No, this is not the name of a new movie, it's just what I feel a translator (and an interpreter) should be. Lately I've done some work on translation, and one of those was to translate keywords (as in search engine keywords) into portuguese. My employer provided me with some long lists of keywords, and wanted me to translate them into Portuguese, maintaining the cultural meaning. Well, that's pretty much the same thing as saying he wasn't interested in automatic translation, he actually wanted them to have a cultural equivalent.
As I was working, I was focused on what I was doing, but afterwards, it got me thinking. Machine translation maybe all good and nice and a quick way to clarify something, but it won't replace the human translator because it can't match the cultural meanings, just words. That's it. But the truth is, the Superbowl doesn't mean anything to Portuguese people, be it in Portugal or in Brasil, but if you say Final do Campeonato de Futebol, well, it does have a similar meaning, it is a similar event.
So, the translator needs to be a diplomat. A translator needs to match not only the words, but also the cultural meanings behind the texts that one is working on. And also, the obvious one, it needs to be carefull to maintain the same message. Being a diplomat means you stay faithfull to your client needs while making sure that the target audience understands what it's being asked.
That being said, the translator is above all, a diplomat between languages, in my humble opinion.
