#saltprince unsalted

[saltprince]

BTT#1: Details & More

Kicking off a new series of posts called Behind The Translation (BTT), where I'll ramble about what I think makes translations work and what goes into mine. They'll feature more general topics on fan translation (like this first one), but I also plan on including deep dives into translations I've done as supplementary reference for those that are interested in that. I'm aiming to have these posts be interesting for anyone, regardless of if you do translation/know several languages or if you consider yourself more of a viewer!

Without further ado, let's get into what goes into translations (especially song translations) as a whole: details & more.

Whether you know the source language or not, sometimes a translation just doesn't seem to make sense. It's not even necessarily a mistranslation-- something just doesn't seem right, and you can't always figure out why that is. It doesn't hit right, it feels off.

When doing translation, there is a lot to account for. It's not just about taking language 1 and converting it into language 2. Depending on the person and the content, there can be a lot of caveats and details to keep track of, and sometimes you have no choice but to. I'll be listing a number of points to pay attention to when looking for or doing translation. In my experience, missing out (or not making a conscious decision on) any of these points can cause a translation's quality to suffer.

Intent

Before anything else, the intent of the translator is important. How true do you want to stay to the source material? Do you want to do a transliteration or something more akin to localization? Do you care more about the message, or more about literally reflecting the source material? You have to decide this before anything else, otherwise you'll risk fighting yourself down the line. Making this choice keeps things consistent both for you and your readers.

As a side note, especially translation from Japanese can catch a lot of heat from people that much prefer transliterations.

Decide for yourself what kind of content you want to see or what kind of content you want to provide.

Don't go to the fish market for bread, and don't become a bakery when you want to provide fish.

Context

For the sake of consistency, there's another choice to make: how on top do you want to be of references? In the case of the GBF song niche, majority of the songs feature references to the characters' units/kits and lore/story. Songs like Pledge of the Tempest and Cafe de Parinai have a lot of references to the character lore, but also had strong character voices/speech quirks to maintain.

While in some cases you can get by with just translating it straight, it might make your translation less accurate or even plain wrong.

You don't always have to sweat the finer details, but catching on and implementing these details will almost always elevate your work.

Even professionals can and will miss the details from time to time, even issuing changes to reprints if severe enough. This means you're not just doing translation: depending on how far you want to go, you have to do your homework on the broader context of the story being told. For bigger projects, it's entirely valid to keep a glossary of recurring words and themes to reference for consistency-- and this can be helpful even for smaller projects if it saves you the headspace.

Connecting cultures

Related to context, something often overlooked is the sheer amount of cultural references implemented in stories. This goes beyond the context of the story itself or the characters themselves. Cultural references, customs, specific food, religious references, landmarks, the list goes on. Again, this is additional homework you may be doing a lot of depending on what it is you're translating. How you end up localizing or translating this depends entirely on you and the source material. A good example of this is the song Small Fish in a Small Pond, which is loaded with religious references.

It's also important to keep your target audience in mind, if you have one.

In some cases, it might be better to call a supermarket a supermarket instead of opting for what's probably an American or European chain, potentially alienating readers. However, as the world has gotten more intertwined, translation has changed alongside it. Years ago, 7/11 wouldn't be acceptable for translation. Even "konbini" would be translated as a supermarket for accessibility. It's another balancing act.

Language

On the topic of songs, lyrics can get quite poetic. They may (half) rhyme. they'll follow a cadence. Even viewers that don't catch onto the exact meaning of the lyrics may feel that your energy or cadence differs. Straight translations are fine, but allow yourself to play with the rhythm of sections-- this is also true for written content. Even buildups and punchlines in books are laid out in a way that follows a rhythm. Something that shows character, anticipation, energy. Songs like Welcome to the PARADE! and STARDUST CHILDREN greatly benefited from the translation paying more attention to the rhythm, energy, and rhymes of the lyrics-- it retained personality of the original without feeling wordy.

You'd think I won't have to mention this given translation is about bridging languages, but I think it deserves to be highlighted. Translation is a great way to get immersed in language and force your brain to think about how lines work in different languages. What many seem to forget is that this means you have to at least know one of the languages intimately. While it's true you may learn something new for any of the involved languages, you'll want your vocabulary to grow alongside your work. Something phrased beautifully in one language, or cleverly referenced, won't hit if you cannot find the right words for it. Far too many times have I seen translations with the right idea that aren't even trying to be literal, they merely cannot seem to find the right words, causing the translation to fall flat. Again, we learn more about both languages the more we work with the languages in question. It's a work in progress, always. This isn't meant as an insult: it's proof that working with languages is an art, too.

