English To French Translation: Science, Art or Skill and Does It Matter?

There is a lot of discussion as to whether English to French translation is a science, a skill or an art.  This often forms part of the argument as to whether translation can be taught or not.

Perhaps English to French translation is none of these – or perhaps it is a bit of all three.

Science

When we think of a science we think of something precise and predictable.  Some sciences of course are less fixed and precise than others – for example, social sciences or clinical psychology. However, a scientific theory or hypothesis in any branch of science has to stand up to being thoroughly tested through experiments. 

Translation certainly does make use of scientific data, especially data from linguistic science.   In addition, there are plenty of books on translation theory.  However, for translation theory to be a scientific theory in the strict sense, it would need to be possible to create a formula that could be applied in any situation.  So when you had translation problem X, the solution would be Y.  This is clearly not the case. There are usually several possible solutions to a translation problem. 

For example, suppose as an English to French translator you come across an English expression “he has kicked the bucket”.   You can translate this word for word, which would make very little sense to the French reader.  You could translate it as il est mort, “he has died”, which is what it really means.  Or you could use a French idiom which has a similar meaning: il a casse sa pipe “he has broken his pipe”.

The decision on this is made by the translator, not by a machine.  It’s a question of judgement, rather than scientific precision.

Art

The term “art” usually refers to areas where aesthetics and creativity are involved.  This doesn’t usually include translation at the level usually carried out by a professional translation agency – this is more likely to be business translation, where accuracy and speed are of the essence, rather than creativity. 

However, the term “art” could be applied appropriately to English to French translation at the literary level.  Novels, poetry, drama and movie scripts are obviously a very important aspect of translation.  At this level, it is much more important for the translator to be much more personally involved.  For instance, it would be very difficult to produce a really good translation of a novel without having some literary ability of your own – and using it.  You are not just sticking to the forms of the language.  You want to convey the power, the emotion, the excitement, the involvement of the original and to do this has to be an art form in its own right. 

At another level, it is true that there is seldom a single “right” way of translating a passage, unless it is a highly technical one.  There are always decisions to be made at every stage – whether this word is better than that word, how to get across this image or that figure of speech.  To this extent it certainly is possible to say that English to French translation is a kind of art.

Skill/craft

Most people, however, would regard English to French translation primarily as a skill, or a craft.   It would perhaps be more accurate to see translation as a set of skills, which can be learned and which can be passed on to others.  This doesn’t deny the existence of translation theory.  It is important to have a grasp of translation theory to give you a framework and an overall understanding of what you are doing.  However, you can’t become a good translator just by studying theory, any more than you can learn to drive a car by reading books about driving.

So what are the characteristics of a skill?

• Can be learned.   Just as the skill of driving a car can be learned, so can the skill of translation.   You don’t learn to drive by reading books about driving; you learn it by doing it.  Similarly with English to French translation – the theories and principles, though useful, don’t make any sense until you actually start doing the job.
• Can be passed on to others.  You learn to drive by having somebody sitting next to you and showing you what to do.  The best way to learn to be a translator is from another translator – whether by working in an agency, or on an academic course.
• Can improve with experience.  When you first pass your driving test, you are not the best driver in the world, and not all that confident.  By the time you have been driving for 20 years, provided you haven’t picked up too many bad habits, you should be an experienced and much better driver.  There are many things about English to French translation that you pick up as you go along and develop a “nose”, or an instinct, for. 

The terms science, art and skill are not mutually exclusive.  Elements of all three are involved in the practice of English to French translation.  However, it perhaps has more in common with skill than with art or science.