Hello everyone, if you can understand Japanese, please help me out! I want to contact the author because I translated her work without permission. (I didn't know any better when I started recently, and I feel obligated to do this!) Here is My letter: Spoiler: Apology letter 拝啓 葉月クロル、 Dear Hazuki Kuroru san, 突然のメール､失礼いたします。 Sorry for the sudden email. 私の日本語は上手じゃない。 もし私が失礼なら､私を許してください。 My Japanese is not good. If I am rude, please forgive me. 私はあ葉月クロルさんに謝罪する必要があります。 I have to apologise to you. 私本当にばかです。 不注意で、コピーライトわかりませんでした。 I am very stupid. I did not understand copyright due to my carelessness. 葉月クロルさんのウェブストーリーの大ファンであり、 英語でストーリーを楽しんだりしたかった。 I am a big fan of your web stories and I wanted to enjoy it in English. 葉月クロルさんのウェブストーリーの一部 を許可なく英語に翻訳する お恥ずかしいかぎりです。 I am embarrassed to say that I translated some of your web stories to English without your permission. ブログに翻訳を投稿した。 I submitted/posted the translations on a blog: Spoiler: links 『冒険者リンディの災難』 ∙ 触手には注意しましょう：http://springkrane.wixsite.com/springtime/single-post/2016/12/30/Untitled ∙ 甘く見るのは危険です：http://springkrane.wixsite.com/springtime/single-post/2017/01/05/E29DA7-CHAPTER-2-E29DA7 ∙ おばかな男の大暴走：http://springkrane.wixsite.com/springtime/single-post/2017/01/05/E29DA7-CHAPTER-3-E29DA7 スライム王子シリーズ 『スライム王子と異界の恋人 』 ∙ プロローグ：http://springkrane.wixsite.com/bluespring/single-post/2017/01/02/PART-1-ー-SLIME-PRINCE-SERIES 葉月クロルさんを不幸にさせてしまったら、すみません。 私を許してください。 I am sorry if I have made you unhappy. please forgive me. もし、翻訳を承認しない、私はすぐに翻訳を削除します。 If you do not approve of the translations, I will delete it immediately. ご迷惑をおかけしました I am sorry for the inconvenience. 敬具、 大ファン メイル：[email protected] So this author is from the publisher Syosetu, and I think it is possible for me to contact her by making an account on that site. https://ssl.syosetu.com/login/input/ Does anyone have experience with this? Also, in the case I want to ask her/other authors to translate more of their work, is there a specific way I can say this in Japanese? Thank you so much for your time and help!
*cringe* there is the need to add this? and you are asking about translating or giving excuses? there is someone who don't know about copyright? and look if the author have a light novel first....if he/she doesn't it's one more reason to not mention copyright... and just for be safe you maybe can try to send both japanese an english versione of this message
Japanese author? Just so you know, contacting one rarely ends well. If your goal is to relieve yourself of guilt and you're prepared to take down your translation afterwards then you're doing it in the wrong order. Take down your translation and apologize. And even if you do that expecting anything more than passive aggressive insults is wishful thinking.
did you get DMCA, if you did then by all mean send that message, but know most authors don't hold copyrights, its the publishers that have them so.... if not then ask permission only, probably you'll never get an answer but you never know and yeah i agree with @Shimapan
Japanese are kind of strict with these kind of things....Chinese novels are more lax on that note....
Oh! Good Idea! (I will definitely send both versions) Well yes I do know about Copyright, (good point) but I was not sure about 'web translations' being illegal if it was simply posted without the person making money off of it. I already made sure not to use 'licensed' work, and I didn't know that freely accessible work on the internet would also be treated just the same. But I read up on it yesterday the advice was to: ask the author before posting any kind of derivative work. And yes, I'm giving an excuse because I did not want to complicate the author on purpose. Or more like, I didn't think things through before doing it. Would be better to say: "I didn't think things through before doing it." (?) Thanks so much for your help!
Ahhh, good point! I will take it down before I contact them and say: 私はすでに翻訳を削除した。→ I have already deleted the translation. On the other hand, does this mean that almost no Japanese author will allow someone to translate their 'freely accessible' work? And if they actually bothered to reply with passive aggressive insults, I don't think I would understand their undertone anyway XD. (whoops) Thank you very much for your advice!
And not at all, I did not get a DMCA message. I just started translating recently out of fun and didn't think things through. So the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like something was wrong with it. Thank you for your advice as well! I am thinking to add this last bit: けれど、葉月クロルさんの許可がある場合のみ、 私は翻訳をウェブ上に復元します。 However, only when there is your permission, I will restore the translations on the web.
