Literal translation  Literal translation, direct translation or word-for-word translation, is a translation of a text done by translating each word separately, without looking at how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence. In translation theory, another term for "literal translation" is "metaphrase" and for phrasal ("sense") translation — "paraphrase." Literal translation leads to mistranslating of idioms, which is a serious problem for machine translation. The term "literal translation" often appeared in the titles of 19th-century English translations of classical, Bible and other texts. Word-for-word translations ("cribs," "ponies", or "trots") are sometimes prepared for a writer who is translating a work written in a language he does not know. For example, Robert Pinsky is reported to have used a literal translation in preparing his translation of Dante's "Inferno" (1994), as he does not know Italian. Similarly, Richard Pevear worked from literal translations provided by his wife, Larissa Volokhonsky, in their translations of several Russian novels. Literal translation can also denote a translation that represents the precise meaning of the original text but does not attempt to convey its style, beauty, or poetry. There is, however, a great deal of difference between a literal translation of a poetic work and a prose translation. A literal translation of poetry may be in prose rather than verse, but also be error free. Charles Singleton's translation of "The Divine Comedy" (1975) is regarded as a prose translation. "Literal" translation implies that it is probably full of errors, since the translator has made no effort to convey, for example, correct idioms or shades of meaning, but it might be also useful in seeing how words are used to convey a meaning in the source language. A literal English translation of the German word ""Kindergarten"" would be "children garden," but in English the expression refers to the school year between pre-school and first grade. Literal translations in which individual components within words or compounds are translated to create new lexical items in the target language (a process also known as “loan translation”) are called calques, e.g., “beer garden” from German “Biergarten.” Literal translation of the Italian sentence, ""So che questo non va bene"" ("I know that this is not good"), produces "Know(I) that this not goes(it) well," which has English "words" and Italian "grammar".