Translation of religious texts belongs to the range of extremely professional services provided by linguistic agencies.
The specific nature of religious texts submitted to professional agencies can be varied. These usually are op-ed articles concerning modern confessional issues, the research of culture scholars and theologians published in foreign scientific publications, and ecclesial documents abounding in both particular, legal and financial vocabulary.
In the latter case, the competence of the translator’s work is of paramount importance. It is common practice to submit documents of its kind to international partnership organizations and to relate to the allocation of scholarships, grants, sponsorship of all kinds of construction and humanitarian projects.
Currently, in Kyiv, as in Ukraine in broad terms, a huge number of such projects is being implemented, and in each case, they stand behind the financial accountability of the religious denominations. For this reason, in the course of translating a package from Russian or Ukrainian, it is important not only for the translator to know sacral terminology, but also to understand the canon of the use of each field-specific word in a particular country.
Features of the Scientific, Popular Scientific, Journalistic Religious Texts
The employees of our translation agency in Kyiv have a broad experience working with authoritative studies concerning, for example, translations into the languages of the countries discussed in the researches of our customers. In the case of scientific and cultural studies in the field of Islam, this will be, as a general principle, the group of the Arabic languages, in Judaism – Hebrew, in Buddhism – Hindi.
If you ask our translation agency for assistance with an order representing voluminous research and discourse on the Koran, Bible, Torah and other sacral books, you can be sure that the text will be in the safe hands of a linguist having a command of the discursive vocabulary at the academic level.
Despite the prevalence of the dominant confessions in the world – Catholicism and other Christian denominations, as well as the Orthodox voluminous document management, it is challenging to find a specialist to perform such a specific translation.
The reason is that such texts do not come into the hands of translators very often. In addition, if in context of the English language there are relatively many orders, especially of a religious and legal nature, then with the Eastern and some European languages the issue is considerably complicated.
The work of translators involved in this field is usually situational. These are top-tier specialists who take on a complex academic text upon the appearance of an order related to their own professional activities.
We have a command base of linguists ready to undertake translation not only into English, but also in the rarest languages. Specialists in the field of religious studies cooperate with us on an ongoing basis, completing tasks on time. We are responsible for the promptness and selection of a translator familiar with the given topic, whether it be Christianity or one of the Eastern religions.
Stylistic and Descriptive Features of the Translation of Religious Texts in Various Genres
Religious practices are an essential component of modern culture, and in some circumstances, the dominant state traditional nature.
The vocabulary used in religious texts often goes beyond explanatory (based on historical legacy) and takes the status of juridical terminology, alternately stated, theocratic law.
Depending on the purpose of the text, a scientific and journalistic or academic article, an appointment to an international financial organization, thesis supervision – a subject matter translator chooses the optimal combination of stylistic techniques.
The need of the sources translation is also taken into account. In some cases, they are notorious and reputed in the scientific community. On the other hand, there are some books and documents that have not previously been translated into English. For example, to write a scientific paper devoted to aspects of modern Catholicism, the author can use both canonical sources that exist in various language versions, and little-known ones that need an utterly equivalent translation.
During the translation of fragments of Holy Scriptures, the Apocrypha, the Lives of Saints, sermons, theological summa, the particular importance is given to the observance of the tradition of religious rhetoric and terminology, the possession of established phrases. The specialists of our agency Derzhpereklad work with archaic texts, professionally interpret symbols, accurately convey the author’s allusions to sacral texts that require literal interpretation.
Translation of an accompanying text block, for example, a literature reference or author’s comments, is performed in accordance with the requirements of the publisher or educational institution to which the text is given.