Is my book hard to translate? Seven signs to check in advance

A book that's hard to translate is one where the form matters as much as the meaning: rhymes, wordplay, slang that defines a character, or text that has to fit a specific space on the page. A book like that can be translated, and books like that are translated all the time. But it will take more time, more decisions and more involvement from you. Here are seven signs to check before you start.

Why some books are harder to translate

Most of the text in a book crosses from one language to another without drama. "She opened the door and stepped out into the rain" sounds fine in any language.

The trouble starts when the words themselves are part of the experience. A rhyme works only because of the sound. A pun works only because one word has two meanings. The moment you switch languages, the sound and the double meaning disappear, and the translator has to build something new.

Seven signs your book is hard to translate

1. Rhyme and meter. A rhyming children's book, poems inside a novel, or prose written to a precise rhythm. You can almost never keep both the words and the rhyme. You have to choose.

2. Wordplay. A joke that rests on a word with two meanings, or on two words that sound alike. In another language it won't work, and a different joke has to be invented in the same spot.

3. Names with a meaning. A character called Tal (Hebrew for "dew") because she's soft and quiet, or a dog called Shoko (Hebrew for chocolate milk) because he's brown. A reader in another language won't hear the meaning. We wrote about names in translation in why the heroine's name changes halfway through a translated book.

4. Slang, accents and broken speech. A character who talks in the slang of a particular neighborhood, a grandmother with an accent, or a child who speaks with mistakes. All of these have to be rebuilt in the new language without turning the character into a caricature.

5. Quotations from well-known sources. Verses from the Bible, lines from songs, prayers, or a quote from another book. Some already have an accepted translation in the target language, and some have rights holders. Both need checking.

6. Several languages inside the book. A Hebrew book with sentences in Yiddish, Arabic or Russian. In the original, the second language says something about the character. In translation you have to decide: keep it, translate it, or mark it some other way.

7. Text that has to fit a space. An illustrated children's book where the text sits inside the picture, a comic, or a book with a precise page design. If the translation comes out longer, and from Hebrew it usually does, it simply won't fit.

What to do with a book that's hard to translate

Don't give up. Plan.

Test a small piece first. Choose the hardest page in the book, the one with the rhyme or the joke, and translate only that. You'll find out very quickly whether the approach works. We wrote about this in translating a sample chapter first.

Mark the hard spots in advance. A list of every pun, every name with a meaning and every quotation saves the translator guesswork and saves you surprises.

Decide what matters more. In a rhyming book, what matters more: the exact story or the rhyme? In a joke, the original word or the laugh? There's no right answer, but there has to be an answer, and it has to be yours.

Plan to be available. A translator working on a hard book will have questions. An author who answers quickly gets a better translation, and gets it sooner.

Accept that it will take longer. One rhyming page can take longer than a whole chapter of ordinary prose. That's not a sign that something is wrong.

Hard to translate doesn't mean not worth translating

Quite the opposite. The books that are hard to translate are usually the ones with the most character, and that character is what readers will remember. The question isn't whether to translate, but how to choose the right route for your book.

If your book rhymes, is full of humor or is built around page design, consider a route where a person goes over the translation, not just a machine. We wrote about the differences between the routes in a short glossary of translation methods. More questions are collected in our frequently asked questions.