulary incorporating new
words (neologisms) and making other words fall into oblivion. Therefore, the lexicon of a language
reflects to a great extent the characteristics of that language’s culture.
The history of a language and the history of the culture of that language´s speaking
community flow along parallel channels, but that parallelism does not affect the totality of the
language: the linguist, in effect, should not make the mistake of identifying language with its
vocabulary.
The close tidings between culture and language turn a translation in some kind of
transculturalisation. Since language is a social act, it cannot be isolated from its speaking
community whose stability and transformations it reflects.
Translation Problems
1. Idiomatic Expressions
A very definite difficulty is the one posed by set phrases, proverbs and idiomatic expressions
whose meaning is not given by the addition of it compounding elements. All languages have them.
English and Spanish are no exception (cf., for example, expressions like ‘out of the blue’, ‘on the
house’, ‘the early bird catches the worm’, ‘a ojos vistas’, ‘salirse de las casillas’ or ‘ poner a uno de
vuelta y media’, among thousands of them).
If translated to the letter, phrases like these do not have sense in the target language except
their strictly literal one. Consequently, the translator is faced with two options: reproducing the
phrase word for word (explaining in a footnote its intended meaning), or finding a ‘dynamic’
equivalent, creating in the target language an expression that matches the meaning of the
metaphor.
For example, ‘the early bird catches the worm’ can be made equivalent in intended meaning to the
Spanish proverb ‘al que madruga Dios lo ayuda’.
2. Jargon
A language may also pose important translation problems when it uses words which are
characteristic of a certain context, which are not used outside that context; but, more often, those
words have a general meaning in colloquial language and specialised senses in more restricted
fields.
In this case, the translator will find several target language equivalents and will be forced to
choose one in view of the field and context where the term is used.
For example, in politics the word ‘head’ as in the collocation ‘head of state’ should be rendered
as ‘jefe’ rather than ‘cabeza’.

4. 3. Metaphoric Expressions
Finally, the metaphor is intimately related with the essence of human speech, and its
importance as creative force of linguistic forms is well known. Poetic language would not exist
without the metaphor, and the same is true of parabolic language.
The nature of the metaphor is well described in The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1937) by
rhetorician I. A. Richards. He states that a metaphor has two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The
tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are
borrowed. In the example ‘the world is a stage’, ‘the world’ is the tenor that is described with the
attributes of ‘the stage’ which is the vehicle.
The trait or traits that both elements have in common is called the foundation.
There are metaphors which are found in diverse cultures with more or less similar meanings:
‘the black sheep’ in English becomes ‘la oveja negra’ in Spanish.
Other metaphors and comparisons, instead, have opposite connotations in different languages:
‘a mammoth task’ in English is not ‘un trabajo de mamut’ in Spanish. The image of the mammoth
transferred to Spanish does not express the intended idea of the set phrase. When there is lack of
rapport, the best thing to do is change the phrase for an equivalent phrase in meaning: ‘un trabajo
de preso’, ‘un trabajo de enanos’, and in some Latin American countries ‘un trabajo de soldado’,
and even ‘un suplicio chino’ to designate work that is very demanding.
Lesson 3: How to Overcome Translation Problems
Understanding cultural differences requires an open mind towards the foreign element,
knowledge of language (both, source and target) and knowledge of society (both, producer and
receptor). In addition, managing the challenges of transculturalisation in translation demands the
application of practices by translators to reduce or overcome loss of information and effect. These
practices should be based upon reliable principles that would generate acceptable renderings that
guarantee success in overcoming translation obstacles.
The general principles governing the resolution of translation problems are three:
1. The principle of respect
Respect for cultural differences means accepting them; yet, being aware that they are alien
to the receptor society. Respecting a foreign culture also implies understanding it, knowing what
makes it different from our own or any other culture.
The principle of respect in transculturalisation enables the translator to accept the culturally
marked elements in a source text (ST) and transfer them to the target text (TT) every time these
elements can be understood in the TT culture.
When a translator applies the principle of respect, the ST cultural element is implanted
within the TT and no glossing is needed: The TT readership finds the transported element easily
identifiable and readily understandable.
Understanding of respected cultural elements is possible whenever the ST co-text or the ST
pragmatics provide enough clues for the TT readership to build up comprehensibility.
