Translating Wordplay: Bringing Out the Best of Us

Have you ever encountered a spectacular line coming from a translation version of your favorite book? The swell of admiration, love, and wonder we feel inside is almost spiritual.

This phenomenon is closely related to the experience of appreciating art. In translation, art has been an inseparable part as it is mostly required in weaving strings of words into something acceptable in the target language, while preserving the messages, the aesthetics, and the cultural values of the source text.

With the rapid development of technology, there are concerns arising from the assumption that AI and the like may replace us in the near future. The question of whether they will reach the creativity level of human beings has been in the room for quite a while. As a human and a translator, I would like to share my artistic experience in translating wordplay to show the human side of it.

Pouring Hearts and Thoughts into Translating Wordplay

Just like art, wordplay requires creativity, intuition, wit, and sensibility. It is a product of self-expression and aimed to evoke certain emotions–usually humorous–of the audience. Covering the process of creating a wordplay may require extensive research because of how complicated and subjective it is.

Putting it in the context of translation, the complexity would only multiply. The once not-so-easy process of milking creativity is now facing a new set of restrictions–the messages of the original text, the cultures of both languages, and the context being highlighted in the source text. Now, let us take a look at the following example to see how this works.

There’s snow better way to bond with toddlers at Christmas!

This is an ad copy for a toy to be released and/or promoted during the Christmas period. Reading this would likely make us say “Clever” or “I see what you did there” and out a little giggle. The artistic function of this copy then should be considered as successful. However, it creates another problem when we bring it onto the table of a translator. 

It will not be such a pain if this copy is translated into a language with similar culture. Christmas is celebrated during the winter season in the majority parts of the world, and it creates a tight association with snow, ice, and cold.

If an English copy needs to be localized into–for instance–German, the only issue a translator would face is finding the right word in the target language to fit and to convey the “snow better” part in the right manner. Of course, it is the job of the translator to find, and one shall not complain.

Now, how about tropical countries, such as Indonesia? The sun loves us so much, it does not have a heart to leave us in the cold even for a second. That is why, most Indonesians will not find any reference to the snow and winter relatable.

Nonetheless, thanks to globalization and western media, many Indonesians do know the link between snow and Christmas. Therefore, using winter reference for a Christmas-themed copy could somehow be considered as acceptable.

After considering the appropriate extent of the cultural aspect, an Indonesian translator has four choices in translating the above copy:

    • (1) to preserve the element of snow in the wordplay,
    • (2) to preserve the element of snow but remove the wordplay part,
    • (3) to preserve the wordplay but remove the snow element, or
    • (4) to remove all of them completely. In this case, the translator’s choice of strategy may be affected by several factors, including deadline, intuition, sensibility, cultural knowledge, personal moral compass, and many more.

For me personally, the moment I encountered the copy, I didn’t really have much time and creative juices going on inside my brain. After putting my best efforts to decide, I eventually chose (4) and translated the sentence into the following:

tra: Inilah cara yang terbaik untuk membangun kedekatan dengan si kecil saat Natal!

back tra: This is the best way to bond with your child at Christmas!

The wordplay is removed completely, and I have to admit, it was a shame. If I had more time and more creativity, I would love to polish the sentence so it will deliver the brilliance of the original. Despite the loss, I still consider my translation process as an artistic experience! It required me to rack my brain and decide what I believe should be the right approach to treat the copy.

In spite of that, I still wanted to show my skill of making puns (no pun intended) of that text. I saw the chance to take my revenge when I found the following catch-phrase within the same project:

An icy adventure

It might be the intuition, the timing, or the alignment of the planets, but whatever it was, this phrase–despite not having any wordplay in it–is the perfect example on how one can exert creativity into translation. Therefore, I came up with the translation below:

tra: Petualangan meng-es-ankan

back tra: An Impressive Adventure

See, even my back translation cannot showcase the pun element I put into that translation. I made an addition by using the adjective “mengesankan” (impressive), and preserved the “Icy” element by inserting hyphens in between “es”, which literally means “Ice”, so it would stand out. The process of recognizing a golden opportunity to insert wordplay, what is it if not an artistic skill of a translator? 

From my experience above, it is safe to say that what translators do to their texts is a form of art. Now, imagine if the translated text is a highly-creative fantasy novel with a bunch of made-up elements never heard before. It is most likely that the lucky translator assigned to do the job will undergo a lot of artistic processes in converting the work.

One of the widely-known, successful translation works was done by Listiana Srisanti with the legendary Harry Potter series. It was her and her creativity that made Harry Potter such a memorable series for a lot of Indonesian kids and readers back then.

Machine Translation vs. Human Authenticity

The advancement of today’s technology has reached the point where it feels like we are in the future. The existence of AI and the like has also taken the translation industry by storm. In navigating this storm, it is important to highlight the authenticity of human translation and the values it offers.

While AI acts as a handy tool, it is still the translator–the human behind it–that has the ability to recognize the golden timing of creativity as previously explained. The human factors, such as personal experience, cultural background, and feelings, power the translation process and result in artistic target texts.

By accentuating this humanity value, there will be a clear line between the roles of humans and of machines in the industry, and thus, shall alleviate the haunting concerns.

Conclusion

With its intricate process to preserve the beauty and the values of the original text, translation may be considered as a form of art. Wordplay, despite being a small language element, is a challenge for translators. It takes knowledge, experience, wit, and luck for a translator to handle.

There are also endless aspects to consider for just a single phrase, or even word. The advanced technology may replace some of humans’ roles in translation, yet the humanity values can only be preserved by humans. Carrying those values is what humans would always be in charge of, and that is why translation is an art that is worth protecting.

Nurul Aini Akrima Sabila

A language learner with 3 years of professional experience in translation. She is a dabbler at heart, but her current obsession is painting with gouache.

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