Resource Bilingual translation posted of portion of SF novella (Japanese/English)

Discussion in 'Translator's Corner' started by locksleyu, Jun 13, 2018.

  1. locksleyu

    locksleyu Well-Known Member

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    I think one of the requirements of translations on this site is that the original work is available, however for those who want to do a comparison it can be tedious to switch back and forth between two pages.

    So for my latest project I am posting in parallel translation format with one paragraph of the Japanese original text and one of the translation in English.

    Hopefully this will be useful to those studying Japanese or want to get into translation.

    The story is about a captain of a ship who has to decide who lives and who dies due to limited space in the escape pod. There are moral questions including those about AI, since a Shoujo AI is one of the main characters.

    https://www.novelupdates.com/series/two-of-six-a-captains-dilemma/

    Let me know if this parallel format is useful and if so I may continue it for other projects.
     
    Astaroth, kenar and schnitter like this.
  2. kenar

    kenar ヽ(`・ω・´)ゝ

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    it will obstruct readers enjoying the novel, i think. It will be annoying like translator notes in each paragraphs xD. Although, that can be used to identify if the translator fully uses mtl(like me) or not :blobthinkingsmirk::blobthinkingsmirk:

    Edit: my point is that format can be a killjoy for the readers
     
  3. Astaroth

    Astaroth empty

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    I think it's good, but it would be nice if you can hide/show. Not everyone wants to see the raws

    I'm used to it since I've read a lot on LNMTL with chinese raws enabled so I can use popup dictionary on weird sentences and/or google raws and stuff. (I'm not sure, but I'm assuming that there's similar stuff for japanese as well)


    I'm not sure if that's really necessary for non-mtl translations since the assumption is that they're good. So in practice it will be more like a proof, unnecessary for decent translations, and avoided by shitty translations
     
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  4. kenar

    kenar ヽ(`・ω・´)ゝ

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    yup, I was thinking along that line. I have no knowledge about coding but I'm thinking that it must be nice if we can show or hide the original text besides the translation kinda like lyrics or something like that
     
  5. DocB

    DocB "I see you, little mouse! Run along"

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    not useful, most people read translation because they don't understand japonese/chinese/korean/weeb so putting the original text is as helpful as putting the image of a dog taking a shit
    what is helpful is a link to the raw
    and for legal issue putting the complete chapter in the original language besides the trnslation is worse than just the translation, because the translation you can own while the original text belongs to the author or to whom ever they sold it to
     
  6. Sakuraid

    Sakuraid Writer, translator and editor

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    If it is a LN you are translating or a WN that one actually has to pay to access for then this idea of putting the raws beside the translation is bad for the original author. Since that makes one able to read the original raw text for free.
     
  7. locksleyu

    locksleyu Well-Known Member

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    Thanks everyone for the feedback!

    Regarding those that want to read English on it's own I am publishing it on parallel on Wattpad.

    And regarding any legal issues, I am doing this in concert with the author so it is 100% legal. :)
     
  8. tynkerd

    tynkerd Member

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    Do it!

    Sure, it would be nice to hide or show the parallel translations, but I crave it.

    The major reason is because it makes training a machine translation system for LN much easier when we have parallel corpora!
     
  9. locksleyu

    locksleyu Well-Known Member

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