People generally tend to believe that translation is merely the mechanical replacement of languages, and therefore anybody can be a translator if he/she happens to know a foreign language.
This is absolutely wrong! Knowledge of foreign languages is no guarantee that a translation will be rendered fairly well. The skill of translating is to make the right interpretation of the meaning in the target language. Therefore, a translator should understand the gist of the subject besides having good knowledge of a language, including grammar, syntax, and spelling rules.
So a good knowledge of the subject of a translation is part and parcel of the translation process. A skilled translator, however, has something else! It is his talent.
And now we are approaching the greatest challenge of a translation: how to find the proper balance between delivering the sense and beauty of the initial text and making the target translation