Ohh, that kind of explains why there are more Chinese releases on novelupdates. Thanks for telling me that!
translator also release more frequently, i don't think any japonese novel has a release frequency of 0.5 or lower (2 chapter a day) like many chinese, and not as consistent
FInal copy of the letter: Spoiler: letter 拝啓 葉月クロル、 Dear Hazuki Kuroru san, 突然のメール､失礼いたします。 Sorry for the sudden email. 私の日本語は上手じゃない。もし私が失礼なら､私を許してください。 My Japanese is not good. If I am rude, please forgive me. 私はあ葉月クロルさんに謝罪する必要があります。 I have to apologise to you. 葉月クロルさんのウェブストーリーの大ファンであり、英語でストーリーを楽しんだりしたかった。 I am a big fan of your web stories and I wanted to enjoy it in English. 葉月クロルさんのウェブストーリーの一部を許可なく英語に翻訳する お恥ずかしいかぎりです。 I am embarrassed to say that I translated some of your web stories to English without your permission. 私はすでに翻訳を削除した。 I have already deleted the translation. ブログに翻訳を投稿した。 I submitted/posted the translations on a blog: 『冒険者リンディの災難』：（触手には注意しましょう、甘く見るのは危険です、おばかな男の大暴走） スライム王子シリーズ 『スライム王子と異界の恋人 』：（プロローグ） 葉月クロルさんを不幸にさせてしまったら、すみません。私を許してください。 I am sorry if I have made you unhappy. Please forgive me. けれど、葉月クロルさんの許可がある場合のみ、私は翻訳をウェブ上に復元します。 However, only when there is your permission, I will restore the translations on the web. ご迷惑をおかけしました I am sorry for the inconvenience. 敬具、 大ファン メイル：[email protected]
Excuse me for making sudden appearance on your thread but, looking on this thread made me want to help you too with your letter. If you have cleared the problem... Well. I just wanted to be helpful. Fine if you ignore this.... My fault for be late. 拝啓 葉月クロル、 Dear Hazuki Kuroru san, (You made this very kinda official, and it seems you may missing the "to / へ" particle, while Japanese will just use 葉月クロルさんへ If you ask one. Your mail sounds like from a kind of organizations or enterprise) 突然のメール､失礼いたします。 Sorry for the sudden email. (You may want to add the "by / で" particle. And it was on present participle when it should be in past participle 突然のメールで、失礼いたしました。 Like this maybe.) 私の日本語は上手じゃない。もし私が失礼なら､私を許してください。 My Japanese is not good. If I am rude, please forgive me. (You may want to change じゃない with ではない or ではありません) 私はあ葉月クロルさんに謝罪する必要があります。 I have to apologize to you. (Typos, and grammar. Need to be fixed. 私は葉月カロルさんに謝罪することが必要です。 Like that, or made it more desperate. Like. 過ちをした私は、葉月カロルさんにどうしても謝罪するべきなのです。) 葉月クロルさんのウェブストーリーの大ファンであり、英語でストーリーを楽しんだりしたかった。 I am a big fan of your web stories and I wanted to enjoy it in English. (You may wanted to change the word ストーリー to 小説 or 物語. Nothing wrong with the last part but, you may want to change it to お楽しみにしたかったのです。 Be polite.) 葉月クロルさんのウェブストーリーの一部を許可なく英語に翻訳する お恥ずかしいかぎりです。 I am embarrassed to say that I translated some of your web stories to English without your permission. 私はすでに翻訳を削除した。 I have already deleted the translation. ブログに翻訳を投稿した。 I submitted/posted the translations on a blog: 『冒険者リンディの災難』：（触手には注意しましょう、甘く見るのは危険です、おばかな男の大暴走） スライム王子シリーズ 『スライム王子と異界の恋人 』：（プロローグ） 葉月クロルさんを不幸にさせてしまったら、すみません。私を許してください。 I am sorry if I have made you unhappy. Please forgive me. けれど、葉月クロルさんの許可がある場合のみ、私は翻訳をウェブ上に復元します。 However, only when there is your permission, I will restore the translations on the web. ご迷惑をおかけしました I am sorry for the inconvenience. (You may want to say... 五枚枠を掛けて、申し訳ありませんでした。 or at least say ごめんなさい to express sorry) 敬具、 あなたの大ファン メイル：[email protected] ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー Sorry for the inconvenience
Wow, thank you very very much! I will learn from your corrections! I've already sent the email, but if I ever need to write another one this would be super helpful!