See the examples highlighted in green:
ST
Scotland's highest mountains are known as Munros, named after Sir Hugh T. Munro who in 1891
surveyed all the country's mountains and produced his Tables which catalogued 236 peaks that he
deemed to be individual mountains. Over the years and with advances in surveying methods, there
have been several revisions to Munro's original listing, the latest being in 1997. Currently, there

5. are 284 Munros and a further 511 'Tops' (those peaks which are part of a mountain range and are
judged not to be a separate mountain).
TT
Las montañas más altas de Escocia se llaman munros. Deben su nombre a Sir Hugh T. Munro
que en 1891 relevó todas las montañas del país y catalogó en sus Tablas 236 picos que, a su
juicio, eran montañas independientes. Con el correr de los años y con los avances en los métodos
de relevamiento, ha habido varias revisiones del listado original de Munro. La más reciente data
de 1997. Actualmente, hay 284 munros y otros 511 “tops” (picos que son parte de una cadena
montañosa por lo cual no se los considera montañas independientes).
The examples above show transculturalisation of the terms Munros, Sir and Tops as part of
a translation that provides its own explanation of the respected cultural elements (in-text definition
of both, Munros and Tops) or relies on the readership’s pragmatics (knowledge of the ‘foreign’
term Sir). It is also worth noting that, in spite of the fact that the terms have been respected, TT
punctuation applies (loss of initial capital in Munros and Tops, and double inverted commas in
place of single ones).
2. The principle of adaptation
The principle of adaptation is a reaction towards unacceptable literal renderings that evoke
nothing or little in the TT reader provoking important losses of sense or effect. Adaptation resolves
complete or partial incomprehensibility of cultural differences by transculturalising the ST
references, transforming them into new TT references.
This strategy involves changing the cultural references in the ST to suit the TT culture.
Following the principle of adaptation, complicated cultural terms or peculiar ways and forms in the
foreign culture (which are unknown to the TT readership) get simplified rendering a localised TT
that adapts itself to the reality and expectations of the culture of destination.
In the adaptation principle, the references change but the sense and/or effect of the ST
remain. As the TT readers now enjoy a close-to-home text, no glosses are needed.
Here follows a text and its translation with examples of adaptation highlighted in green:
ST
When I first got into law enforcement I began to observe that suspects often ventilated themselves
when asked a distressing question. I also learnt that ventilating behaviours occur in real time: If a
suspect is being interviewed, he will repeatedly lift up his baseball cap and run his fingers through
his hair. Once he is freed, the behaviour stops.
TT
Cuando comencé a trabajar en la policía, me di cuenta de que los sospechosos se
acaloraban con frecuencia frente a una pregunta apremiante. También aprendí que los
comportamientos de acaloramiento ocurren en tiempo real: si un sospecho está siendo
interrogado, se frotará el rostro con las manos repetidas veces, como si se secara la transpiración.
Terminado el interrogatorio, este comportamiento cesará.
|The terms in green have been adapted to the TT culture since respecting them would
cause total loss of comprehensibility. Law enforcement was adapted to policía, a term that offers a
totally different cultural reference; yet, broadly equivalent in sense and perfectly adapted to the
meaning of the whole text. Likewise, ventilat-e/ing was replaced for acalora-r/miento, as the literal
reference to ventila-r/ción would be senseless in this context in Spanish. Finally, the very American

6. image of lifting up the baseball cap and running the fingers through the hair had to be adapted to
Argentine behaviour (frotar el rostro con las manos como si se secara la transpiración) in order to
preserve the sense and effect of the ST.
3. The synergy principle
The synergy principle recognises and uses the force in effect or the increased accuracy that
results from bringing together the source text (ST) culture and the target text (TT) culture.
Rather than changing cultural references or transporting cultural differences which may
cause problems in translation, the synergy principle relocates ST cultural features into the TT
accompanying them with glosses or TT culture equivalents.
The synergy principle involves adopting the strategy of managing the differences in the ST
culture and using them to maximise effect or accuracy in translation.
In doing so, the varying extent to which the translator can integrate the ST cultural
perspective, mind-set, and assumptions into the target culture’s identity and worldview should be
evaluated. The success of this principle implies being able to move easily from the source culture
to the target culture and backwards.
See the examples highlighted in green below:
ST
The Republic of Seychelles is located in the Indian Ocean, about 994 miles east of Kenya.
