毎日アニメ夢 » Lyrics & Other Translations

What I’ve learned from fan translating

Yumeka — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:59:49 +0000

As some of you probably know, for the past couple of months I’ve been part of a translation group that’s been working on providing an English release of the latest Haruhi novels (volumes 10 and 11). We finally completed the project earlier this week. Baka-Tsuki, the group that had provided fan translations for the previous nine novels, could no longer work on the series, so myself and a few other dedicated individuals took on the task. I translated and edited one chapter myself (72 pages) and edited two that were translated by someone else (222 pages). Since this was the first major translation project I’ve worked on, I’d like to share what I’ve learned about the experience…

Translating is exhausting work even if you’re 100% fluent in the language. So it’s doubly exhausting if you’re not completely fluent, as is the case with me and Japanese. Though I majored in Japan/Japanese in college, visited the country twice, and have been studying it formally and informally since 2004, I still have quite a lot to learn.

As has been the case for a while, I more or less have a firm grasp on all the major grammar points in Japanese – verb conjugation, particles, sentence structure, etc., – I just need to memorize vocabulary, kanji, and the myriad of unique idioms, slang, expressions, and nuances that exist in every language. Besides this, working on the translation project has reaffirmed and taught me other things…

Japanese sentences are ‘backwards’: Unlike English, Japanese is a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) language – meaning that the subject, object, and verb of its sentences usually go in that order. Because of this, the verb in Japanese sentences is at the end, while in English it’s directly after the subject. So a sentence like “I went to school yesterday” would be literally translated in Japanese as “yesterday I school to went – 昨日私は学校に行きました” In addition to this, phrases describing a noun occur after the noun in English while they occur before it in Japanese. For example, the phrase “the movie (I) saw last week” would be “last week saw movie – 先週見た映画” in Japanese. With these two major attributes of the language that are practically the opposite of English, I found it much more effective to translate Japanese sentences starting from the end rather than the beginning. Many times I would start translating a sentence from the beginning only to scrap it and start over with the end of the sentence, especially for the very complex ones (which Haruhi novels have a lot of).

Lack of pronouns: Again unlike English, pronouns aren’t typically used in Japanese if the noun that they’re describing is understood. This is actually a pretty easy thing to get used to, though a couple of times I wasn’t clear on who was saying/doing what was described. I wonder if Japanese people occasionally have misunderstandings due to lack of pronouns?

Electronic dictionaries are your friends: Rikaichan and my DS Kanji Dictionary were my constant companions during translation work. My friend and partner in the project, Ultimatemegax (who I would say did the most work) has a program that takes scanned images of the novel pages and converts them into actual text files (though its accuracy in certain kana/kanji isn’t the best). With that, I was able to upload the Japanese text of the novels online and then use Rikaichan to help me translate. If Rikaichan wasn’t clear enough or the kanji didn’t come out right in text form and I had to rewrite it, I would then turn to my DS Kanji Dictionary for more thorough explanations and sample sentences. I can’t imagine how much longer the whole project would have taken without these helpful tools!

I enjoy translating dialogue the most: Out of everything I worked on, I enjoyed translating characters’ spoken dialogue the most. Well, technically all of the Haruhi novels are made up of spoken dialogue because Kyon is the narrator. But I meant dialogue besides his narration. It’s fun picking up on the nuances in Japanese colloquialisms that can tell you more about a character than external descriptions alone can. I also enjoyed figuring out how to properly convey their dialogue in English, as a lot of it can’t be accurately translated (polite vs casual speech for example). And except for characters that speak in long, complex sentences (like Itsuki and Sasaki), translating dialogue is usually easier than regular prose. After all, conversation is often used as the first step in learning Japanese and it’s mostly what we hear when watching anime ;) Hmm, maybe I should translate manga since that’s just dialogue XD

Editing can be harder than translating: I was translator and editor for one chapter of the novels, which took a lot more time than if I had someone else edit it. But the compromise is that I could freely tweak the translation to my full satisfaction. Editing someone else’s work, however, can be more straining because you want it to be the best it can be but you don’t want to impose your personal idea of what the best translation is for a given sentence on the other person’s work. You just have to set limits for yourself and remember that it’s a fan translation and isn’t supposed to be of professional quality.

