Translations for the arts and culture
The challenge of diversity and cultural nuance
Art and culture speak their own language
Art and culture take many forms. The visual arts, literature, music, theatre, dance, the humanities, photography and documentaries all have their own language, reflected in art catalogues, essays and books, scripts and manuscripts, newspaper articles and academic papers. These texts must then be translated in a way that reflects the language and conventions of the arts and cultural sector in the target market. The cultural nuances of each country must also be taken into account.
TransLaw has the right specialist translator for every aspect of art and culture. They are native speakers with first-hand knowledge of the arts and culture of the target market. The result is a translation that doesn’t read like one.
Here is a selection of the types of documents we can translate for you:
- Articles and essays
- Features
- Newspaper articles
- Art catalogues
- Theses
- Screenplays
- Reviews
- Flyers and catalogues for exhibitions
- Publications in the humanities
- Non-fiction and travel guides
- Novels, cookery books and children’s books
Book translation – an art in more ways than one
Translating novels, poems, plays and other literary works is an art in itself
Translating a novel, a poem, a play or other literary works is an art in itself. The same applies to the translation of screenplays. Simply translating the words into another language is not enough. The specialist translator must recreate the tone, style and imagery of the original in the target language. To do this, they must be familiar with the cultural nuances of the target country. This is where a native-speaking translator has a clear advantage. They can translate your story in such a way that the distinctive atmosphere and magic of the original are conveyed quite naturally in the target language. To do this, they are familiar with idioms, wordplay, humour and imagery in both languages.
Book translations present translators with two particular challenges. The first is the sheer volume of material involved. You should therefore allow sufficient time for the book translation when setting the print deadline.
The second challenge is capturing the distinctive atmosphere created by the book and its story in the translation. Ideally, readers will never realise they are reading a translation.
Why does TransLaw rely exclusively on native speakers?
Intuitive translations to help you succeed
Research suggests that the ability to acquire a language intuitively develops primarily during childhood. Native speakers are best placed to translate a book or other publications in the fields of art and culture freely and in a context-sensitive manner. Because they can translate intuitively, they are also more attuned to inconsistencies in a machine-generated draft translation.
To this end, we work exclusively with native-speaking translators who have experience in the fields of art and culture. TransLaw has a pool of over 3,000 specialist translators. Once we have assessed your requirements, we select the native-speaking translator from this pool who is best qualified for your translation. This helps your book, play, exhibition or documentary reach and inspire audiences around the world.
Large-scale and urgent projects
TransLaw guarantees on-time delivery
For particularly large-scale projects, TransLaw’s translators can use the latest translation technology to create an initial draft. This helps save time and reduce costs. For particularly urgent translation jobs, our large pool of translators means we can assign several translators to your project at the same time. This enables us to ensure reliable on-time delivery.
Discover other specialist areas in which we provide translation services:
