[ SECRET POST #6283 ]

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⌈ Secret Post #6283 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 21 secrets from Secret Submission Post #898.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

This. Translators are the most curious of all about language, and that curiosity and interest is how you get translations that work without defaulting to footnotes to explain foreign words! Footnotes saying "this word means this, and there's no direct translation in English" are the lazy way.

[(Anonymous)]

Exactly! If there's anyone who isn't being ~curious about languages, it's not OP but the translators who heavily rely on those footnotes...

[(Anonymous)]

As someone who did translations professionally for years, THIS.
I actually did the footnote shit in a couple of books because I was very inexperienced and I'm still ashamed of that work. The translation was not "bad", but I'd do it way differently now with the skills I developed.
Translators do not only translate works in their target language, they also ADAPT the text for more cultural understanding.
We also need to think about the target audience. If you are translating a work that, most probably, "specialized" people will access then you can use footnote, but if you are translating fiction for a general audience then you better avoid them completely if you can.

(for context: my translations did not involve English. I did translations with English, but only in a Business environment or for fanworks, not literature. Thank god. My English is too awkward lol.)

[(Anonymous)]

I can't agree with you. I think excessive footnotes should be avoided (well sometimes they shouldn't, see Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell). But I come from a country that had that attitude with translations. So a lot of our translations were complete fucking rewrites. We even have a word for that. Also we had awesome brain dead takes like hamburger translated as sandwich. Because footnotes or context clues are for losers.

[(Anonymous)]

AYART

I still think it depends on the target audience. My country's Harry Potter or even Six of Crows (that I read recently) have all names translated and adapted into something else and I actually find it quite charming.
I do agree that some translators just give themselves too many liberties, especially in country like Russia or China, where "inventive translations" were (still are?) a huge thing.

BTW I personally don't think that translating hamburger with sandwich is too insulting.
Like, in my country we say panino, which is different from hamburger or sandwich and gives a very different vibe. I wouldn't care that much if they use any of those terms, depending on the vibes they want to give a scene or character.
Some people find it offensive when onigiri is translated as "rice ball" in my country, but that's exactly what they are and if you are targeting your book at a general audience and not a Japanese savvy one, why would you even keep the original onigiri? Sometimes it's best to adapt certain cultural terms to made the prose flow better.

There are way more offensive translations around, like, the one that censor certain topics (example: buffy in my country was heavily adapted and at time censored because of ??? IDEK they still do that with some TV shows here).

For me, like I already said above, including footnotes or not completely depend on the target audience. Footnotes on Six of Crown or Harry Potter are a bit excessive... footnotes for specialized topics are necessary.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I do agree about different audience. Some names are fun if they are translated. Some footnotes are absolutely unnecessary etc. You don't need to overcook it too.
But I am from a country you are talking about (Russia). And I need to reread half of a books I've read as a child/teenager if I want to experience this books because of the artistic shit. It's no longer a thing, buy we have heavy problems with editors though, so translations often still shitty in a different way.
Sandwich thing was another translation from my side, hahaha. Because the word used was "buterbrod" (for some reason this came from German idek) and it's an open type of sandwich that invokes absolutely different association. It's not even a rice ball thing. Because rice ball at least describes this exact type of food.
(I am not starting on censorship thing because I am going to cry otherwise)

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, hello Russian nonny! I totally get where you're coming from, then!
I do think that in your case though it's less of a "footnote" issue and more of a "editors and translators took too many liberties in the past and now I can't really trust them" issue. Totally valid.

From my point of view, Italian with an interest of Japanese literature, we unfortunately have a history of books refusing to translate a lot of culturally important words like, as I mentioned, onigiri. I even saw a book that had "ojigi" left untranslated with a footnote and ojigi literally means "bowing" /facepalm
And sure, I personally know what those words means because I'm into Japanese culture and I know the words, but I find it difficult to share those books with my sisters, for example, because TOO MANY FOOTNOTES. JESUS. CHILL. Have the balls to adapt a little bit for a normie Italian reader. (we do also have excellent translators, though)

Translating and adapting words takes skill (seriously, it's one of the most difficult job I've had until now), so I admire the translators who try their best to make the text easily readable to their target audience without sacrificing the original meaning.

>>Because the word used was "buterbrod" (for some reason this came from German idek) and it's an open type of sandwich that invokes absolutely different association.
AH OK, I get this then! Yep, the problem lies with the association thing. Like in Italy sandwich is a type of "panino" that's very light and fast, usually consumed at a bar as a fast lunch, a light snack or appetizer (they sell huge club sandwiches that you can divide between people), so you wouldn't eat it in dinner time.
Sometimes you need to translated the word "sandwich" as panino in Italian, when the association with "fast light meal" is not in the scene. This is what I was trying to imply in my reply above. Maybe it's the same for you guys!

[(Anonymous)]

Heh, for some reason we have good Scandinavian languages translators. Japanese is pretty good too as far as I know. Even in the past Japanese wasn't too weird. English and French got things going on.

I absolutely see your point! We are coming from vastly different traditions.
Ojigi thing sounds insane. Sometimes things are similar enough, jeez. Also you can put in text to start with: he was wearing hakama pants. Fullstop. People can get that it's some pants and they are tradional or something.

Buterbrod is a canteen food. Imagine saddest thing in your school, or overpriced theatre or airport food, it would be it. Or it's nice and homemade to put on a table in a train along with an egg and a chicken. Very very cultural thing. Very visual. But basically it's just a sandwich lol.