Avoiding bad translations and dealing with bad originals

Sometimes, bad translations aren't neccessarily the fault of translator. Rather, the blame lies with the original text.

As translators, though, part of our job is to try and figure out what the hell the original author intended, even when he/she doesn't know themselves.

Sometimes this can be more or less difficult depending on the type of translation and how careful the client was when putting the original together.

So the question then becomes one of trying to figure out what to do when we come across errors in the original text. There are diferent options we can choose from and different circumstances warrant diferent responses.

Use your own judgement
Even though it is the most common response, asking the client might not always be the most convenient. Say, for example, that you're translating informal communications like email or letters. A lot of times, people don't use the correct pronunciation or accent marks when writing and this can lead to a poor original. If the translator is still able to decipher what the intention of the author was, there's no need to ask.

Ask the client
Sometimes there's so much confusion in the original that you need to ask the client what was intended. It can also be important to clarify with the client when abbreviations are given or when numbers are in the text without having their units or measurements specified.

I don't think it's a good idea to ask about every little question, though, because this can get annoying for clients, especially when they think you should know the answer.

What I do is look over the translation project, maybe go through a rough translation, and write down anything I need clarification with. This way I have a list of things to ask the client and only need to do it once.

Follow the original
Anyone that has been a translator for any length of time knows that ambiguity is common in source language documents. A particular section or sentence might have multiple meanings or possibilities and it might be impossible to know what the author meant just by reading the original.

Well, in this case, one option that you might consider is trying to translate the ambiguity so that it exists in the target language as well. This isn't something that is doable all the time, but there might be instances when it would work. By keeping the ambiguity, you ensure that you're remaining faithful to the original, while at the same time avoiding wasting time with a bad translation.