Tourism is one of the country’s pillars and visitors are advised to bring Traveller’s Cheques instead
of currency. Nevertheless, if foreign currency is brought, it must be exchanged into Seychelles
Rupees ONLY at banks or authorised money dealers at the Seychelles International Airport.
TT
La República de Seychelles –en inglés, Republic of Seychelles– está ubicada en el Océano Indio,
unos 1600 Km (994 millas) al este de Kenia. El turismo es uno de los pilares del país y se
recomienda a los visitantes traer Cheques de Viajeros (Traveller’s Cheques) en lugar de moneda.
Sin embargo, si se viaja con moneda extranjera, esta debe ser cambiada a rupias de Seychelles
(Seychelles Rupees) SOLO en bancos o a cambistas autorizados del Aeropuerto de Seychelles
(Seychelles International Airport).
Notice the use of dashes and parentheses to graft the ST cultural element onto the TT. The
advantage of the synergy strategy is that the TT readership profits from a clear understanding of
ST references as well as preservation of sense and effect without forcing unglossed foreign terms
into the translation.
Lesson 4: Further Solutions to Translation Problems
Three different principles (respect, adaptation and synergy) were examined in the previous
article in relation to the translation of cultural elements. It is now necessary to examine certain
approaches that will help the translator fight against the inevitability of translation loss when the
text is culture bound through glosses: notes or comments added to the translation to explain
certain aspects of transculturalisation.
It has been recognised that, in order to better preserve the sense and effect of the source
text (ST), the translator sometimes brings background information to the target text (TT). The
principles of respect, adaptation and synergy consider the nature of the ST and the similarities and

7. differences between the ideal ST and TT readers; yet, an important aspect of these principles’
success is in properly determining how much missing background information should be provided
and in what way.
Even when glosses seem unnecessary, particularly, when applying the principle of respect
which implies that transference of a cultural element is justified in the self-explanatory quality of the
ST or the pragmatic knowledge of the ideal TT reader, the translator should bear in mind that
cultural elements of this kind of ST are respected in the assumption that they are readily
comprehensible.
The degree of comprehensibility of a respected cultural element may vary from reader to
reader, as shown on the following chart:
In his definition of formal equivalence (which includes respected cultural elements in
translation), Eugene Nida (2009) states that form and content are reproduced as faithfully as
possible and the TT reader is able to ‘understand as much as he can of the customs, manner of
thought, and means of expression’ of the ST context (Nida, 2009; the underlining is mine).
On his part, Peter Newmark (1988) argues that the transference of cultural elements into the TT
gives ‘local colour’, keeping cultural names and concepts, but warns us that, although placing the
emphasis on culture, meaningful to initiated readers, this method may cause problems for the lay
readers and limit the comprehension of certain aspects.
It is worth noting that both translators agree on the fact that the use of respected cultural
elements in translation is ultimately effective in proportion to the extent of TT reader’s own
transcultural competence.
In other words, a reader who is knowledgeable about the ST culture will become a culturally
competent or initiated TT reader. To such a reader, respected cultural elements in translation will
be familiar since he is aware of cultural differences and fully understands the references in their
context and pragmatics.
At the other end, we find the lay TT reader who knows nothing or little about the ST culture
and faces respected cultural elements with bewilderment, is baffled at their exoticism and,
ultimately, understands their references in as much as the context and/or his limited pragmatic
knowledge allow.
There are countless levels of competence in between the culturally initiated TT reader and
the lay TT reader. Even the same TT reader may prove fully competent in achieving
Culturally initiated DEGREE OF COMPREHENSIBILITY
Lay
TT reader
FAMILIARITY
FOREIGNNESS
EXOTICISM

8. comprehensibility in one text and less knowledgeable in another as the topic or the references
change.
For the sake of methodology, we shall distinguish three main degrees of comprehensibility
to which all possible levels of TT reading competence can be reduced: familiarity – the TT reader
is acquainted with the ST culture and easily understands transcultural references seeing through
their sense and effect; foreignness – the TT reader recognises transcultural references but feels
uncertain about their sense and effect which he needs to confirm through contextual/pragmatic
analysis; and exoticism – the TT reader identifies alien, ‘obscure’ elements in the translation
whose reference, sense and effect are unknown to him and which demand penetrating context
analysis and/or percipient pragmatic disposition on his part.
