Discussion GZ's Picks: Five top-quality translators you should be reading

Dying for a good rec? Wondering which webnovel to pick up? Read on (for a very long post with no tl;dr!)

Posting for GZ because the silly man won't post here, but I think we should all encourage more original derivative work in the scene, much like the Immortal Index's podcasts!

These are Guan Zhong's words~

As the number of translations in this scene grows it becomes harder and harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. I have seen more translation applications than anyone, evalutating for a year and a half at Wuxiaworld and one year at volare. During that time I've also dipped into various other translations here and there throughout the community, so I have seen the gamut of styles and quality. There are many, many translators in this scene and so there are many I have never read, so this list is not at all exhaustive or exclusive. Tastes differ when it comes to writing, and there is no "best". But here are five translators/novels that are worth your time.

Note: I selected these based on their English prose only. I didn't consider the plot, pacing, or other content of the story as I want to highlight good writing in the scene. My examples might seem simple, but good, simple writing is actually quite rare in this scene. The examples will only seem plain until you read some other random translation and notice how clunky and wordy it is. I picked chapters at random for examples. No cherry picking. For fun, I also decided to give them nicknames. These five can be addressed collectively as 二龍三鳳 (Two Dragons, Three Phoenixes).

Two Dragons - Xiao Lai and Littleshanks
Mist Dragon (流煙龍) Xiao Lai - The Godsfall Chronicles
Ren claimed when The Godsfall Chronicles "comes closer to ‘print-quality fantasy’ than any webnovel that I have ever read before" and Xiao Lai deflty makes this the case in the English translation as well. He has an ear for dialogue that cannot be taught and his sentence flow with a natural, easy rhythm:

Now, you might read that and say, so what? What's so special about this? Nothing. And that's what makes it so great. What we have here are sentences that disappear like drifting mist as you read, leaving you with only the story in your mind, which is what you want. "Churned" is a nice touch which highlights the tumbling, repetitive, plodding motion of their travels. He could have used "turned" but he's better than that. The next paragraph is so descriptive yet simple, and best of all no odd phrasings or weird orders get in the way and take you out of the story. It doesn't feel like a translation. Also note the alliteration of "napping" and "popped" in the third paragraph, alont with bird and beady, each coming one after another make carrying the sentence along.

Here's some dialogue from the same chapter:

Ah, colloquial dialogue. So nice. Would really like to see more of that in translations. But it takes a good ear to know how to write it so the characters sound like themselves and not like generic nobodies. This is perhaps Xiao Lai's greatest talent. Skyfire Avenue is full of great dialogue as well.


Gilded Dragon (鍍金龍) Littleshanks - Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World
Shanks has a tough job. He has to translate a Mad Snail novel. A game novel at that. O_O But he manages it well. Just look at the title of the latest chapter: Chapter 496 - Twinked Gear. I wonder how many translators would have the knowledge and wherewithal to use "twinked" here? This novel is full of game terminology which I find pretty annoying cause I don't really like game novels, but man is this stuff a pain to translate. And the original Chinese raws are not well-written, which means Shanks has to do a lot of rewriting. I'll tell you, in this scene where speed = money, there are few who would even bother. Even fewer who could do it as well as he does.

Best of all, Shanks writes colloquially, not just sticking to a one-to-one translation of words that most translators do:

This might not seem like much, but phrases like "over the moon" and "wasn't all that either" are little touches Shanks makes constantly to make the writing more interesting. He's also tasked with handling large info dumps. Look how well he handles this one:

Three Phoenixes - etvolare, Timebun, and Ruyi
Brocade Phoenix (錦心鳳) etvolare - Return of the Swallow
The Three Phoenixes all hail from volare. Return of the Swallow is novel with a lot of domestic intrigue, which requires not only a lot of terms of address, but descriptions of etiquette and scheming. Setting the right tone is crucial and deceptively difficult when translating because you also have to make it sound natural in English. Etvo shines with Return of the Swallow by capturing the feel of a palace drama, with all it intricacies and subtext. Helped along by smooth writing:

Alliteration of carriage and contemplating, then small and shoot and screened. The use of "contemplating" is a nice touch and combines looking and thinking deftly in one simple sentence (actually it's a complex sentence, hurr).

And look how she sets the tone with dialogue. I could see this in a TV drama:

"Rise, oh do rise" is just right. Little touches like this throughout the novel make the characters come to life.

