Translation of exhibition titles Auteur du fil: sparrow99
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sparrow99
France
Local time: 15:24
français vers anglais
+ ...
Hello,
I'd like to know if it's common practice to translate the title of art exhibitions, in a museum for example. As instance, I'm wondering whether to translate MoMa exhibition titles from English into French (like "Machine Art").
Thanks for any help.
| | | | Phil Hand 
Chine
Local time: 22:24
chinois vers anglais
| I've seen both | Feb 4, 2013 |
It depends a bit on the language pair. In my pair, you always translate, but when it's a pair where the meaning is guessable, often they're left untranslated. The reason for translation makes a big difference: if it's a guidebook, people are going to want to use the text to actually find the show. Having the original language would help. But if it's a general interest text, it might be more useful for the reader to know what the exhibition title means.
So it's up to you, I'd say!
| | | | sparrow99
France
Local time: 15:24
français vers anglais
+ ...
AUTEUR DU FIL
Hi,
My target language is French. My translation is for a thesis, so I guess I should leave the titles in English, since they will be understandable for most people in the jury. That is, if I am not mistaken!
| | | | Rolf Kern
Suisse
Local time: 15:24
anglais vers allemand
+ ...
In memoriam
Some exhibitions have an official name in other languages. Search for these. If noting found, translate.
Rolf
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 15:24
français vers anglais
| If they can't understand the source text what are they doing on the jury? | Feb 4, 2013 |
sparrow99 wrote:
since they will be understandable for most people in the jury.
if that's going to be your criterion, there'll be no point translating the rest of the text either!
(hint: you might not get top marks if you leave all the sticky bits in English)
Some itinerant exhibitions may have been to Paris, in which case there is an official translation already.
Generally speaking, the decisions you make when translating depend on your target audience. Ok so here it's for your thesis, so it's rather an ivory tower situation, but I think it would make more sense to try to imagine why anyone would want to read a translation of the text and make your translation fit that situation.
As Phil says, if it's for a guide book you need to provide the original title so people can be sure of going to the right exhibition. However if the meaning is obscure, you might want to provide a translation, either in brackets right after the English title or woven into the text below. Weaving it into the text works quite well, since translating a text to encourage people to go to an exhibition is more a matter of transcreation than "pure" translation.
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