Translation Is Art Or Math?

 A friend who is a professional translator sent me this article.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/is-translation-an-art-or-a-math-problem.html?_r=1&referrer

This article itself is more like art than science.

What are the rules of translation?

We all know that if we are translating from a source language (say, Tamil) to a target language (say, English) the expectation is that the translated text in the target language (TL for short) should mean the same as the original text in the source language (SL). 

is that all that we expect from a translation?

Let's see if we can't come up with some more granular rules.

The text in the TL should be grammatically correct and should not look awkward. This seems like a no brainer. When the inexperienced translator (or take automatic translation from a tool) translates word by word, some of the issues listed below appear:

• Proverbs in SL should be converted to equivalent proverbs in the TL. If none exists in the TL, one should skip translating the proverb or explain it in a single sentence. 
• If a sentence construction or even a word in the SL doesn't translate exactly to the TL, it should be translated to the closest equivalent in the TL - even if one has to skip some words or structures in the target language.
• Every text has a certain vocabulary level. For example consider (a) and (b) below:
• (a) "I have a dog. His name is Fluffy. He wags his tail when he sees me" and (b) "The ability - to abstract the things that one sees and create a model in one's mind, which can be used subsequently to predict other events - is rare." You can see that (a) and (b) use different levels of communication. The communication level in the TL should match that in the SL. 
• The process for translation should involve reading first the whole text in the SL, then the paragraph (and perhaps finally a sentence). The sentence should be abstracted in the mind, the text in the SL forgotten and one should then speak / write what is in the mind in the TL. Meaning the translation should be a two step process.

Additional reading:

• Skype doing automatic translation: http://qz.com/526019/how-good-is-skypes-instant-translation-we-put-it-to-the-chinese-stress-test/