It is interesting how phrases from a different language have come to be used a great deal in English. Consider, for example, the Latin phrase “carpe diem,” generally translated as “seize the day.” Perhaps if this phrase had originated in English, it may have sounded a little odd. How do you “seize” a day? “Seizing” often strikes one as a physical activity which involves reaching out with your arms to grab something. It’s often used as a military term to refer to the capture of a certain place or person.  So “seize the day” almost sounds like a negative thing.

Translation Turns the Negative into the Positive
Since the phrase “seize the day” has been translated from the Latin, we give it a little more free rein and we don’t question the use of the word “seize.”  We take it for granted that seizing the day is something beautiful, filled with optimism and enthusiasm.  Seizing the day is about making the most of things, about living each day fully, as though it were your last.  And it is this seizing of each day that can lead us into a full, happy life.

Translation To Understand the Underlying Meaning of Things
In this way, phrases taken from different languages can attune us to different modes of thinking, feeling and understanding things. Translation services do not just involve taking a piece of writing from a different language and putting a new face to it. They focus on understanding the original even if it differs greatly from what we are used to. And by doing this, we can also enrich our own lives and become more rounded as individuals.

Contact us for Toronto translation services that will get across the underlying significance of your words in addition to their outward meanings.