Is translation a science or an art?

Translation goes under languages and these are considered Humanities, and so it is not a science.

This is a science which needs art.

Translation is a science in the very beginning and  an art through practice. We can say it may be a mixture

of talent,experience, wide knowledge and qualifications.

Whether you believe that translation can be considered an art depends, I think, on whether you are yourself a translation services professional. For the non-translation worker it seems obvious that translation is not an art form, but rather a craft or a science (probably the former) because unlike art there is no firm set of rules and algorithms you can follow.

it's a complex question, translation is a practice, something that requires knowledge and a creative mind but it does not follow absolute laws and rules, it's rather a normative practice, that's why a text could have a variety of good and bad translations but never a unique correct version, for this reason translation is often interpretation, however translation could be sometimes almost identical in very technical and scientific texts.Translation is definitely not a formal science like maths and logic but it requires us (very often) to respect standard rules of the target language, from this perspective a translator needs to have a good background in grammar and linguistics in general as well as in the cultures of the source and target languages.    

It's an art before it's a science .

it's important to study but to be professional you have to be talented

Hi Ahmad,

 It is a mix, you have to study the translation theories and strategies in order to become a good translator. Translation is an art, but you can't achieve good translation without applying the theories.