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While reading " Thinking Arabic Translation" there's one paragraph that I haven't understood:

Decision of Detail: Reasoned decisions concerning the specific problems of grammar, lexis encountered in translating particular expressions in their particular context. Decisions of detail can only be made in the light of strategy. Naturally, however, problems of detail may arise during translating which arise unforeseen strategic issues and oblige the translator to refine the original strategy somewhat.

What does exactly Decisions of Detail mean?

Does it mean the details in the source text?

Alenanno
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Afnan
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  • This quotation does not make any sense. Is there something missing (....arise FROM unforeseen.....) in the last sentence? Even so: a classic example of how bad some "linguists" are with language. – fdb Feb 15 '15 at 10:19
  • Who is the author? Where is this paragraph from? Please give us more information. – curiousdannii Mar 17 '15 at 08:32

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Let’s say I’m going to translate an old man’s memoir about growing up in a Thai farming family. My general strategy would be to aim for a style that is not too formal or academic. But when I turn to the text itself, I find that the writer has made mention of different plants and animals that are common in Southeast Asia, but not generally known in the West. How do I go about translating their names? For example, an edible snail – should I make up a descriptive term in English, keep the Thai word, use the scientific name, or just say “a kind of snail”? This is a decision about detail. If I try to avoid any exotic or scientific terms, I will be sticking to my strategy regarding tone, but something will be lost. If I decide to add footnotes with more detail about these things, that would mean revising my initial decision to keep the tone informal. So there is a kind of back-and-forth going on – it’s just common sense really.

neubau
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