Despite the fact that today there are a huge number of opportunities to translate any text without referring to dictionaries and reference books, as it was quite recently, it is still better to start with this method, tested over the centuries. Since electronic translators are just programs and machines.
Instructions
Step 1
Take the book you want to translate. If you are an inexperienced translator, you will have to translate it from paragraph to paragraph. Professional translators first skim through the entire text, highlight some significant fragments and start translating from them.
Step 2
Read the piece of text you want to translate. If you are going to translate paragraph by paragraph, try to define its general idea, if it is more meaningful, read it again to establish its connection with the main storyline of the book.
Step 3
Write down those words for which you do not know the translation (this can happen with translators of any level). Do not rely on context when translating an unfamiliar word until you find out with the help of a dictionary its exact meaning (or meanings). The most common meanings are given at the beginning of a dictionary entry, figurative meanings, phraseological units - towards the end.
Step 4
Don't translate the text mechanically, word by word. Be sure to take into account the role of each of them in the grammatical structure of the sentence, the author's style and the peculiarities of syntactic structures for a particular language. Consider the role of borrowed words (especially when translating technical and economics texts).
Step 5
After you have translated the text (regardless of your level as a translator), you need to read the entire translation and take care of the spelling, grammar and writing style. If you still find it difficult to define the author's style in the narrative (for fiction), try to read in advance several works of this writer, translated into Russian and published (preferably by a rating publisher). This will help you, at least on an intuitive level, determine the author's style when translating yourself.
