Close, Free, and Literal

In conventional parlance, professional translations exist on a spectrum from “close” to “free.” A close translation reproduces the structure and diction of the original as accurately as possible in correct English. A free translation is one where the translator has taken more liberties.

What is the difference between “close” and “literal”? A “literal” translation has the same structure as the original text and direct equivalents for all the words, even to the point of nonsense: “I brush myself the teeth,” “He makes heat in Wisconsin today,” or “I make to myself cares around you,” for example. Pros don’t do literal translations unless they are working on a special task like explaining sentence structure to language learners.

Close translations are not nonsense, but sometimes they are too close.

I ran into a good example while researching the Quebec Winter Carnival. Its website has English and French versions of the same text. Here’s the French, which I would bet my life savings was written first:

Si vous ne connaissez pas encore le Carnaval, il est temps de remédier à la situation ! Le Carnaval est un festival extérieur qui célèbre l’hiver entre la fin janvier et la mi-février. Pour une période de 10 jours, la ville est transformée en fête des neiges avec ces nombreuses décorations, sculptures de glaces et lumières. Au rendez-vous : plusieurs sites d’activités pour les petits et grands, un défilé de chars allégoriques et des soirées musicales. C’est l’événement hivernal à ne pas manquer !

And here is the English:

If you don’t know the Carnival yet, it’s time to remedy the situation! Carnival is an outdoor festival that celebrates winter between late January and mid-February. For a period of 10 days, the city is transformed into a snow festival with many decorations, ice sculptures and lights. On the agenda: several activity sites for young and old, a parade of allegorical floats and musical evenings. This is the winter event not to be missed!

That’s a very close translation. It’s not nonsensically literal—if it were, it would have “several sites of activities for the smalls and the bigs,” and so on—but the English is as close to the French as you can get while still being normal English.

“Allegorical floats” is a noteworthy phrase. In fact, the French “chars allégoriques” simply means “floats.” “Chars” is a general enough word for vehicles (especially in Quebec) that it needs an adjective to specify the notion of vehicles decorated to represent something. Whereas if someone told me in English that I was going to watch allegorical floats go by, I’d wonder if there was an exam at the end.

For promotional materials, translators usually take a freer approach to match the style of advertisements in their language.

For example:

If you’ve never been to the Quebec Winter Carnival, it’s time to fix that! Carnival is an outdoor festival that turns our city into a celebration of winter from late January to mid-February. It’s ten days of fun in the snow among gorgeous decorations, enchanting ice sculptures and dazzling lights. There’s plenty to do for visitors of all ages! Highlights include the parade with elaborate floats and evenings of musical entertainment. Don’t miss this extraordinary winter event!

Voilà.