When doing translation, don't forget you're working with more than one language. They deserve equal attention.

I'd highly encourage anyone who's interested in translation to not just find out what it says; find out what it means. A hundred words couldn't be enough to describe some things, and other times a single word can echo on forever.

Translation and you

Translation is fun. (Fan) translation is needed and appreciated. For those interested in offering translations, I'd say go for it. Whether it's just for yourself, or your group of friends, or for a bigger platform. It's a great way to learn and be more involved with media you love. It can be daunting, and you may find yourself stuck sometimes-- but that's part of it. You can make a small difference. Your work doesn't have to be perfect from the start, especially not if you keep things small. Stay humble, and stay openminded.

If you're on the opposite side and rely on translation to get more content to consume: be kind. Decide what kind of translation you look for, and support those that offer it without bringing others down. Translation can be daunting, and the reception of it doubly so. We've already lost so much enthusiasm, lost so many translators to offhand comments and demands. Keep your fandom alive by being supportive.

You can make a small difference.

[saltprince]

For Tien, I think it's much more about keeping it in sight as a reminder and to ensure it's still there than it is about showing it off, necessarily. Though if given the chance she probably would gush about it...

Tien 🤝 Siete

Wanting to show their Vday gift off to everyone

Congratulations, at least one of your little siblings is taking after you

But also, aaaw, look at them

what a thing to point out. Feower would hear you say that and tear you apart because why are you insulting his precious sister like this.

but YEAAAH THEM 😭😭

[saltprince]

Channel update: You may have noticed some GBFes videos have gone missing from the channel and youtube as a whole. There's currently a purge going on on youtube relating to GBFes videos.

Videos that went offline due to copyright claims so far:

Nier - Shi ni itaru Koi (GBFes version)

Vikala - Welcome to the PARADE! (GBFes version)

Sandalphon - Orison (GBFes version)

More GBFes songs from the channel may follow, I currently cannot say. In the meantime, I'll be unlisting the GBFes videos that are left so that they hopefully will evade detection. While it's extremely discouraging, if these are legit claims I won't be disputing them in order to keep the rest of the channel safe. Fan translation is a legally gray area as is, and I won't be pretending otherwise.

[saltprince]

If they don't save Seofon at the next cosplay show I am personally flying over to Japan and throttling the cosplayers who are completely innocent in all of this

No I think you should go straight for sieten't actually

This seems like a good moment to mention that during the cosplay show Yuni pointed out that Sieten't's presence only exudes the energy of the stars/boundary, unlike the real Seofon who apparently has a mix of both. Sieten't is devoid of any energy or affinity with the skies. He then chuckles that it's hard to conceal what he gives off.

[saltprince]

First of all, I just want to tell thank for your hard work. You've done an amazing job for the English community with your translations. My enjoyment of GBF's songs would not be nearly as great if it wasn't for the fact that I'm actually able to understand what the singer is actually singing and what the lyrics actually mean.

2nd, if it isn't too much trouble for you could you add Cloudy World the original song from Stella Magna's album to your translation backlog because it's the only Granblue related song that has sung lyrics that I haven't been able to find any lyrics for at all not even Japanese lyrics.

I'm just genuinely curious about the lyrics to this song considering the fact that this song released in a Granblue related album and the fact that Ono Yuuki is the main and solo vocalist for this song makes me wonder if this song is just a unofficial theme song for Danchou.

But please don't feel pressured, you'vs done amazing work and that can't be stated enough.

Wow. Thank you so much for the kind words, that means a ton. It's a bit hard for me to truly know how much what I'm doing has impact, so I appreciate this more than I can convey. These messages really do so much to keep me going!

To answer your second question: Cloudy World is already on my list! You'll be happy to know it seems to directly refer Over The Sky, which is another song the MCs did.

To tide things over while I work on the translations, I'd like to give you the lyrics to the song since you said you can't find them online anywhere. I've transcribed these from the CD jacket. This does not include my translation draft, but at least you'll be able to sing along. I'll place it under the cut.

Thank you for your message!

