#translation talk

[theodysseyofhomer]

i get a lot of questions about which homer translations i recommend and what's the most "faithful" and it's kind of funny because you are asking a lay reader, so to speak. also you are talking to someone who grew up with biblical literalism and is constantly, actively deconstructing that approach to ancient, translated texts. i really think my personal fascination with translation is inseparable from that context. but since i can't completely step outside my context anyway, who's to say?

all this to say—being "faithful" to a text doesn't mean what i thought it meant, what i was taught it meant, when i was a child. translators have a lot to balance—how do you translate the meaning of the original, while also translating some of the feeling the original audience might have had, while also translating the metaphors of a world removed from the present? different translators put different elements forward. they may sacrifice what another translator would consider more important. to be sure, not all concerns put forward by a translator have equal merit. but they have to make choices, and they can't help but make choices. because they aren't separable from their context, either.

if you're interested in ancient literature, i don't think you should be searching for unbiased translations (which don't exist). i do hope you seek to understand what a translators' concerns (conscious or not) may be. and if you do that, and you care enough about translation work to read widely, you will intuitively learn more about the compromises and failures and successes of translation than i can describe to you, in my muddled way.

[gwynsplainer]

Thinking about how The Man Who Laughs is not the best translation of the title L’Homme qui rit but it is kind of the title I’ve inherited bc I don’t believe in retranslating titles (ultimately any degree of name recognition is more important imo, at least with a work that has been read in English by that name for so long). Smile and laugh just don’t have the linguistic relationship that sourire and rire have.

Etymologically it’s more like if we (in English) called a smile a “sublaugh” or an “underlaugh,” so that “laugh” could be understood as a direct step up, ie an exaggeration, of a smile. But we don’t! Thus I’m forced to admit that at least in some schools of thought, perhaps including my own, a better translation would be The Man Who Smiles, The Man Who Grins, or dare I say, The Grinning Man.

[tonyglowheart]

Random translation thought, but I don't love 掌教 zhangjiao being translated as "Sect Leader."

To me, that's too similar to "Sect Master" and the differences between "Master" and "Leader," aren't distinct enough in English, and while they both functionally head and lead a sect, it's kind of like the difference between having a king and having a governor, sth like that...

Or hm, maybe more like the difference between having a headmaster vs a head teacher (which actually is a pretty good analog for the translations of 宗主 vs 掌教, but cannot work in Eng since the terms are too scholastic).

Either way, the difference between "Master" and "Leader" to my eye is too much of a half-step differential and in some cases the nuances may even be negligible, when really, the like connotative difference between a zongzhu and zhangjiao I feel like are greater, at least a "full step." Like if you had a zongzhu and a zhangjiao next to each other, the zongzhu should feel like it's a "higher" level even if they both functionally lead their sects.

I wonder if "Sect Head" works for other ppl the way it does for me. I feel like the difference between Sect Head and Sect Leader is more distinct, with Sect Head feeling like it's a "lower" level than Leader, so it gets to that "full step" of connotative difference between "Sect Head" and "Sect Master." Sect Head to me says they lead their sect, but are not necessarily the "master" of it. Whereas Sect Master is ofc the master of the sect. It may be a matter of semantics, sure, but words both reflect and convey meaning, and I think the shades of nuance here in the orig CN are interesting to think about and see how it changes one's interpretations.

[elecalice]

I need to do more English to Spanish Translations (And I'm available)

ENGLISH

I need to resurrect my English-to-Spanish Translation blog, @electraducciones and complete my pending translations. Although the current videos I've translating are essays and reviews. Long and with a lot of words. So I'll try to compliment my blog with translations of shorter videos. Maybe more ColeyDoesThings videos. I love her videos.

I feel that translating is a good idea for a extra income while I'm not drawing in digital. An income is really appreciated since I don't have a job, and well, my family isn't doing well financially for years.

I really hope I can provide Spanish subtitles to a Youtuber that I like their content.

I hope that I can help translating something into English. I'm free to talk and see my schedule, so that I can see if I'm going to translate your work into Spanish.

I'll be glad to help someone with Spanish translations.

ESPAÑOL

Necesito resucitar mi blog de traducciones, @electraducciones y continuar con mis traducciones pendientes. Aunque los vídeos que estoy traduciendo son ensayos y reseñas. Largos y con muchas palabras. Podría complementar el blog con traducciones de los vídeos de ColeyDoesThings. Adoro sus vídeos.

Me vendría bien porque necesito una fuente de ingresos cuando no puedo hacer dibujos digitales. Un ingreso valioso ya que actualmente no tengo un trabajo y bueno, la situación económica no es tan buena desde hace años.

