Translation Choice Under a Tight Word Count
A Combined Hindi Translators Examination candidate receives a passage of about 250 words of English official prose for translation into Hindi. The passage contains: (i) three long subordinate clauses; (ii) two administrative terms with established Hindi equivalents in the official glossary; (iii) one idiom used figuratively; and (iv) several passive constructions. She has 45 minutes for this passage. Her draft is accurate but she is uncertain whether to render the idiom literally, whether to keep the passive voice, and whether to use the glossary terms or her own paraphrases. She also worries that her Hindi sentence length is drifting to 60+ words per sentence.
1. Advise on the idiom, the passive constructions, and the glossary terms, with reasons.
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Idiom: Render the sense, not the words. A literal translation of a figurative idiom produces Hindi that is grammatically correct but semantically odd. Find the Hindi idiom or plain expression carrying the same meaning and use it; if none fits, state the meaning directly. Accuracy of meaning outranks word-for-word correspondence.
Passive constructions: Hindi official prose tolerates passive, but English passives stacked in one sentence become unreadable in Hindi. Convert some to active or to impersonal constructions, keeping the agent clear. Do not convert mechanically - if the agent is unknown or deliberately suppressed, the passive should stay.
Glossary terms: Use the established equivalents. In a translation examination, deviation from the standard administrative terminology is marked as an error even when the paraphrase is defensible, because the test is of register as much as of meaning. Consistency matters too: once she uses a term, she must use it throughout the passage.
2. She has 45 minutes and her sentences are running past 60 words. Propose a time plan and a sentence-splitting rule.
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Time plan (45 minutes):
- 0–5 min: read the passage once, mark the three long clauses, the idiom and the glossary terms; note the intended Hindi term for each.
- 5–30 min: draft the translation, splitting long English sentences as she goes.
- 30–38 min: revise for terminology consistency and idiom handling.
- 38–43 min: read aloud for sentence length and natural word order.
- 43–45 min: final check of numbers, names and any figures.
Splitting rule: Break a sentence whenever it carries more than one main assertion or exceeds roughly 30–35 words in Hindi. Convert subordinate clauses into separate sentences joined by connectives, or into participial phrases. Preserve logical links - do not drop the causal or concessive relation when splitting; carry it with an explicit connective. Keep the subject of each new sentence clear so the reader does not lose track of who is doing what.