Some skills and experiences in translating the original textbook

Just translated the box2d2.3.0 version of the English user's guide, although the original text only 70 pages, not the kind of hundreds of pages of "magnum opus", but still feel the harvest quite abundant. Here also share some of my personal summary of some of the skills and experience.

I think that before translating the original textbook, the translator should be more to understand the technical details of the textbook, if you can fully understand the contents of the material described in the details of the better. Before translating, it is better to read through the original, scrubbed the context of the book, so that we can better organize the language and content when translating.

Since it is a translation, we should certainly respect the original, so we need to match the translation and the original text as much as possible, so that the reader can "rule" when reading against it. However, many times due to grammatical and cultural differences, if we translate word by word, but feel that the statement is not, this time I personally feel that the translator is better than the original text or the content of the original paragraph straighten out, with fluent words to explain clearly, even can "exaggerate", You don't have to stick to the grammar and vocabulary of the original (but make sure you understand the content correctly), and when necessary, you can add.

For rare words or professional vocabulary translation is often difficult to choose, for those who do not need background knowledge of the proper terminology, we only need to find the appropriate interpretation in the dictionary or the network, if necessary, can be added after the translation of parentheses, annotated the original word. There are some words in the original text, sometimes we will find that they have a variety of completely different interpretations, and "seems to" all make sense, at this time, a solution is to contact the upper and lower points to infer, in a certain context, there must be a suitable for the current context of the translation exists, there is a better way I think, Keeping the original foreign words without translation will not affect the reader's comprehension by retaining several proprietary words in the translation. When we read through the original text and have some understanding, for the professional vocabulary, the author tends to explain in the content, but sometimes we can read the back only "suddenly": the original "Such a word" is the meaning ah ..., this is why we say must have a certain understanding of the translated content. Another kind of vocabulary, we may not find the explanation in the dictionary, there is no suitable explanation on the network, such words may be the author's "Self-made words", which he must have explained in the context, we pay attention to it, there is no need to translate this vocabulary, keep foreign words can be, The explanation of the words can be added.

After saying the words, we say the translation of the sentence, many times, we will encounter very long sentence, including various clauses, this time I think there are several solutions, the first can be the whole sentence into the online translator, a general look at the translation effect, if it is good, then we take down the translation to do "finishing", Let it be more fluent on it. If completely lied, then we only have to bite the bullet to use another way, for the long sentence, if the author by commas to divide, then we only need to look at the meaning of each clause alone, if it is a whole sentence, then we can divide the sentence according to the composition (main predicate), then, See how these clauses or ingredients should be arranged in order to make the translation more fluent (because there may be various flip-up sentences, various post-set pre-attributive adverbial, etc...) ）。 Also pay attention to the various omissions in the sentence (imperative, etc.), we must contact the context to make clear the omitted content, otherwise it is easy to "pigtailed", so that the reader can not touch the mind. Including the various pronouns appearing in the sentence (It,this,that,they, etc.), these pronouns also want to contact the context to clarify, translated statements, we can also use pronouns (it, this object, that thing, etc.), but our translation to let our readers know what this pronoun refers to, If the pronoun is difficult to understand, then we would rather always use the full name of that word, and do not let the reader feel ambiguous (when there are many similar things in the original text in a context, try to avoid ambiguity).

There are some places to pay attention to, many times in the original text will be equipped with a variety of illustrations, if there is text in the illustrations, it is best to re-use the image processing software, the original text erased after the translation (which I did not do a good job, I lazy t_t), there may be various forms, code and so on these , without prejudice to the inherent functions of these resources, can do some translation, as appropriate, such as the table content we do not change, the table header is translated with parentheses annotated the original, the code of the statement we do not translate, only the code of the comment part of the explanation and so on. These need to be based on specific circumstances, the overall principle is that our translation does not undermine the inherent functionality of these additional resources, but the icing on the cake, making it easier for readers to understand and use their content.

There is also a trick is that you can refer to some blog on the network Ah, forum Ah, all kinds of official information ah, and so on, if the translation of the time encountered, consult the information, can help you understand, and even have a sentence or any word you find there is a ready translation, so better, But have to look at this translation is not consistent with our translations, in addition, if the "pick up" translation has a non-fluent place, should do some perfect re-reference.

In addition to these, there is a place in the process of my translation encountered, is the original text and the source of resources (charts, code, etc.) in the error. Err, who can have no, no matter what the big God, no matter how many errata, the book will inevitably have some small mistakes, I think in most cases, with the context and the meaning of the specific sentence, we can easily find them and modify, when you find a word in the sentence particularly "glaring" cause the whole sentence difficult to translate, Or you find that the author is talking about a thing, and then suddenly another thing (two words may be only one letter), this time do not doubt yourself, consider whether the original is wrong. In addition, if the source of resources provided in the original is wrong, this situation is not so easy to correct, I have to translate the box2d user manual when the code is wrong, this time if you have a very deep understanding of the original text, and the resources provided by the knowledge, then do not hesitate, encounter errors can change how much? , of course, it is based on understanding, depending on the situation of the translator.

Finally, I think every translation, a paragraph, a chapter, it is best to read back, to see if it is not fluent, there is no contradiction between the place, there is no clear ambiguity of the place, if you have access to the information to learn more content, I think you can add notes to share to the reader, It's a bit of a supplement and a lot of richness to the original.

Above is some of my skills to summarize, I am also a novice, if there is a wrong place to write, we criticize more.

In addition, say their own harvest, truthfully said, from beginning to end to translate the entire document is spent time, first you have to understand, and then you have to bite the bullet to organize language, basically the primary school language teachers taught things are used, are not enough ... Also need to check all kinds of information, Chinese language, for the code inside, to try it out, the tools mentioned inside, oneself also have to try to use, the information mentioned in the BOX2D manual did not mention too much information, or some look good, how much to look at it, so the whole translation down, It took more than a week to get it done (on and off, if you have to translate it for two or three days). The end of the translation of a long sigh of relief, finally finished ... Think back, first of all, their own language organizational ability to improve the ability to express more powerful. The understanding of the original, needless to say, must be particularly ripe, you think, the whole textbook equivalent to you read again, and again straighten out the side, then the mastery of the inevitable is more secure. In addition, the source of the various information mentioned in the original, how much knowledge mastered some, for their own improvement is very helpful. To sum up, the benefits of a lot of people are interested may wish to try to turn over the documents you are interested in such things, recommended ~