En serio espero proveer subtítulos en español a un Youtuber de habla inglesa que adore su trabajo.

Espero que pueda ayudar a otros a traducir sus trabajos en Inglés al Español. Con gusto podemos hablar al respecto, ver los deadlines y horarios, para así hacer el trabajo.

Con gusto quiero y puedo proveer traducciones.

[heartorbit]

if we could stay connected, just like this

[dearimasu]

Desde o momento que nasceste / Sempre te amei!

Desde o dia em que nasceste / Sempre soube que te amei! <- This doesn't work. I dont know japanese so if i try to hail-mary this line i run the risk of losing the writer's original intent.

Hm? Oh yeah im dabbling with different ways i can word/translate a line. Eh.

[shithowdy]

if your "original story/rpg" idea is rooted in the premise of "what if [existing franchise] was good?" then just start over. i am not kidding. your ego is like insulation spray foam being inserted into the cracks of the premise-- sure it fills the gaps, but it's beyond ugly and everyone can see it.

[remxedmoon]

y’know what? fuck you. *UNGRAYSCALES YOUR ISATS*

no wait come back there’s greyscale versions under the cut :(

[ffcrazy15]

Someone needs to do an analysis on the way the Kung Fu Panda movies use old-fashioned vs. modern language ("Panda we meet at last"/"Hey how's it going") and old-fashioned vs. modern settings (forbidden-city-esque palaces/modern-ish Chinese restaurant) to indicate class differences in their characters, and how those class differences create underlying tensions and misunderstandings.

[prodigaldaughteralice]

The easiest code in the book, the only one I got on my first read-through (I’m gonna go back with a notebook to get at the rest), and genuinely made me tear up.

[greykolla-art]

I say to myself: this time I’m not gonna colour it, it’s just gonna be a sketch…

But then I think: I WANNA MAKE THE TROUSERS RED! I WANNA USE GREEN! They are cartoons they should be coloured!!!

And then I fall over dead. 🤝

[theodysseyofhomer]

I see the original, and my translation, as a promise, or even an enticement, in the first line: Dear Listener, stay with me, because you won't be bored by this character or this poem.  Who doesn't love disguises and schemes? Who doesn't love a long con, at least in narrative? The narrator is promising us, implicitly, that we’ll get an inside scoop on a character whose many layers, turns, names and disguises won’t be visible to everyone he encounters. Uncomplicated characters are a hard sell, if you want the adult listener to stay with you for many hours of story. Complexity, sign me up. I am not the least bit original in seeing the Homeric Odysseus as a complex and multi-layered character, who arouses our intense interest and intense empathy – and who is viewed in very different ways by different characters within the poem, because he contains multitudes. Homeric Odysseus is a very different and far more appealing character compared to the often simpler and often more purely evil Odysseus we find in some other ancient sources (like the scheming sophist of Sophocles' Philoctetes, or the cruel Ulysses of the Aeneid). To me, “complicated” doesn’t suggest either “good guy” or “bad guy”: it’s a promise that this poem doesn’t stoop to those implausible simplifications.

[gwynsplainer]

Every time I work on my translation I find an unfamiliar word/phrase and google it only to find that Victor Hugo is the only person on written record for having used it, the one example being that exact particular context I am trying to decipher.

[14dayswithyou]

Olivia fell asleep in one of the aisles again...

how do you feel about ren being used in an ai chatbot advertisement?

⌞♥⌝ Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I genuinely despise everything about this so much, and if anyone comes across this ad on TikTok (or anywhere else), I'd really appreciate it if you could report the video and not give it any further engagement.

I'm vehemently against the use of AI that negatively impacts artists, writers/authors, developers, creators, etc., and I don't condone the use of my art and IP without my knowledge and explicit consent — especially when it's being used in a paid ad/sponsorship. It's extremely disrespectful and I have no respect for those who do it.

[jinikaris]

felix joining hyunjin's instagram live // november 24th, 2024

hyunjin trying to remember the word for quesadilla with felix's help + hyunjin being suddenly rizzed by the australian accent ♡

[molinaesque]

By killing her mum in a mercy kill, she's doing exactly what the Ghoul did to Roger. She's learnt from him. She has turned into him. When she said, "I'll never be you," maybe that's not true. And in that moment, when she shoots her mum, it means so many things. It means 'I'm coming with you.' It means. 'I f*cking hate you, but I have turned into you, you were right.' It means she's letting go of her golden centre. I want the audience at the end of the show to wonder if their hero is still a good person. I don't know who she's gonna be in season two, but this is what happens when you break the unbreakable. I don't know who she's about to become. [...] I'd be down to play it either way. - Ella Purnell (x)