On "English" and translation

A fairly significant portion of my professional work has been translation-related, and over the years I've accumulated stories and insights that most people probably wouldn't consider (which is to be expected; I'm sure there are plenty of interesting aspects in hydraulic engineering that I can't even begin to understand). Some of it is just hard to grasp conceptually due to lack of familiarity with the field, but some of it makes intuitive sense once explained.

Here's a simple example - if you're doing a Japanese to English translation of a song, how do you translate the English lyrics? Anime fans will quickly relate to the experience of listening to a Japanese song, happily head-banging along with a catchy beat and melody that you don't understand but enjoy nonetheless when all of a sudden:

このままじゃまだ終わらせる事は出来ないでしょ
何度くたばりそうでも朽ち果てようとも
終わりはないさ
So where do I begin

randomly pops up in Japanese-accented English. (fairly common in Japanese pop songs) There's no real right or wrong way to translate this. Personally, if there is conflict between being faithful to the text and effective expression of the author's intent, I generally lean towards the latter. Idioms are a good example, in which going with intent is almost universally accepted.

What style you choose depends largely on your audience. In this case, I'm translating a Japanese pop song into English, so it's likely English speakers are now the target audience. Now that seems like a ridiculously obvious thing to say, but I just want to underscore that an English word in a Japanese song "feels" quite different from an English word in an English song, and it's not because of the accent.

Lyrically, I try to capture the feeling that the song would have produced for its original audience. In this case, that would be "Japanese people". The typical Japanese person takes at least 7 years of English classes in school, so even though the average Hashimoto on the street is terrible at conversation, he can read and understand English semi-competently. So the English lyrics aren't just a mixture of completely alien sounds, but words he might sort of but not necessarily understand completely - something familiar, yet enticingly foreign. (of course, that is my assumption about why there are English lyrics in Japanese songs, the actual reason varies by artist)

For the song above (Just Give Me a Reason by One OK Rock), my translation might look like this:

There's no way for me to end this myself
Even if I nearly die, even if I nearly decay
There is still no ending in sight
Donde debo comenzar

Wait, what? Is that Spanish?

Well, yeah. If I keep it in English, the song doesn't feel the same way it might have to its original audience. Many Americans take at least a few years of Spanish, and I think it's the closest comparison I can think of to "English to a Japanese person".

Like I said, there's no right or wrong answer. In some regards, translation is more of an art than a science, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, in that by the time our robotic overlords figure out how to translate nuance effectively, I'll hopefully be long retired.