———-

It’s difficult, tedious, and time-consuming to translate any substantial work, especially novels as opposed to manga or game dialogue. But I feel the rewards of self-accomplishment and being able to bring joy to your fellow fans makes it worth it, especially if what you’re translating is a portion of your favorite series =) The six members of our make-shift group finished translating roughly 600 pages in approximately 70 days – not bad for a bunch of amateurs =D I can’t say when I’ll take up a big project like this again, but I’m sure this isn’t the end of my fan translating ^_^V

One Piece openings 5 & 6 full translations

Yumeka — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 04:28:01 +0000

The fifth and sixth opening songs for One Piece were the first anime songs I translated myself ^^ I love pretty much all the One Piece songs, especially the openings, so that’s what motivated me to put my Japanese skills to work and translate them. After that, they were sitting idly on my computer for a while, but now that I have my own blog site, I figured why not post them here, along with other anime/j-pop songs I decide to translate. So here they are =) I plan to translate more of my favorite anime songs in the future, so keep a lookout!

ココロのちず – Kokoro no Chizu
performed by BOYSTYLE
One Piece opening 5

大丈夫！　さぁ前に進もう
daijoubu! saa mae ni susumou
It’s alright! C’mon, let’s move forward!

太陽を　いつも胸に
taiyou wo itsumo mune ni
The sun’s always in our heart

繋いだ手　伝わるPower
tsunaida te tsutawaru power
With power transmitted through our clasped hands

願いをつかまえようよ
negai wo tsukamaeyou yo
Let’s catch our desires!

でっかい波に乗ろう　チカラ合わせて
dekkai nami ni norou chikara awasete
Riding the big waves and combining our power

ときめく方へ急ごう　始まりの合図
tokimeku hou e isogou hajimari no aizu
Let’s hurry in the direction that’s throbbing, it’s the starting signal

今こそ船出のとき　錨を上げたら
ima koso funede no toki ikari wo agetara
Now it’s the time to set sail and raise the anchor…

七色の風を切り　冒険の海へ
nanairo no kaze wo kiri bouken no umi e
…and cut through the seven-color wind towards the sea of adventure

傷だらけの航海(たび)だけど
kizu darake no tabi takedo
It’s a journey full of injury but…

大事なものがそこにある
daiji na mono ga soko ni aru
…something precious is there

ピンチなら　いつだって　ボクが守るから
pinchi nara itsudatte boku ga mamoru kara
Even if we’re in a pinch, it doesn’t matter because I will protect you

大丈夫！　さぁ前に進もう
daijoubu! saa mae ni susumou
It’s alright! C’mon, let’s move forward!

太陽を　いつも胸に
taiyou wo itsumo mune ni
The sun’s always in our heart

嵐が来たら　肩組んで
arashi ga kitara kata kunde
If a storm comes, we’ll stand with our shoulders together…

その先の希望(ひかり)を見よう
sono saki no hikari wo miyou
…and look at the light that lays ahead

夢のカケラ　集まれば
yume no kakera atsumareba
If we gather the shards of our dreams…

未来(あす)に向かう航海図(ちず)になる
asu ni mukau chizu ni naru
…they’ll become the map that leads to tomorrow

だから同じ旗の下(もと)
dakara onaji hata no moto
And so, under the same flag…

願いをつかまえようよ
negai wo tsukameyou yo
…let’s catch our desires!

ボクらはひとつ　One Piece
bokura wa hitotsu one piece
We are all one, One Piece

「ミンナデ　ヤレバ　デキル！」
“minna de yareba dekiru!”
“If everyone works together, we can do it!”

ココロを合わせて
kokoro wo awasete
Combining our hearts…

ワタリドリたちの歌　勇気に変えたら
wataridoritachi no uta yuuki ni kaetara
…when the migratory birds change their songs to courage

翼のないボクらでも　自由自在に羽ばたける
tsubasa no nai bokura demo jyuu jizai ni habatakeru
We don’t have wings, but we can freely fly away as we please

気まぐれな空だって　味方にしちゃおう
kimagure na sora datte mikata ni shichyaou
Even if the sky is capricious, let’s be allies

大丈夫！　そう前に進もう
daijoubu! sou mae ni susumou
It’s alright! Yes, let’s move forward!

そのナミダ　雨のように
sono namida ame no you ni
Your rain-like tears…

青い海に帰したとき　情熱がキラキラ光る
aoi umi ni kaeshita toki jounetsu ga kirakira hikaru
…when they’re sent to the blue ocean, passion glitters and shines

アツイオモイ重ねたら　無限大の風を呼ぶ
atsui omoi kasanetara mugentai no kaze wo yobu
When our burning thoughts pile up, they call to the infinite wind

ずっと同じ星の下(もと)
zutto onaji hoshi no moto
We’re forever under the same star…

カタイキズナがあるから
katai kizu ga aru kara
…because we have a strong bond

奇跡を分かち合おう
kiseki wo wakachi aou
Let’s share the miracles