#not to mention sometimes people just have wildly different tastes so you don't know unless you look at it yourself

[writeouswriter]

People sorting ao3 solely by stats and only clicking on fics with a certain amount of kudos or comments, you will not survive the winter, nor the summer, nor at all, *brings out knife,* run

[hazuki-no-yume]

Hi! I have been a fan of Hazumi no yume and youtaites for a while now . The recent drama has torn me to bits. I don't think either side is innocent in what has happened. I do believe that people should credit the translator's lyrics, but I also think it is hard to judge if someone used their translation especially if it is close or is a direct translation, sometimes when translating translator's will change the lyrics to give off a different vibe. More in part 2

Part 2) When using those lyrics that have been changed to give a different feeling is used for a translyric and doesn’t give the name of the translator that is a problem. But I don’t see a reason to go after someone who used a basic straightforward translation to sing. I hope this drama will end and both sides can learn from this experience!

Sorry I forgot to put something in my previous ask(s). Even though someone uses a straightforward close to the original or just use someone else’s translation in general should still put down the original translator in the citation for their covers.

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I’m going to assume all of these are together!! If anything, if you want to send a big chunk of text or a string of anons, either send it via Submit and mention you want to be Anonymous or try to put a nickname in each ask so I can group them together!

In any case, yeah, this is the biggest issue about the whole “translation and credit” thing. 

The thing about Vocaloid songs (and songs in general!!!) is that they’re finite. If a line in Britney Spears’ Toxic goes “With a taste of your lips I’m on a ride”, you can’t really debate and say something wildly different; you have to stick true to translation and meaning of the song! So no one can really make “original translations” because the song is still going to be the same song no matter who deciphers it. No one can take Britney’s song and claim it says “Your lips make me want to ride away” or “With a taste of your hips I wanna sway”; songs are finite whereas writing, art, anything else doesn’t really have these borders, you know?

But even so!! Interpretation, word arrangement, the hours spent hearing the song and listening and going from subs to translation is very personal to the translator! You can’t just take these babies and run them into Google Translate, because then you get something like “Paper Jam” turned into “marmelada de papel” in Spanish (which literally means jam made out of paper, like, as if it was grape jelly. But paper. Paper jelly. Ew.). Translators do their best to come up with the same emotions and expressions that play throughout the song and then put them in a format that one can easily read and digest.

[ Update: An Anon explains it much better in this post! I don’t really edit my stuff nor delete it for the sake of integrity and admitting that I was wrong, but please refer to this submission on about how distinct translations can be! ]

That’s why when it comes to “it’s hard to judge who’s using who’s translation”, it’s best to just be honest about it. Maybe so and so didn’t use HnY’s translation, and that’s cool! They could use someone else’s, but it’s really fishy that like, unless they’ve established themselves as both a translator and cover artist, that they come up with similar lyrics, you know? It’s all about honestly.

Bottom line, unless you yourself hand-crafted your own translation from a song and adapted it into your own, you should credit whatever resource you use that helped you get your final product. Otherwise it is plagiarizing and then stuff like this happens where content makers feel shafted. Even if you think it’s a little thing!!! Especially if you decide to use said content despite not liking the person!!!

Like even on a professional level, you can’t just willy-nilly pluck translations from god knows where and then belt your heart out if you’re selling yourself based on voice, accuracy, and performance. Would people want to pay a youtaite for selling them an incorrect cover of a song? No, so then they should cite their sources for their translations unless they did it 100% themselves and if they were truthful about it. Like if you HAVE to throw basic morality out of the window, then you need to at least consider that credit is the PROFESSIONAL thing to do, and that if you don’t like a certain translator, then you find another one or you learn the language yourself!

That way when confronted you don’t say “uhm, no? this pisses me off that you’re accusing me” and then crack and say “well, I diiiiiiid kinda use their work” right after. That way translators don’t have to start witch hunts and hunt down lyrics that are vaguely similar to theirs. It’s communication!! It’s all about communication and honesty as a community. ; w;

I got suuuuuuper long winded there. ; o; I’m sorry. I felt the need to get this off of my chest in hopes that people can understand this decade-long issue.