And there are a lot of mundane descriptions like the following:

A simple paragraph perhaps, but there's more going on here you won't notice as you read, which is the point. You're too busy visualizing it. "huffed into them" perfectly captures blowing into your hands to warm them, and notice the spurts of alliteration: connecting corridor... passageway paved, then "fine" "fibers" "fanning". This helps the sentences flow and makes for smooth reading. Good writing is easier to read.


Cloud Phoenix (行雲鳳) Timebun - Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator
Timebun is the model translator when it comes to sticking close to the original raws while making it read naturally. Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator is another lady novel in an ancient setting and Timebun's choice of words really makes her sentences shine:

"Chimed in" is perfect here, and though this might seem insignificant to point out, the many many good little choices she makes throughout her chapters are the difference between her translations and just another boring, generic lady novel.

Granted, the author gets credit for the image, but Timebun gets credit for rendering it so well. She makes it look easy, but it's not.

Even a boring description of a dude is made interesting:

What's good about this paragraph is how easily you get through it, and then the nice image at the end. "Despite his burly looks" is a nice phrasing that most translators wouldn't think to use.

Just don't read Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator when you're hungry:

Flower Phoenix (生花鳳) Ruyi - Unruly Phoenix Xiaoyao
Ruyi's voice is unmistakable. Her writing reflects her lively, effervescent personality, and Unruly Phoenix Xiaoyao is the perfect novel to match with it because its author has fun with her story. And so we see things like this:

And author asides:

The bubbly quirkiness is everywhere:

Now you might say well that's just the author, but no. Using excessive Hs on ahhhhhh and combinng "release" with "re-leash" and the way she renders the bark as "aroo" are little touches that not everyone would make.

Beat people up like watermelons is nice, and "brutally bricking barbarian brains" is even better.

And her creativity:

LOL, skinship!

Well, this was just a very brief look at these five translators and their novels. All five have good, clean writing and their own style, and they don't fall into the common traps of autopilot translating where you end up seeing the same words and sentence structures over and over and over. Actual thought was put into each chapter, and it shows. My advice to those who translate really fast: slow down and think more about what you are writing. Don't just go with the easy, worn-out phrasings. Your translations will be better for it.

Of course this is all just my opinion.

~GZ

Xiao Lai also translated Skyfire Avenue
etvolare also translates Sovereign of the Three Realms
Timebun has also translated short stories by Zi Xinyu
Ruyi also translates Poison Genius Consort and translated Falling Dreams of Fang Hua
etvo and Ruyi were both part of the translation team for Doomed to be Cannon Fodder


Once again, @Guan Zhong wrote the original post, found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltrans...picks_five_topquality_translators_you_should/

 

Why the fuck there's no deathblade on the list

 

Lol I have read only one of these... Guess my grades are gonna suffer again....
Just adding my own two bits, I would like to suggest two other novels as well.
Rakuin no Monshou and... Well, can't name another novel as print worthy as it.
@etvolare ever considered picking up The Noble Girl living in Debt? Seems like a novel that would fit right in, as the current TL seems to have dropped it.

 

Probably Top-quality isn't enough to describe him

 

I believe Shalvation's translation of Dungeon Defense are pretty good.

 

For some novels at least, in other novels I wonder whether they actually have editors or not.

Though either way it's hard for readers to evaluate editors since you won't know how it was pre-edit.

 

I had one for ROS for ~50 chapters. Real life got to him, and I don't have one anymore.

Ruyi works with Khuja, but I think Khuja functions more in the proofreading aspect since I once asked Khuja to edit for me. Timebun works with renderedreversed, but I'm unsure of the division of work there. I've TLCed timebun's work for a group novel before and her work is quite close to the quality that's published.

 

Not cool dude, rude. You give the patriarch a bad name.

Haven't read any of the female novels on the list and probably won't, but the writing looks good! Looks like something I read in English class. I wish Shanks was faster for Rebirth and haven't gotten back into Godsfall after that huge hiatus it went on. Probably won't until it finishes.

 

I think it's a bit sad that Guan Zhong only listed translators of Chinese novels... I get that those are the ones they read more, but it would be nice to see at least one from Japanese or Korean ones.

Still, great list with good backing on why to read the works of each translator~

This quote is broken Volare-chan! >.<

 

Hurrr thanks @AliceShiki! I fixed!

 

Well my favorites is RWX and Deathblade, also OMA for his insane speed translation of Warlock of the Magus World

 

I have read only skyfire avenue translated by Xiao Lai. It was smooth.