Paragraphs on Translation

Peter Newmark's fourth book on translation, a collection of his articles in The Linguist, is addressed to a wide readership. He discusses the force of translation in public life, instancing health and social services, art galleries, operas, light magazines and even gives some hints on the translation of erotica. The major part of these paragraphs is concerned with straight translation topics such as economics texts and short stories, as well as procedures for translating quotations, symbols, phrasal verbs and nouns, synonymous sound effects in language, repetition and keywords. The subordination of translation not just to source or target language but to logic, the facts, ideas of right and wrong, as well as the translator's ideology, is also discussed. However controversial, the author always provides an abundance of examples for the reader to test his ideas.