Technical Translation of Medical Texts: Hard to Translate?

                                                                                         

When the text you have to translate is not making any sense to you in a technical translation of a medical text... Are you really in the lurch?

First of all, the way medical texts are written is the simplest of all. Most of them are written by scientists that will not use metaphors and other stylistic devices. Specific terminology is the main difficult part in translating such articles. When it comes to technical translation, you cannot guess the right word.

Nowadays, the Internet is offering a lot of help through its browser or field-related websites, etc. Moreover, if you are not working on a novel field, every word has already been translated. Therefore, every word of the medical jargon already exist somewhere on the web. The real problem is how to find to it? A wise translator may not know how to translate "acute leukemia", but he knows where to find the answer.

But as you may guess, a professional translator, whatever the field is, is not just translating words but rather writes in another language the ideas of the source text according to a specific genre. Well, remember Dr Hahnemann's principle, "similia similibus curentur". Technical translation works in the same way. Similar texts will help translating your document or article.

In short, you have to read texts related to your subject. You will see the way French medical texts are organized. Do not forget that people specialized in the field are ready to help you out. Even great surgeons are accepting to help. Thanks to you, they can share their passion. And given that English is the international language, they may have some interesting literature to give you. I would not be surprised you meet an English-speaking surgeon; this would be easier for you. However, once again, knowing all words is not enough to do a good technical translation. You have to sew them together in a nice way.

I remember a text about a dreadful disease, the cystic fibrosis. Developping during childhood and infancy; this disease reduces their lifespan to less than 40 years. The main symptoms are difficult breathing and lung infections. The gene mutation accouting for the CF is the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR).

A young French singer, recently deceased, had the same symptoms. My personal translation of "cystic fibrosis" was merely "fibrose cystique". I sure found soon enough that "CFTR gene" had to be translated by "gène CFTR", but it did not help me in my search for similar texts. Even if "fibrose cystique" exists in French, it is not the one used. Indeed, "mucoviscidose" is the widely recognized technical translation in French of "cystic fibrosis". Whole bunch of texts by French scientists came up when I entered in the Internet browser the name of this disease. Everything became clearer after I read some of it. I changed my translation according to the articles I found and handed it in.

It shows how a simple word can hinder an entire technical translation, and how a simple word once properly translated can greatly speed up its completion.

In memory of Grégory Lemarchal, French singer, 1983-2007

About the author:
About the Author:
The author as a freelance writer and expert translator collaborates with TeknikaTrad, a company specialized in the translation of technical or scientific documents. Find out how to keep an excellent image with your foreign customers through quality technical translation of your documents, pamphlets, manuals and brochures.

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