Is being creative important for a translator or is translating a craft that can be perfected over the years? It is a well-known fact that creativity is important for artists. However, this article will shed light on whether this personality trait makes a translator’s job easier.
For instance, translators at TheWordPoint are always ready to lend a helping hand. These professionals have been translating various types of documents for many years. Their experience and vast working knowledge of the subject has helped them build up the reputation they have nowadays. If you need to translate anything from everyday content to highly technical documents, they are just a click away.
First, we are going to discuss creative translators. Creative people tend to offer more solutions to certain problems, think more critically and approach a problem like solving a puzzle, piece by piece. When it comes to writing, they freely express how they are feeling about something and are able to look at things from different perspectives. Furthermore, creativity plays a major role when translating literary texts, where it is sometimes important to have a character of your own. Wordplays, puns and metaphors can be more interesting if a translator is creative, and likes to use his genuinely creative thinking for making the content more appealing, which can be very useful in marketing activities, not only in translation.
On the other hand, do translators that are consistent and knowledgeable really need to have this personality trait to produce high-quality translations? When it comes to translating technical or legal documents, a translator doesn’t necessarily need to be creative, but rather punctual and meticulous. Their translations serve the communicative purpose, but are not as enticing as they could be.
To sum up, creativity is a trait that can be of use, especially in literary translation, where the translator gets to be more original and break the rules. Of course, he has to stay true to the meaning of the original text. A translator that is not creative will deliver the message of the authors, which, in the long run, is the most important thing.
