More than Words
The act of translation is not a simple transformation of one set of words to another. It is a whole lot more than that.
Working as a translator and reviewer for Ccaps, I come across all kinds of translations and I have decided that what separates the “good” from the “great” is the translator’s level of “absorption” of the text – a key aspect of final translation quality.
A great translator reads and absorbs the meaning of each sentence before translating it. He or she makes an effort to understand what is being said and how to best convert this idea into the target language. It is not a matter of rushing to get it translated as fast as possible, blindly typing away and hardly even stopping to grasp the overall context.
This avoids those trivial mistranslations that should never exist in the first place. A classic example are the false cognates. If the translator does not make an effort to understand the meaning of the source text, he or she is bound to translate “realização” as “realization” and “fábrica” as “fabric.” Ouch! Such mistakes make my blood boil, since they demonstrate a serious lack of attention to the text.
Therefore, a call out to translators and reviewers alike. Make sure you are actually “reading” what you are translating. Become one with the text… Ohmmmmmm 
Happy Translating!
Sarah Hyde
To learn more about Sarah, please visit her previous post, Keeping Our Eyes Open