The four problems faced by the translator of a text to the letter

by Alberto Bramati

When working in any language pairs and on any type of text, translators who aspire to capturing not only the meaning but also the linguistic characteristics of the original will always meet with four types of problem: 1) lexical problems linked with the different codification of meanings in various languages; 2) grammatical problems linked with the rules that the speakers of every language must respect; 3) rhetorical problems linked with the need to reproduce any figures of speech present in the source text; 4) problems of rhythm linked with the need to recreate a well-balanced and efficient rhythm in the target text.