One of the key differences between Portuguese and English is the size of the vocabulary. The Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa lists nearly 390,000 words as officially existing in Brazilian Portuguese, whereas the Global Language Monitor and a recent Google/Harvard study both indicate that the number of words in the English language is greater than one million. Both these figures are, of course, debatable, but even allowing for a reasonable margin of error, it would seem that the English vocabulary is approximately double the size of the Portuguese one. This creates a number of issues for the translator, both when translating from English into Portuguese and from Portuguese into English. In this blog post I will be discussing the latter.
A very common issue when translating from Portuguese into English is that a Portuguese word does not have one precise equivalent in English, but several synonyms, none of which precisely conveys the sense of the original Portuguese word and each of which might be the most appropriate choice, depending on context. This is the case even for many words of Latin origin that are essentially – seemingly – the same in both languages. For instance, the noun “discussão”, which common sense would seem to indicate translates as “discussion”, in fact is not – at least in Brazilian Portuguese – the direct equivalent of the English word. The Portuguese word generally refers to a difference of opinion, often a discordant one, whereas the English word more often refers to an exchange or elucidation of ideas. Thus, the English translation for “discussão” depends on context but is more likely to be “argument” or even “row” than it is to be “discussion”. In some situations, however, “discussion” may be exactly the right translation – it depends. The translator also has the option to apply an adjective to the noun where none exists in the text of origin, e.g. translating “uma discussão” as “a heated discussion”, which could be appropriate in the right context.
A more complex – and therefore, for the translator, more insidious – example is the verb “gritar”, commonly translated as “to shout”. When a person is actually shouting, loudly, at the top of their voice, there are already some issues of translation here – in English, one could translate “gritando” as “shouting”, “yelling”, “screaming”, “bawling”, “caterwauling”; any one of a rich variety of synonyms. This is before one considers that “to speak with a raised voice,” or “to exclaim” can also be covered by the word “gritar” (if you have a Brazilian spouse, you will discover this very quickly). A translator could probably convey “gritar” and its conjugations into English in more than 20 different ways, with hugely varying meanings. Context is all-important when finding the right word, as well as a strong understanding of both languages.
What should the translator do, then, when faced with the same word repeated numerous times in the same text? Translate it consistently the same way? Solely consider the context? Something between the two? The obvious answer is, “it depends.” How, then, does it depend?
The principal factor in determining one’s approach as a translator to this question is the nature of the text to be translated. Creative prose, or poetry, requires a very different approach to a legal text or philosophical essay. Business communications and reports require yet another approach, restaurant menus another, and promotional texts for businesses yet another. Ultimately there are as many different approaches to blending variety with consistency as there are different types of text – in fact, more, because a good translator will also consider other factors when determining their approach to a specific texts, such as the intentions of the original writer and the needs of the target audience. Thus, the balance will be different for each individual text.
Some general principles remain the case, however. For creative texts, generally speaking, variety is emphasised over consistency, because the most important consideration here is to create a text in the destination language that is vibrant and engaging; thus, the translator working in this area has considerable creative license. I once wrote a translation of the lyrics to the Caetano Veloso song “Triste Bahia” in which I variously translated the word “triste” as “sad”, “melancholy” and “poor”. In the original lyric, Veloso’s repetitions of the word add layers of meaning and significance with each repetition in a new context, whereas the English word “sad” is less flexible and has less depth, making the use of synonyms a smarter option. In some cases, repetition might work, or even be necessary, but because of the richer variety of synonyms available in the English language, variety is usually a better option.
In the case of business communications, there are two overriding principles: firstly that the meaning of the writer is communicated exactly for the target audience, and secondly that the language used to do so is formal and professional. This means that, in comparison with creative texts, there will be less variety and more consistency. In certain cases, it will be necessary to vary one’s translation of a certain word in order to ensure that the sense of the original text is accurately conveyed, but generally speaking the translator will find that they are using a smaller variety of words and making more use of their “translation memory”.
With a legal text or a philosophical essay, the emphasis on consistency becomes even stronger. Such texts usually have “key terms” which are defined at the very beginning and used with a rigorous consistency of meaning throughout the entire text; the translator must reflect this. The most important task here is finding the right words in the destination language to translate each of the “key terms” and then ensuring that they are used in exactly the same way as in the text of origin. This will sometimes mean sacrificing readability for clarity of thought; however, given that without clarity of thought such texts are of little use, this is necessary.
Variety vs consistency is far from the only issue when translating from Portuguese to English, but it is what one might call a “cross-cutting issue” – i.e. an issue which is relevant to all the other ones, such as communication of meaning, authorial intentions, writing style and readability. Thus, it is important for the translator to have a good idea about how to approach this issue before beginning a translation task. Doing so makes it much more easier to produce a translation that is both of a high standard and in an appropriate style.
