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Literary Translation

Literary translation is not intended to be a precise, verbatim translation of a literary work, since as such, it would be impossible to convey the feeling and full meaning of the literary document. These types of translations are intended instead to convey the feelings and sentiments of the author's original work, while allowing the freedom of expression that render them more meaningful in the target language.

This translation style aims to stir up the same feelings and reflect the same style of work of the narrator or the writer, but makes it understandable to audiences of foreign cultures, who may view things differently. While having a vast and well founded knowledge base of foreign lands and cultures, literary translators must also be creative and have the ability to be fine writers themselves. In many cases, literary translators are writers first and have decided to expand their gift of multilinguism to make literary works of art available to more readers.

Works that literary translators convert include every nature of work, both major opuses and small short stories. Plays and other theatrical productions, all works of fiction, novels, poetry and many other literary translations have been tackled in this field. From archaic to Victorian to modern and from the trite to the avante garde, each genre may have an audience in another language.

In recent years, the field of literary translation has regularly included the motion picture and theater industries as well as the written word. The world of film and theater subtitling and dubbing has made many works available to an ever wider audience.