Because we don't have past perfect tense in the Chinese language, so writing flashbacks is not a big deal. But the chapter I am translating right now, 3/4 of it is in the past of the past - aka a flashback. Now it looks kinda weird due to the high number of "hads," on account of me having to use past perfect tense throughout the flashback. So I was wondering what other translators would do to counteract this. Would it be considered lazy translating if I just tag on a "Three hours ago..." line at the beginning of the flashback arc? Problem is, in the original Chinese text, there is no "Three hours ago..." line...
You can add some "flashback" "end flashback" labels and then italicize the whole flashback, I think? It'd be clearer to your readers, too.
I don't know if I can italicize 3/4 of a chapter without the manager's approval. Would it still work if I just tag on "Three hours ago..." at the beginning?
Yes, probably. If you feel it will make it clearer to your readers what's happening and if that's what the author's intent was (i.e. it did happen 3 hours ago), I say go for it!
Just add a horizontal line page break. Also just an FYI, but past perfect tense doesn't need to be (and shouldn't be) used continuously for a flashback, because you can set up a the scene by being slightly more liberal in translation. Word choice helps readers and yourself differentiate between flashbacks and the present. Search up "past perfect tense writing" on Google and you will get several blog posts from writer's blogs that demonstrate this (I can't link yet). Or, you can read some English novels, especially fantasy... because flashbacks are used very often. In English, flashbacks usually aren't separated by page breaks or italics either, because it's all in the word choice that informs the reader that we're going back in time, and then coming back to present.