LINGUA
Literal translations are often deemed as bad ones. This is what you find when you put some idiomatic expressions through an online machine translator such as Google Translate, Reverso, or Babelfish. The internet is a great source but use it wisely, most importantly for single unknown words; I would recommend Word Reference (If not a dictionary, which should always be the first port of call), however for idioms, wider research and breadth of knowledge is almost always imperative.
N.B. Technology is so advanced these days that Google translate can now translate common-place idiomatic expressions such as:
MISTRANSLATIONS
Raining cats and dogs: Piove a dirotto
and even Italian- English translations such as:
Non si può avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca: One can’t have their cake and eat it too.
These successes are not an invitation to put any idiomatic phrase you find into google translate!
Ten minutes of background work on some (perhaps) very colloquial words can make all the difference in making your translation sound authentic, avoiding mistakes like the following:
To get the trots: Trovare i trotti (Googletranslate.com)
Chi molto parla spesso falla: Who
speaks very often leaks It is
actually an idiom saying that
whoever speaks the most often
makes the most mistakes. (Things are
better left unsaid)
BY NED DARLINGTON