A Respond Translator Shares His Experience Translating Yemeni Text messages

My experience with translating Yemeni Text messages, by Mohamed Fenzari

Translation has been a crucial part of human life since the dawn of history. It has always been present in different aspects of human communication. Its practice and approaches were exposed to change, adapting to the multifaceted manifestation of world development. It is a bridge to understanding the language and culture of others.

Last month, I received some text messages to translate from Arabic into English. The messages were written in Yemeni Arabic, a dialect spoken mainly in Yemen. As a Moroccan speaking in Darija and writing/speaking in standard Arabic, I have never worked on Yemeni Arabic. My experience—other than my mother tongue— with such a dialect was somehow limited to that spoken in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. However, since I accepted the offer after confirming I understood the dialect—which of course to some extent I did, I had to send the translation as stipulated in the deadline.

It was an amazing experience for me; an experience that had me learn a lot about a new culture, a new system of thought regardless of the difficulties I encountered. The messages included an everyday language, with a threatening tone the sender uses against his wife. Before I started translating, our Arabic Team Lead told me that the messages would be used in court as evidence. With this in mind, my duty as a translator was to produce a target text that strictly resembled that of the source one, maintaining the same communication effect in English. The messages took me twice the time than when I usually translate from or into standard Arabic. I encountered some difficulties with some particular words I could not understand in the Yemeni dialect. I spent more time on ad hoc research than on translation. I finished the translation and submitted it. After some time,  I received feedback from our Arabic Team Lead stating that my translation was accurate with an exception of two words I mistranslated, and which were very important to the case.

Translating a language that was quite out of my reach was challenging and amazing in the main. It was amazing because I had the chance to go through a new experience and contribute to bridging communication with others. It was challenging because the messages were to be used as evidence and I had to convey the meaning semantically and syntactically. Yet, in cases such as these, the proofreading phase is crucially important, the reason for which working at Respond Crisis Translation is wonderful. I admit that not only the translator who takes part in the translation process but also the whole team, responsive and always ready to help.

I would like to say that translation is by definition an act of a continuing practice. To reach a certain degree of an acceptable translation, if not a perfect one, is to identify with the fact that no translator throughout history has been able to produce a solid target text without going through serious practical phases in the languages assigned. One who understands and speaks two or more languages cannot necessarily be a translator, neither can they produce texts, able to stand on their own and convey the intended meanings of the source texts, cohesively and coherently, to borrow Mona Baker terms (Baker, 1992)[1].

[1] Baker, M. (1992). In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London: Routledge.