Contrasting with this idea of formal equivalence, Nida proposes adaptation of ST cultural
elements through dynamic equivalence. Dynamic equivalence ‘tries to relate the receptor to modes
of behaviour relevant within the context of his own culture’ without insisting that he ‘understand the
cultural patterns of the source-language context’ (Nida, 2009; the underlining is mine).
This type of equivalence results from applying the principle of adaptation where the foreign
element is replaced with a local element similar in sense and effect. The issue of comprehensibility
does not raise concerns here since the TT reader finds no ST culturally bound elements in the
translation. Unfortunately, the TT reader does not know that ST cultural references have been
substituted by TT ones and is unable to learn anything about the ST culture.
How interested would the ideal TT reader be in the lost ST references, if he were given a
chance to learn about them? Should the translator worry?
The principle of adaptation assumes that culturally bound ST references in a TT are
obtrusive and would severely affect the TT readers’ understanding of the sense and effect of the
text but it does not oppose to providing background information that would enlighten the reader as
to the original ST references which had been replaced.
When confronted with such challenges, Newmark (1988) advocates ‘componential analysis’,
an approach that deculturalises the ST element splitting it up into its sense components. For
example: PM > jefe de gobierno. This procedure requires the use of culture-free words
(jefe/gobierno); ‘it neutralizes or generalizes the SL word’.
In Newmark’s opinion, componential analysis is ‘the most accurate translation procedure,
which excludes the culture and highlights the message’.
Despite his strong defence of dynamic equivalence through componential analysis,
Newmark admits that the TT reader may, in some cases, profit from synergy.
Componential analysis being the leading approach, ‘it is often combined with transference:
taille > a tax on the common people before the French Revolution, or taille’ (Newmark 1988). His
example shows that the translation of the French cultural element is done in a decomposed,
deculturalised phrase (a tax on the common people before the French Revolution) followed by the
transference of the French element (taille). He calls this combination of two translation procedures
for one ST unit a 'couplet'. This is what we know as synergy.
When deriving meaning from context can be difficult and risky because of the TT reader’s low
cultural competence, glosses can help understand cultural elements more precisely through
preventing incorrect guessing. Glosses build a bridge between the ST culture and the TT culture.
As glossing provides explanations for cultural elements, interruption while reading is in process is
reduced. The TT reader does not have to look for external explanations granting him greater
autonomy, making him less dependent on context and pragmatics.

9. The provision of glosses in translation reduces the difficulties from insufficient context and reduces
possible incorrect inference of transculturalised elements.
According to what the translator assumes might be missing from a TT reader’s cultural
competence, the gloss shall take one of the following forms:
1. Reference gloss. It is a type of gloss that provides information as to the reference of the ST
cultural element by reproducing it in the TT. It is often done in a simple parenthetical in-text gloss
as used in synergic transculturalisation: el Partido Conservador (Tory Party). In some cases,
reference glosses are part of more complex glossing where the ST reference is also accompanied
by a sense gloss: el Partido Conservador (llamado Tory Party o Conservative Party en el Reino
Unido).
2. Sense gloss. It appears as an in-text gloss – or marginal gloss when the information is too
abundant – in respected transculturalisation every time the translator wishes to provide a clear and
readily accessible explanation of the ‘meaning’ of the transferred cultural element. For example: R
& R > R & R1 [In a footnote.] 1. N. de T.: Del inglés, ‘rest and recreation’; expresión americana
que significa descanso y esparcimiento.
3. Effect gloss. This type of gloss can be used when the respected, adapted or synergized
transculturalisation likely to fail in attempt to arouse the effect intended in the ST. For example:
keep up with the Joneses > no ser menos que nadie1 [In a footnote.] 1. N. de T.: La expresión
original inglesa es “keep up with the Joneses” donde se incluye un apellido inglés común para dar
a entender “cualquier vecino” y, en su contexto, alude a la propensión humana a querer competir
con aquel que tenemos cerca alcanzando el éxito o los bienes que el otro ya obtuvo. Esta
expresión impacta en aquel a quien va dirigida como un llamado a actuar en consonancia.
Lesson 5: Conclusions
Solving Translation Problems aimed at raising awareness of the presence of cultural elements in
source texts, as well as providing tools that would increase effectiveness in translation.