Cloudy World lyrics

いつか夢に見た　リアルさの欠けたヴィジョン itsuka yume ni mita riaru sa no kaketa vision 荒唐無稽だと　無���識のブレーキかけてた koutou mukei dato mu'ishiki no bureeki kaketeta 鼓動隠して kodou kakushite

曇り空　山の向こう　光指す切れ間見た kumori sora yama no mukou hikari sasu kirema mita

そうだ　このまま　ただ待ってるだけじゃ sou da kono mama tada matteru dake jya 空は灰色のまま　歩き出そう sora wa hai'iro no mama aruki dasou

Cloudy World　この曖昧な世界で　標なく進むのさ Cloudy World kono aimai na sekai de shirube naku susumu no sa つまずいても　不安になっても　凍えても tsumazuite mo fuan ni natte mo kogoete mo 目の輝き灯火（あかり）にして　踏み出そう me no kagayaki akari ni shite fumi dasou

カタチはないけど　この手で掴んだイメージが katachi wa nai kedo kono te de tsukanda imeeji ga たしかに在るんだ　この手の上に確実に tashikani arunda kono te no ue ni kakujitsu ni もう離さない mou hanasanai

明日（あす）の空　また曇りかな　自分自身だ　変えるのは asu no sora mata kumori ka na jibun jishin da kaeru no wa

空を　見上げる　位置を探そう sora wo mi'ageru ichi wo sagasou ここにはもう留まれない　走り出そう koko ni wa mou todomarenai hashiri dasou

あの時　胸ときめいた好奇心　あれがきっと宝物 ano toki mune tokimeita koukishin are ga kitto takaramono 大事にしよう　ぼくだけが価値を　忘れなければ daiji ni shiyou boku dake ga kachi wo wasure nakereba 虹の彼方へだって　行けるさ niji no kanata he datte ikeru sa

雨の日急に飛び出して　知らない景色見ようとして ame no hi kyuu ni tobi dashite shiranai keshiki miyou toshite ひたすら走ってた　高鳴りを感じてた　抑えられなかったんだ ah hitasura hashitteta takanari kanjiteta osaerarenakattanda ah

どれだけ　目指すものが遠くても　距離感わからなくても dore dake mezasu mono ga tookute mo kyorikan wakaranakute mo 前を向いて　足を出して　それを繰り返せば　恐らくたどりつくだろう mae wo muite ashi wo dashite sore wo kuri kaeseba osoraku tadoritsuku darou

Cloudy World　この曖昧な世界で　標なく進むのさ Cloudy World kono aimai na sekai de shirube naku susumu no sa つまずいても　不安になっても　凍えても tsumazuite mo fuan ni natte mo kogoete mo 目の輝き灯火（あかり）にして　踏み出そう me no kagayaki akari ni shite fumi dasou

踏み出そう　前へ fumi dasou mae he

[saltprince]

I've gotten some invites to community spaces and other such things, but I unfortunately don't have the time to cross post my videos everywhere nor do I have the time to interact much. My focus is primarily on creating translations with the downtime I have.

That said, if you've ever wondered if you could plug my videos/translations in servers, communities, or on platforms like Reddit, etc: please feel free to do so.

I'd be happy if more people could find my translations. Just don't claim them as your own, but linking the tumblr posts or youtube videos will source it automatically.

If you end up posting them elsewhere I'd be happy to get a link to the post because it does motivate me to keep making them, but it's far from required.

[saltprince]

Hii and thanks so much for the translations!

Where did you get the dragon art for the backgrounds of their song translations from if you don't mind me asking?

Hi!

They're all sourced from the 9th anniversary trailer and the promo image celebrating the event. I edited them to be more suitable. Fair warning that most of the images from the trailer are at best bordering NSFW when viewed in full.

I put the raw edits + screenshots with the video filters for Whole Lotta Love! and Meimei Sanka below.

[saltprince]

Sieten't being aware enough of the Danchou-chan thing to mimic it means my number one failsafe in case of possession that is "easily recognizing him by his failing to address us as Danchou-chan" is moot

Plan B: Siete, do not get possessed. I will find you. This is a threat

You'll also find that Sieten't somehow managed to reference Seofon's opening line in his card, either because he somehow found out (terrifying) or correctly guessed how Seofon would write (equally terrifying). The "just kidding" at the end also mirrors regular Seofon.

[saltprince]

Orologia's handwriting is awful like we have:

贈り物

立派

渡せる

頑張

If bro had to write to save the timeline we would've been GONERS I'm just saying

[saltprince]

Are u okay w ppl using your translations for stuff like edits or animatics with proper credit in the video and caption? ive had an idea that im not rlly sure ill ever go through with but i wanted to ask beforehand anyway (i reckon tiktok for example makes it hard to link directly to other socials so i totally get if ud rather not for such content). Also taking the chance to thank u for ur work with these translations :)

Thank you!

