Last week, we discussed the best editing process for each translation quality level, based on the use and content of the documents. One of the strategies introduced was bilingual revision.
Your bilingual reviser will focus heavily on Fidelity (faithfulness), making sure the translation matches the original document. Your bilingual reviser should be a native speaker of the language you are translating FROM. This will allow the reviser to recognize any places where the translator misunderstood the author’s meaning.
This task involves checking each sentence of the translation and comparing it to the source text. This may sound tedious, but it is crucial for a high-quality translation. And the task will become quicker as your reviser falls into a rhythm. Of course, the amount of time required is directly related to the translator’s skills. Your reviser will be able to give you an assessment of how capable each translator is.
I recommend that when learning this method, your bilingual reviser always read each sentence in the original language first. This will get the correct meaning fixed in their mind before they read the translation. Then they read the translated sentence and quickly compare it to the original sentence.
One of the first things to watch for is the overall meaning of the sentence: did the translator convey it properly? Did negative statements remain negative, and positive statements remain positive?
Secondly, the reviser should check for missing information: are all details and adjectives there? Finally, the style should be verified: for example, does the intensity of the words match? If the author said something was amazing, the translator needs to convey that in the target language, not just say that it was pretty good.
Bilingual revision by a native speaker of the target language is invaluable for high-quality translations. But the contribution of your formatter/proofreader is important as well, and that’s what we will look at next week. Stay tuned!
Have you downloaded your “Translation Team Finder”, a free fillable PDF to help you identify potential members for your nonprofit translation team? https://www.lianergrant.com/finder/
Have a great day!
Liane 🙂
