COMMON OBSTACLES TO THE TRANSFER OF MEANING
Having overcome novelties and ambiguities, the translator now has a clear idea of what was said in the source sentence. The ensuing journey is to transfer the meaning to a new cultural and linguistic context and to dress it appropriately so that it can be presented to a new audience. That journey can also be fraught with challenges. Here are two challenges that we have often encountered while translating or revising:
1. Equivalency: Equivalency is about finding an expression in the target language to convey the same idea expressed in the source language. It is one of the most intractable difficulties in translation because some words or expressions may not yet have been coined in the target language, or they may not have a well delimited equivalence. For example, the abovementioned expression “disruptive technology” does not seem to have a definitive equivalent in a number of languages. In Spanish, you may find tecnología desestabilizadora, tecnología perturbadora, tecnología revolucionaria, or any number of variants.
Sometimes even an apparently simple term such as “default position” can be troublesome. In some cases, words seem to be ganging up against the translator. For example, a word like “chair” or “stool” should not cause any translation issues. But if you were translating into a language like Arabic and had to distinguish chairs from stools, you would be hard-pressed to come up with a good solution. In other cases, cultural gaps between languages make it difficult to coin an equivalent expression that will be understood and accepted by users of the target language. For example, finding neutral equivalents for gender orientation concepts in Arabic has been a long process. Even now, neutral terms for gays and lesbians have not been universally adopted.
True and accurate equivalency is a rare gem, which can only be encountered, with a little bit of luck, after a lot of digging. Sometimes the best equivalent is not strictly an equivalent, but a much longer explanation. In some cases, the choice of equivalent is dictated by established usage. This is why using idiomatically appropriate equivalents is an essential element of a good translation.
A special type of equivalency is the problem of back translation when you have names (especially geographical names), quotations, or other references in your source language that are originally from the same target language into which you are translating. For example, “local plant” in a text about the situation in the Palestinian occupied territories was back translated in Arabic after thorough research as “ 
,” (gundelia), which is an edible plant that the local Palestinian population gathers and sells in the market. In this case, the best scenario would be to find the original reference and copy it as is. For instance, when translating a document into English containing references to the United States Constitution, the translator needs to quote the English text of the Constitution.
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How do we go about solving an equivalency problem? The best way is to exhaust all available resources to understand the concept and find the most appropriate equivalent in the target language. One possible resource is to look at translations into other languages to see how other translators dealt with the problem. As a last resort, you can coin your own equivalent using common sense and your best judgment.
2. Consistency: To be consistent, translators need to ensure that their translations are coherent throughout the document and that they use words and expressions that allow for a continuum when compared to previous texts on the same topic. Consistency does not come easy. It requires constant vigilance and checking.
An even more challenging level of consistency is consistency throughout a set or series of documents. We are not saying that everything needs to be translated exactly the same way all the time, but if you see a set of related documents as telling a story, you do not want it to be a story where the names of the players keep changing all the time. You do not want a person whose name on her passport is “Layla” to be referred to sometimes as “Laila,” or “Leila,” or even “Lily.” Consistency is particularly important in a multi-translator/reviser context. It is crucial that the final document does not look incongruous. Keeping the same equivalents of recurring items, titles, or subtitles in a document is a good example of consistency.
Consistency is hardest to achieve when dealing with several sources. When the translators encounter references (especially direct quotations) from previous documents, they may find that such texts were not translated in a consistent manner. This is an area where modern computer-assisted translation tools can provide valuable help, first by showing the degree of inconsistency in a set of documents, and then by presenting the various options, including terminology, so that translators can make an enlightened choice.
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