Creative Translation

Creative Translation: Allowing Imagination Take Over

If you want to be recognized with what you are doing or offering, you need to find a way to engage all readers or visitors in your content. Be it an advertisement, a story or a blog. Your aim should be to lure people in and have them read what you have to say. When your goal is to achieve that, getting help from literal translations would do you almost no good. This is when you realize you need a creative translation company to help you out!

Creative Translation Definition

Creative translation definition is basically adapting a text to a different culture or a language by avoiding word for word translations while staying loyal to the essence of a text. This may require a translator to change a few words, delete or add new sentences. Or, in some situations, rewrite the whole text. In such cases, you are not only looking for a translator with native-like proficiency in a language, but also a translator with a native-like understanding of cultural concepts of the language. What you come up within your own mother-tongue may create a powerful impact on your audience who share the same values or similar backgrounds with you. However, to be effective in other languages, using a creative translation agency could maximize the effect you would like to have.

Consider trying to sell a product to different regions or countries. A feature that is considered to be precious in one region may sound unnecessary in another one. Eventually, you would prefer changing your marketing techniques in those different regions. When your marketing team falls short, you can count on creative translators. They would be aware of the local differences and cultural nuances. They would understand which feature of the product would sell the product and rearrange or maybe rewrite the whole marketing text.

Or in another case, consider yourself as a service provider with international customers. Your text that introduces you to potential customers may be flawless in your mother-tongue. However, a direct translation of that text may cause some misunderstanding or misjudgments about you and your business. In such a situation, the aim of a creative translation job would be to make sure to come up with a different text. A text that incorporates the same impact with the elimination of possible misunderstandings.

Creative Translation Process

Creative translation is a process which combines together translation and transcreation, paraphrasing. And also making the source text finding a response in the local reader’s reaction. A creative translation company, for example, would encourage you to answer specific questions such as “Who is included in the target audience?”, “What is the service/product that is being sold?” or “What is the underlying message of your company?”. Once you answer those questions, the translator would start incorporating creativity in translation.

A well-known creative translation example would be the slogan of an international candy producer. Its slogan which is rhythmic and captivating in the mother-tongue would become disruptive when it is translated literally. But once the rhythm and the message are kept and conveyed with a different set of words, the producer started earning its place in foreign countries as well. You can also see such examples in movie, poem or book translations. Some words cannot be literally translated, or when they are literally translated, they may not evoke the same emotions or convey the same meaning. Yet, be it small or big, a change could work even if it means creating a whole different concept. Indeed, creativity in translation is not always easy to achieve.

The Facts

For the translation to be 100% effective, the translator should be experienced and truly knowledgeable about the culture. Even tiny nuances can create massive differences when it comes to adapting a text to another language. It is also highly important to be in collaboration and efficient communication with your creative translation agency or the translator. So that both you and the translator can explain the intended implication of the recreated text and agree on a version that fits you both.

Today many large-scale companies spend huge numbers to ensure creativity in translation is achieved. Both their uprising and downfalls depend largely on the success of their contractual creative translation agency. For sure, unless you are a multi-million-dollar company, you don’t need to spend millions. But sparing even the smallest budget would help you to boost your brand in another culture and pave the way for you to become globalized.