These are not at all the same and in fact serve very different purposes.
While it is true that in certain situations a so-called “straight” translation is not appropriate (as in advertising, for example), it is not true that all good translations are, in fact, adaptations. Actually, a good translation is NOT an adaptation. A truly good translation must remain true to the full context of the source text in terms of meaning, style, appearance, register, and message. The words used to convey it are just as important as the message, and while one must of course take into account what the reader will or will not understand in the target language, the translator cannot really be allowed to take “liberties” with the text. If it is addressed to a particular audience and written in a particular register in the source language, it must be addressed to the appropriate audience and written in the appropriate register in the target language.
An adaptation, on the other hand, takes the ideas of the original text and rewrites them in a completely new way. The source text can be slightly modified to appeal more to a new audience (ie a different marketing sector, class or age group, for example) or it can be placed in a different environment. Adaptations are most common in literary, poetic, or advertising media, where you may choose to forgo either the media (form) or the literal meaning in favor of conveying a particular message or emotion, if one or the other is deemed more important to the story. individual situation.
Before deciding how much adaptation is necessary, the translator must consider the purpose of the document in terms of its use and audience. For example, a letter translated for court use must say exactly what is said, with no change in message or medium. The same letter, if it is to be sent to a potential client or politically, for example, may need to be adapted a bit, as the format of a letter in French is often different from the format of a letter in English (different salutations, different way of signing, different way of writing the address) and paragraphs can even be rearranged to focus on the same notions but in a way or order that is more engaging or persuasive in the reader’s culture, to make a sale or an ally.
The same kind of decision can be made about whether to translate or adapt a literary work. For example, “Romeo et Juliette” is a translation intended to present Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” as written, but for a French audience, while “West Side Story” is an adaptation that creates a new version of it. story, but with a twist that is bound to appeal to a 20th-century music-loving American audience, different from its 16th-century English theater counterpart. Both, however, are equally good but serve different purposes.
Most “translated” poetry is also the result of adaptation and not translation, because it is nearly impossible to convey the same emotions to readers of another culture while retaining the same form and words as the original poem. Poetry, like advertising, is very personal and very cultural; metaphors change from culture to culture, as do stylistic preferences, which is what poetry is often about. This is not to say that poetic translations never take place, but they are extremely rare.
A related notion is that of location. This is where this concept gets complicated, because although localization often implies translation, it belongs to a very specific modern reality. Localization is the process used to tailor a product or service (typically software and websites, but can also include products that come with many manuals and accessory packs) to a desired local language, culture, and appearance. ” When localizing a product, in addition to idiomatic language translation, details such as time zones, currencies, national holidays, local color sensitivities, product or service names, gender roles, and geographic examples should be considered. A service or product Successfully localized is one that appears to have been developed within the local culture.(But remember that the same can often be said for a translation or an adaptation.) Localized texts include texts that may have to be produced several times in the same language, but adjusted for dialect differences and other cultural differences (elevator vs. elevator, metric vs. imperial measurements, etc.), or texts that specifically address an area where that language is spoken (eg, US). v. UK, Quebec v. France.) However, this is not an adaptation, because the same content and message are often still expressed in the same way. a, and such products are often designed to be easily localized without the need to change formatting, styling, or images.
Meanwhile, it is not just translations of scientific and legal texts that require fidelity to the text, often referred to as “direct” translations (note that this does not mean “word for word”). Newspaper articles must retain all of the same facts and be directed at a corresponding audience in the target language community. Government documents, corporate literature, public information brochures, travel guides, textbooks and many other types of texts must retain the same content, register, style and format when translated, even respecting the structure, grammar and cultural background of the recipient. idiom. Otherwise, it no longer has a translation but has been moved to the adaptation area.
In short, a true translation must be written in a way that is natural and appropriate for the target language, but does not deviate from the essence of the source text; nothing may be added to, deleted from, or otherwise altered from the source. A true adaptation is a reinvention of the message to suit a new audience, be it a new language or a different age or cultural group, modern vs. earlier time, etc.