How Literally Are VN's Typically Translated?

[Yeah Way]

I've thought about this a few times when reading a VN. How often and to what extent are lines edited to sound more English in terms of vocab, grammar and syntax? 

 

From what I've seen (However little that may be), it's not done enough. I recall Hoshimemo in particular having a fair few "Engrish" lines; though, in its defence, there were some very eastern scenarios in that game. 

 

So what do translators think? Is it a general preference to stick to the original line at the cost of quality of English? Is it just out of pressure from the anime-fans who love their Japaneseness to the extent of thinking that dubs are somehow inferior as a concept? 

[hotsauce2000]

Hopefully "engrish" translations are more a sign of inexperienced translators rather than being on purpose. Personally I'd take a more coherent translation any day over a word-for-word translation, which is not what a good translation is about. You should preserve the context while making the content make sense in whatever language you're translating to.

[shcboomer]

Well this opens up quite the can of worms, but I'll chime in with my personal opinion on the matter. One of the biggest things about translations is always the literal vs. the liberal translation of things. It can range from anywhere being too literal and looking like "Engrish" to being too liberal/localized and completely lose the meaning found in the original language. In most cases, I would argue that finding a balance is probably the hardest part.

 

For me on a personal level, I'd say I try to find that balance as much as possible. However, people tell me that I tend to be more on the literal side of things. It might have something to do with me having a more "editor" first mindset. Admittedly at times, I try to edit my lines as I TL them and usually that becomes a mess. There are times when the line I translated just sounds wrong so I decide to give it an edit instead of just leaving the raw translation out there. For better or for worse, I think striving to find a balance is my ultimate goal when it comes to translations/localizations.

 

Just thought I'd chime in with my opinion. I'd be interested to hear what other people around here have to say as well.

[Kaguya]

Hm. If you're working on a team as a translator, the tl won't pass only by you. I'd try to keep things as literal as possible- And I'd give full freedom to my editor to make the phrases seem like natural english.

In the end, I'd leave "making things sound more natural" to the editor, whereas I'll usually try to keep it the most accurate possible as a translator. I'd also have the VN pass through the hands of some very observant proofreaders- I'd try to have them look at every line they find weird and pass it to the editor again.

Once the editor and the proofreading team is satisfied, then I'd release it.

 

If I'm working alone, then what Shcboomer said holds true to me as well.

[garejei]

I'm very strongly against literal translations and try to be a bit more liberal in my own work, even if I have to sometimes get rid of certain nuances. Of course, the final result should still give back the general feeling of the original, but I don't really feel it essential to follow the JP script word by word. Now, I'm not perfect by any means, but this is the general idea I try to follow to the best of my abilities.

 

To give you a general idea (and it's probably better to just show it rather than spend several paragraphs explaining), some recent translation I did on Dies irae is a decent enough example of how I usually work nowadays:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3b1jXiVflI

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQffnEho-I 

[8Floor]

From what I have noticed, it varies a lot from person to person. Personally, I like to be as literal as possible, but I will adjust sentence structure to be more eloquent, since I edit while I translate. Japanese can be a tough language though, they have many words and concepts that do not translate into English at all, really.

[Kaguya]

Japanese can be a tough language though, they have many words and concepts that do not translate into English at all, really.

I think this happens to every language, really. Specially if they had different origins, since italian and spanish are both very easy for someone who speaks portuguese like me, since they're all from latin.

 

Tling hisou from english to portuguese now- In one hour I already found 6 non-existent words here. And it's a fighting game, not a VN.

[Atikal]

In my experience, I try to keep as close to the original as I can, but sometimes that's just not possible. There are certain things in japanese that cannot be brought over to the english language. 

[zoom909]

I'd be interested to hear what you think of the vocaloid novels, if you ever play one of them.  How does it stack up against the others in literalness etc?  (I don't know, since I only read in Japanese now, in order to level up)

[REtransInternational]

Here is another related question to the discussion, for those who prefer the more literal translations, do you like to insert the translation notes when it is about something Japanese that has no English equivalent?

In general it seems the ones who like localised just want a story they can easily read and not very interested in learning about Japanese culture, but those who like literal translation will like the experience to possibly learn something from the translation notes.

[Mephisto]

A good translation won't be literal. A more literal translation is usually due to having less experience translating/less familiarity with the languages involved. There is going to be some meaning lost, but that can't be helped. (I mean come on, how do you expect kanji jokes to be translated.)

 

At the moment, I usually end up translating a LOT more literally than I should, due to being inexperienced. At the moment I'm trying to work on that, but it'll be difficult to improve very much in that regard until I can read fluidly without looking up words.

 

Typically, the less literal it is, that still holds the meaning of the text is the best way to go. I will admit that it is a lot easier on the translator to just stick in a literal translation (less work making it english).

[Joyjason]

Oh you guys make me laugh.

 

I thought this was common knowledge, but I guess it's not.

Eastern language and Western Language are only difficult to translate back and forth into because of not only grammar differences, but also cultural differences as well.

 

By cultural, I mean the fact that Japanese uses the saying "いただきます” before a meal, while not many of the other cultures do. Literally, this translates into "I will have this now", but obviously, we're referring to the food.

 

However, this can translate into "잘 먹겠습니다" (lit. trans: I will eat well) in Korean, because of the fact that the two phrases are implied to be used before a meal despite its different meanings.

 

Literal translations don't work? You must jest. Sure, Japanese -> English is hard to do, but let me say it right here, right now, that the difficulty isn't the difference in grammar; it's in the background and culture. 

 

EDIT: Forgot that I didn't even answer the topic.

In my experience, I see trouble translating various phrases due to the reasons I stated above. Many teams have different ways of translating them, but I generally find them unfavorable because of my perfectionist personality. 

 

But otherwise, most of the lines are easy to translate "literally". Unless it contains some kind of a joke or a pun, I'd say that 99.9% of those lines are "translated literally". 

[Kendjin]

Oh you guys make me laugh.

 

I thought this was common knowledge, but I guess it's not.

Eastern language and Western Language are only difficult to translate back and forth into because of not only grammar differences, but also cultural differences as well.

 

By cultural, I mean the fact that Japanese uses the saying "いただきます” before a meal, while not many of the other cultures do. Literally, this translates into "I will have this now", but obviously, we're referring to the food.

 

However, this can translate into "잘 먹겠습니다" (lit. trans: I will eat well) in Korean, because of the fact that the two phrases are implied to be used before a meal despite its different meanings.

 

Literal translations don't work? You must jest. Sure, Japanese -> English is hard to do, but let me say it right here, right now, that the difficulty isn't the difference in grammar; it's in the background and culture. 

 

EDIT: Forgot that I didn't even answer the topic.

In my experience, I see trouble translating various phrases due to the reasons I stated above. Many teams have different ways of translating them, but I generally find them unfavorable because of my perfectionist personality. 

 

But otherwise, most of the lines are easy to translate "literally". Unless it contains some kind of a joke or a pun, I'd say that 99.9% of those lines are "translated literally". 

 

Thank you for putting all the content from other people's posts into one... That was the intention, wasn't it?