This is a tough one. I suppose for edits and short animatics it's fine so long there's credit for the translation (and I'd also love to see them anyway!) but the one exception would be full (amv) edits for the song, since at that point if it uses the entire song it'll turn into another full lyric video.

If linking for credit is made impossible, "saltprince @ youtube/bluesky" would be acceptable. Direct links are obviously preferred, but I know some platforms are finnicky.

[saltprince]

Congratulations on the Sandy card! If you feel like posting it, I'd love to see him

Thanks! This art was my icon on Discord for like 5 years in a row, I love the colors on it.

Until I get to scanning his card, please take this one! He's one of the few I did in fact find a nice scan of before, but I should be able to scan a higher definition myself, hopefully. (Besides I had to have him).

As an aside, I've started collecting 2020 and 2018 polaroids and am currently designing an archiving page around them with filters. I've found about 160 of them!

And 2018 for good measure (Which I didn't order, but he's a rat)

[saltprince]

Hey everyone, I've created a Bluesky account. Tumblr will stay as a main place for me to archive my stuff and answer asks, but I'll be crossposting to Bluesky slowly but surely while also talking about things I'm up to and into.

Feel free to follow me there, the handle is saltprince.

[saltprince]

Since I don't actually own the skins, the hardest part is about figuring out which lines go where... I figured out all attack lines (there are over 10 of them) are in use, but for the skill lines I have no idea which ones are being used, and no way to check other than browsing twitter to no avail o(-( I might be forced to leave them blank for now

[saltprince]

Aaaaaa

Thank you, Salt! How hard was that song to translate?

For Small Fish in a Small Pond, I already had an outline for most of it after listening to it way too many times. It's a personal favorite of mine that I loop way too often lol.

The mantras though, I had to search the Japanese web and ended up on a website of a practitioner of Buddhism, where they broke down those complicated lines in more accessible Japanese to garner interest in the concepts from regular folks. Extremely interesting read, but the wildest part to me was that those mantras had to be broken down for the Japanese already, and the concepts are so nebulous that even then it can be hard to grasp it.

A few parts could be found in the dictionary, but that removed them from the full mantra and also made them standalone. Not to mention I felt like it removed the feeling from the song, or the as-is translation provided by the dictionary didn't get the contextual feeling across or it didn't work with the other lines in that section. For some of them, I even felt like the dictionary didn't actually explain what it meant at all (but maybe that was just me).

tldr: not as hard as I feared, bless that one website for actually enlightening me though. That said, no one-line translation can be 100% accurate on the mantras as they need lengthy explanations to delve deeper into the concepts. I hope I did them justice in spite of that.

I personally am happy with this one as the song is incredibly dear to me, and I wanted both the themes and feeling to get across. This was a pretty self-serving project.

[saltprince]

Some fun facts about the Cafe Millennia coasters:

They are from the limited-time GBFES Cafe Millennia attraction

They've been available for some years (earliest I've found is 2019, latest releases from 2023)

There are currently 6 coasters with messages in total

Specific coasters were tied to certain orders

Presumably Sariel's coaster was linked to the peanut butter items (specifically the peanut butter sandwich)

The handwriting on Sariel's coaster is miles better than it was for his Valentine's cards, with improved vocabulary that's still sliiightly awkward.

Presumably the latte art comments were linked to cafe latte orders

Presumably the "kid's item" was iced coffee milk/babyccino which was featured in the mobile game story before

Presumably Belial's coaster was linked to the chocolate dessert featuring a cherry on top

Belial's writing on the coaster is much neater and more deliberate than his Valentine's card, which was messy and taunting

I actually had to recreate the coasters using official assets from elsewhere before I could translate these

[saltprince]

Would you say then that Siete has nice handwriting? 🤔

I need this for bullying purposes. Any tidbit helps

But also, that's adorable. He is truly the dork

Here's a side by side.

I would say Seofon's handwriting is very clear with broad, energetic strokes and subtle flourishes. For the English version I chose a font that's in-between his Japanese font and his signature, since a 'wider' font in English would usually look a bit childish. I also chose for slightly more flourish on English because he connects his characters in Japanese nicely and playfully without compromising how readable it is.

I also can't help but feel like since he's one of the main representatives of the group, he would probably also write letters to those in power or even to children if it'd mean encouraging them. So handwriting that's clear but also confident and cheery looks good on him. There's definitely a certain flair to it without it muddling the message.

Unfortunately because English is more wordy, I had to make the text slightly smaller to make it fit more nicely.

You can tell for the side note that his writing is a little more hasty and condensed, though.