On translations

People sometimes forget the importance of translations. Without them, you would have way less literature available because there are too many languages for one person to learn even half of them.

The goal of a translation is to carry over the meaning of words from one language to another as precisely as possible. Unfortunately, this ideal is not always achieved, usually due to translator's inexperience but far too often I saw a translator trying to "improve" the original text. To this translator I say:
Remember, you are a translator, not a writer. People don't want to read your thoughts but the thoughts of the original author. Your work is important, please do it properly.

There are some cases in which translators always take liberties, the main ones are:

• Songs - here I agree that precise translation won’t work, songs have to rhyme.
• Jokes - some jokes rely on word play so they are not transferable between languages and you have to make stuff up. However, the rest can be translated precisely. The reader just won’t get the joke because they don’t understand the culture it comes from. I argue these should be translated precisely and short explanation could be provided as a footnote. I know that explained joke is not funny anymore but removing unfamiliar things from foreign texts makes us miss out on the differences in their thinking.
• References, phrases and vulgarities – the same as jokes. If there is no equivalent in the target language, I would translate it literally and provided short explanation as seems necessary. Anyone who wants to know more details can then look it up themselves.