busca un impacto

16:24 Feb 25, 2010 

I can most definitely assure you that I've had many more problems of this type when translating from English to Spanish. However, I don't think our job is to "prettify" a text, but to make it coherent and intelligble. WE are the so-called language experts and not the people who write the originals. That's my opinion anyway. Also, don't forget the number of different dialects in which one term may sound "vulgar" in one and in others it may be perfectly normal.

16:09 Feb 25, 2010 

This brings up something I've been thinking about for a long time: the suggested English translations all sound much better than the crude Spanish original. I ask: is it a translator's job to prettify the text? In the translation, shouldn't we reproduce the vulgarity of the original? That woiuld seem to be a requirement for an accurate translation.

15:32 Feb 25, 2010 

Well, I'm not going to get into a linguistic discussion here. I'm only a translator. But one thing I must point out, Neil, is that IMPACT can very easily be used as an intransitive verb. Consider: to impact in the sense of to crash or similar; to impact against a wall, a lamp post or whatever; and to impact ON something or someone. Check it out in worthwhile dictionaries.

15:17 Feb 25, 2010 

And "impact" is NOT a verb in English. No. It's not big and it's not clever.

14:44 Feb 25, 2010 

I can't refrain from pointing out that such a clumsy and oafish expression as "buscar un impacto" could only have been written by a half-literate marketing executive. Instead of "buscar", another verb or collocation should have been used, such as "pretender". Of course this would require replacement of "impacto" as well. "Impacto" is a term dear to the hearts of vulgarians, who vastly prefer it to more traditional terms like "efecto", "consecuencia" and the like.