What translation is: kinds and approaches

Translation moves material from a Source Language (SL) text (ST) into a Target Language (TL) text (TT), keeping the meaning; literary translation is close to creative writing. A translator needs two languages and two linguistic systems with their literature and culture.

In a multilingual country like India we switch languages all the time; the rupee note itself carries the same information in many languages and scripts.

Three types: intra-lingual (within one language, e.g. Hamlet rewritten in contemporary English), inter-lingual (between languages, e.g. Kamleshwar's 'A Death in Delhi') and inter-semiotic (into another sign system — sign language, dance, film, graphs).

A translation should do the same job as the original: an advert should still persuade, a science text should give exact information, and a literary text should read like literature in the TL.

Literal (word for word) versus free (sense for sense) translation; the product approach (how far SL material is replaced by TL equivalents) versus the process approach (understand the nuances, culture and grammar of the SL first).