Translation v transcreation: what IS the difference?

I translate from French to English in the travel sector, and the kind of translations I provide are rarely word-for-word affairs. In fact, they’re ‘transcreations’ rather than translations, which ultimately means they’re less faithful to the original but more relevant to the Anglophone reader. Why, you might ask, wouldn’t I simply provide a strict translation?

Because French marketing copy, designed for an audience of French nationals to read, can be very poetic and wouldn’t always work well for readers in the UK. Allow me to put that to the test: what would your reaction be if you read ‘Like the scent of a rose, serenity seizes your soul the moment you step inside your suite.’? Yep, you’re more likely to snigger than make a booking. (I’m guessing.)  

Equally, there’s no point in retaining any references in the original text to niche French culture as they’ll almost certainly be meaningless to most readers in the UK. I might therefore seek parity in a British cultural reference, like substituting a Balzac for a Brontë for example, or I might stick with a French cultural reference but make it one that UK readers would be more likely to be familiar with. All context-dependent of course.

Almost certainly the most important thing to do in transcreation is to remind yourself who the end reader is. I frequently translate for the Hauts-de-France tourist board (loosely speaking that’s the region within the Calais-Paris-Lille triangle) for whom I always bear in mind that (a) most visitors from the UK have driven from the ferry/tunnel so might welcome a mention of driving times from Calais (b) that because it’s just the other side of the Channel there’s a fair chance they’ve just come for the weekend, so I’ll ensure they know how to make the most of 36 hours in…, and (c) that they’re also quite likely to be frequent Channel hopping Francophiles, so I reckon I can leave the odd French word untranslated (flatter the reader, always!).

The end result might differ enormously from the original, but in retaining the key points, tailoring the content to the readership, employing an appropriate and consistent tone of voice, it makes for a much more relevant and engaging read for the consumer, which all ends up reflecting brilliantly on the brand.

Here’s an example of some content I worked on for Hauts-de-France Tourisme. Click here for the source text and here for the transcreation. For the sections ‘Présentation’, ‘Services’, ‘Tarif’, and ‘Bonnes Adresses’ I applied a pretty strict word-for-word translation. For the body copy, I took the key points from the source text and transcreated for the UK market.