How to translate a book from English to Russian

Decide what will be your main in the source text. Translation, the purpose of which was to preserve the precise wording (for example, in the popular scientific or philosophical work), is very different from translation, which the author tried to convey the poetry of the words and melody of speech.

Be sure to use a dictionary. If the exact translation of the word you do not know — do not try to guess its meaning by context. Sometimes this guess can be correct, but most often it is wrong.

The rules of English require clarifying pronouns, e.g. “He nodded his head”. In the Russian language clarifying pronouns are used only when their situation becomes uncertain. The phrase should not be translated as "He nodded his head," and how "He nodded," or even better "He nodded" because the Russian verb already implies the kind of body part is the action.

Words different languages that are similar not only in meaning but also in sound or spelling, are called "friends". However, much more common "false friends": words that sound or are spelled similar, but represent different things. For example, the English borrowed from Russian, the word babushka is translated into Russian not as "grandma," but as "headscarf".



To find whole dictionaries of "false friends of translator". Refer to them whenever you find that one or another English word similar to the Russian.

In those cases where the dictionary gives the English words multiple meanings — check final version for context. For example, the adjective Caucasian can mean "Caucasian, belonging to the Caucasus," and "belonging to the white race, Caucasian".



Similarly, Georgian adjective, depending on context, translates as "Georgian", "located in the U.S. state of Georgia" or "belonging to the era of king George in England." In the latter sense it is often used in reference to a style of furniture.

In English literary works very often several synonyms are used together to amplify meaning. For example, the exclamation "I hate you, I abhor you!" the verb to hate and to abhor denote "hate". Translating a similar phrase, depending on context, are the same Russian synonyms or rephrase the sentence, keeping his intonation in color.

The translator, especially a beginner, it is sometimes difficult to keep in mind the context in a few sentences or paragraphs. So be sure to reread your work to identify and correct stylistic and factual errors: repetition of the same words translated without taking into account previous events, etc.