[Translator's Afterword]
*Check*Check*Check* 1, 2, 3...... wait a second, I'm typing this, not speaking it. Well, here goes nothing.
Hello to you all, it's me, Maza Miya, the translator who has translated the series *obviously* *cough* anyway, I'm not going to type much (maybe), and so, let's get into it.
Uhhh, I don't know how to put this better, but first of all, I'd like to talk about my experience translating the series.
To say the least, it had its own up-and-down moments; it wasn't that great, but it wasn't that bad either; sometimes I just want to stop, but sometimes I have feelings I wanted to continue with this; my IRL stuff doesn't help either; and well, all in all, the fact that I made it all the way here alone just makes me really happy and glad.
That said.
I've read reviews at Novelupdates about this novel. I pay attention not to the story but to how they judge my translation, and I must say I'm quite disheartened. Not enough to stop me though.
You see, if you are an avid reader, or maybe someone who has read a lot, you might notice, you can't help but notice, the quality of my translation. Well, let's just get straight to the point: they are stiff. Yes, they are stiff. I won't make any excuses for that, I think. but still, I would like to at least give you an explanation on why, not only because the raw is like that, but also other things.
You see, GoogleTL and other MTLs (Machine Translation) often skip a lot of kanji. They also often just omit a lot of things. Be it things that matter or things that don't, well, it can't be helped really; I mean, the very popular MTL amongst translators that is Deepl is no different either. So what I did was pretty simple; I included all those things and made it a sentence; a paragraph; and even went so far as to match the author's story telling style. And thus, the result was that, the stiffness. I won't go as far as to say I included ALL meanings that were skipped that I found during translating, but yeah, I did. I did include many.
Well, after I had a realization that was caused by many factors (not really) such as the comment section, that one knowledgeable person who came so suddenly pointing out many of my mistakes, and the people who also came to fix and suggest better lines, and well, the biggest of all came from reviews at novelupdate, I changed my way.
Starting from Chapter 59, you can tell the difference between before and now. and I hope that could suit the taste of many readers even if a little bit, and if not, then I can say this with confidence, with conviction even, that I don't know what to do. I'm just a lone translator after all, I might as well just raise my two hands if it came to that, seriously.
And so, that will be all for the reason why.
For the next, it will be about what I'm going to do from here on out.
And that is, to focus wholly on my IRL, but also do some translation once in a while. The reason for this is that right now I am quite literally not in any position to leisurely just translate and do nothing. The FanTL that I did is free after all. and thus why I chose not to commit myself to ever finishing any series again. There are those I undoubtedly liked to the point where I wanted to finish it (Villainess Brother) but I don't think it's a good idea to do it, at least not right now.
So as a translator, what I will do from here on out is just promote the series that I like, and who knows, maybe other translators will pick it up because of demand; no one ever knew what would happen, right.
With all that being said folks, it's been a pleasure to be with you all, this series has been doing great at occupying my mind this whole month; this and that happened; I'm truly sorry for the inconvenience that I have caused; and so forth. And at last, thank you for sticking with this series all the way to the end. Well then, see you all next time, Byebye!!!
Thanks for your hard work
ReplyDeleteIt's not long but it's been a ride
ReplyDeleteAs much as the translation was stiff it was still a lot better than most other translations I've read and wasn't tiring to read so great job and thank you for translating this cute story
ReplyDeleteEnglish IS n'ont my native language, but i can understand what other implies when they say it's "stiff", for me thé main probleme (if i may say) is that sometimes you do basic error, what i want to say by that is that you can write a good chapter well translated but with many confusing sentences, something like "you can't not be surprises" when you can just say "you can be surprises", you also use "isn't it" or didn't it
ReplyDelete"didn't it" at the end of a sentence without a "?" at the end or just use it when it isn't needed, except from those (at least for me) it's a realy good translation, that Said, il realy thankful to you for translation the wn
DeleteHave a nice day !
I'm* and translating* (it was my autocorrector sry)
DeleteThank you for your kind presence.
Delete"You also use "isn't it" or didn't it," the thing with that is that I can't help it. The Japanese, that is to say, the raw, would use words at the end of sentences as if they were trying to make sure of themselves/itself. They are not even using question marks, I've read a bunch of sources saying that if at the end of sentences, it uses "か, ka," that's automatically a question, but I beg to disagree. Because, in my opinion, the MC did not try to ask, did not try to inquire, but acted more like a casual confirmation to oneself, most of the time.
Remember that, the thing I translate, does not come from myself. Sure, now that I have changed my ways, I won't do that kind of thing anymore, maybe, but for things like "something like 'you can't not be surprises' when you can just say 'you can be surprises'," I think I might do a lot. The reason why is because the MC is trying to act cool by saying lines that look as if he is trying to have confidence and determination. If I were to just use "have, must," it wouldn't have the same effect as the one I read in the raw.