Examples of Translation Mistakes
First of all because of the fact that translation is a hard process to achieve it is very easy to make mistakes while translating a text. Especially the translations of literary texts are very hard.
Finally, very briefly, problems of context, by which I mean not merely the textual context, but equally the historic circumstances, the moral and in- tellectual climate, the physical environment, all of which help to shape the mental processes underlying the use of articulate language and literary expression (Sollberger, 1973). As Sollberger mentioned in his article, translation is not only belongs to textual context but also it is belongs to a whole portrait of the time which is the text written in. So , to do a successful translation one must has the knowledge of background of the text.
For example, one of the most popular movies in whole world whose original title is “Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind” is translated to Turkish language as “Sil Baştan”. This is a mistake according to my understanding and approaching to translation. Most of the sources are still taking this translation and using in their websites , like IMDB1. This translation of course may fit with the events happening in the movie but it is a mistake for me that this translation is irrelevant to original title. For me the true translation would be “Saf Zihnin Manifestosu” or “ Saf Zihnin Tezahürü”. In my translation it seems like a bare chicken translate but I believe that it is very appropriate to the movie and also it is taking the original title as a source. Especially the translation of “eternal sunshine” as “manifesto” is the very true and beautiful translation for me in terms of art and the context of the movie. In the target language “manifesto” is like a “statement”. At this point it is very crucial to understand that in the context of the movie we see that director is trying to give a portrait of the protogonist’s pure, spotless mind, his state of mind. So my translation is totally fulfilling the meaning in the context and original title.
Another example that can be examined , for me, is the Turkish translated version of one of the Nike’s top quality advertisements. In the Nike’s advertisement named “ Nike: Just Do It – Possibilities “ 2, the narrator says “that’s not good” in 45th. second. In the translated version3 we hear that “işte bu tehlikeli” as a translation of “that’s not good”. I believe that it is a mistake because it can be directly translated in target language as “işte bu iyi değil” . The word “tehlikeli” is irrelevant , especially when we think about the spirit of the advertisement.
My last example will be about the translation of a poem named “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. This poem is a perfectly deep one for me , so trying to translate this poem is one of the hardest challenges to , in my opinion. I will use Ülkü Tamer’s translation 4 for the sake of this exam and I will try to just bring a new perception for one part of the poem. Otherwise it would be very daring for me, as a usual student, to say that Tamer had a mistake when he translated this poem. In the poem there is a repetitive line : “quoth the raven…” and Tamer translated this line as “dedi kuzgun…”. In my opinion , it would be better if we translate it as “konuştu kuzgun…” or “buyurdu kuzgun…”. The only reason for me to see this as a “better” translation is about the integrity of melody in the poem. In target language , Turkish, the word “demek” is more like to be from ordinary language. But when we use words like “konuşmak” or “buyurmak” it is more likely to fulfill the melody of the poem.
To sum up , we see that there are so many examples of translation mistakes and translation is a huge process. It is very important to take consideration context, period, background, cultural differences between languages , original and pure meaning of the text all together while translating texts.
