Humans have been putting ink to stone, parchment, and paper to articulate thoughts and ideas and share information for thousands of years, and the written word is one of the cornerstones of human civilization. In the ever fast-paced, globalized and interconnected world we live in, the importance of the written word cannot be overstated, and being able to provide information in various languages has become essential. This is where the critical role of the translator comes into play.
Being a translator entails so much more than just replacing words from one language with words that have equivalent meaning in another language. In his work Translating Cultures: an Introduction for Translators, Interpreters and Mediators (1999), author David Katan makes the case for the translator as a cultural mediator or bilingual mediating agent between communication participants from different language communities.
Translation is the art of serving as an intermediary between different tongues and cultures, bringing folks together and empowering them to communicate their messages effectively. Translators are the bridges that enable people to communicate across linguistic and cultural barriers and enrich their knowledge and understanding of one another and the worlds and realities they inhabit. After all, languages are strongly shaped and influenced by the realities from which they emerged and in which they exist. Therefore, in order to be effective, translators need to have a mastery over the languages with which they are working as well as a certain familiarity with the intrinsic cultural nuances that exist within both source and target languages in order to smoothly navigate the idiosyncrasies and specificities of both.
Moreover, a good translation must be be true to the original text. Being true, however, does not mean the juxtaposition of words or word for word translation. The translation must reproduce the full sense of the original text, while taking into account its aim and target audience. It must give the sense of the original in such a way that readers are unaware that they are reading a translation. In the same way as technique, translation is an art and craft because it involves an accurate and controlled manipulation of language, and bilingualism and multilingualism are certainly not synonymous with the ability to translate well. A translator, therefore, must first be a writer. To be a good translator, you must try to put yourself in the shoes of and be in communion with the author.