Here’s to prosperity in the year of the pig!

It’s already February of 2019 and the year of the prosperous pig! Hope y’all caught the giveaway on Twitter and IG, and more to come~

Translator Musings: Who is Ben, and why does he have a gong and a wang?

“Wangye, nubi apologizes for the slight to da furen! Nucai’s zhuzi wanted to bring erye’s gift into the wangfu, but er furen once told san taitai that she’s allergic to flowers so xiaode used the chaos of wansuiye’s arrival to put erye’s gift into the dafang!”

Welcome to etvo’s inaugural post on random translation musings, in which I share some thoughts on possible best practices and reflections after two years of webnovel translations.

Of course, these are my opinions and preferences only, take ‘em with a boulder sized grain of pink salt! And this scandalous Ben fellow certainly has a party going on!

Ben… I think you dropped this.

Today I’d like to address a pet peeve that’s creeped in over the years—leaving pinyin in novel translations. This is most frequently done for forms of address, cultivation ranks, and location names.

Did
 did anyone make sense of that first quote? Did you want to close this post?? Of course, it was exaggerated due to consideration of space, as posting 200 chapters to illustrate a point is silly.

Imagine being a reader and coming back to this beauty after a month of exams/crazy work and following 20+ novels at the same time. Or look at it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t understand much Chinese. Rather than struggled to follow all of the ins and outs, a reader might just give up. At the very least, this is a chore to read and I’m left struggling with how weird and foreign everything is.

The opening quote is about a servant babbling reasons why she offended the senior madame. Senior madame wanted to bring the second master’s gift into the prince’s residence, but second madame once told the third wife [1. Change in title indicates lower station, likely just a concubine] that the former is allergic to flowers. Therefore, the servant used the chaos of the emperor’s arrival to stick the gift (presumably of flowers) randomly into senior madame’s residence.

Who got all that after major cameos from what I call the Alphabet Soup clan?

Not this kind of alphabet soup!

I’ve discussed this with some translators/readers before, and some prefer pinyin for the flavor. The non-English words lend an air of authenticity, and truthfully, it’s so much easier to not translate something and leave it in pinyin.

However, I feel that defaulting to pinyin is a hindrance to fully enjoying a novel. It makes people pause when they reach the pinyin, try to decipher this new word, and recall the definition. All this takes away from them purely enjoying and reacting to the novel itself. Instead, they’re tripping over Alphabet Soup clan members.

But! The use of pinyin shouldn’t be entirely eradicated. Rather, it can be used sparingly, when there really isn’t an English equivalent or for stylistic emphasis. I myself use jianghu, mama, and yamen in my translations, because to translate them into English would necessitate behemoth footnote explanations. Now back to our previous program.

“Prince, sluga apologizes for the slight to wielka dama! Stowry’s mistrz wanted to bring drugi mistrz’s gift into the dwor ksiazecy, but panie dwa once told trzecia zona that she’s allergic to flowers so ten sluga used the chaos of cesarz’s arrival to put drugi mistrz’s gift into the dworek!”

The pinyin was switched to Polish in this version, thanks to help from the wonderful TranslationRaven over at WW. It will look like a train wreck to fellow translators as well now. That’s likely how it appears to newcomers of translated novels—which, are what most new readers tend to be.

I think even long-time fans of translated novels would find this an utter headache to wade through. Instead of being lost in the world of the novel, we’re stumbling over deciphering part after part of a foreign language.

But at this point, one might point out, “Harry Potter has tons of weird phrases and non-English words too! And look at how popular it is!”

Sure, but it’s also a fantasy world. Made-up words are found much more often in fantasy settings, and mashing two words together is frequently how something is named. No writing and/or grammar rule is the be-all and end-all, and adjustments are always made based on context.

Okay granted… this is also an example of bad subtitling.

While I do advocate mostly translating raws into English, sometimes one does want to highlight the foreignness of the word, ie. the spells in Harry Potter. But as one flings around accio and wingardium leviosa, one’s also brewing the Draught of Living Death and not its equivalent in Latin.

Just because it’s a fantasy world doesn’t mean one goes off the deep end with non-English words as well. Imagine if all the names of places and titles were pinyin, ie. Diagon Alley = Xiexiang, Hogwarts = Huogewoci, and Dementors = Shehunguai. Doesn’t this lose some of the beauty of this world?

We still haven’t gotten to our scandalous resident Ben and his clan yet. He gave me the inspiration for this writeup! Please meet his brothers bengong [2. Autocorrect keeps changing this to banging, oh dear], benwang, as well as sisters chenqie, furen, aunties nubi, nucai, etcetera in the great Alphabet Soup clan. Ben sprang into existence after reading many passages like:

Benwang will not be denied! Minnu will enter the wangfu as my wangfei! If you do not comply, you will enter as a qie then!”

“How dare you speak to bengong this way! Bengong is the most exalted guifei of His Majesty! Bengong will have your head for this!”

I burst out laughing the first time I saw benwang in pinyin because in the States at least, “wang” is slang for a certain male organ. So er, Ben won’t be denied hey! Rather than getting sidetracked about gongs and wangs, why not:

“This prince will not be denied! Commoner woman, you will enter my manor as my princess consort! If you do not comply, you will enter as a concubine instead!”

“How dare you speak to this seat this way! I am His Majesty’s most exalted noble consort! I will have your head for this!”

Fully translated, we can instead focus on what an ass the first speaker is, and understand the haughtiness of the second. I also switched around the structure of the second more, to reflect better flow in English. Being overly beholden to the Chinese syntax is another pet peeve to be tackled another day.

Not only does too much pinyin make a passage nonsensical, there are also incredible relationships in Chinese culture that are apparent just from forms of address. So much meaning is denied by pinyin’ing everything.

The beizi only smirked coldly when he saw the beile, and both were taken aback when Huang jiangjun strode in and took a seat without a word of greeting.

After reading this, it’s apparent that lots and lots of drama is about to erupt. Or is it?

A beizi is a Prince of the Fourth Rank, whereas a beile is a Prince of the Third Rank. So for the former to not greet his higher ranked brother respectfully
 well that is a very big deal. And Huang jiangjun aka General Huang? How dare he walk in and take a seat without acknowledging the two royal princes?

Some epic face slapping is about to explode in the next paragraph after this. But by leaving everything in pinyin, we’re bereft of the subtle undercurrents.

H-here be wangfu?

At the end of the day, I feel that translation is an art. “You just sit at a computer and type whatever random crap, right?” Someone once asked me that. We-ell, not quite garbage in, mindless garbage out like that.

As translators, we should convey the author’s meaning as faithfully as possible, but as appropriately as possible in the target language. It’s essentially painting the author’s creation on the canvas of another language. How does one evoke the same feelings of anger, pity, glory, and awe that we felt when reading the raws in their original language?

As the founder of volare, I always encouraged my folks to translate in proper English as best one can. “Let’s not have our work smack of a translation.”

Wouldn’t it be better for readers to lose themselves in cheering for the MC finally getting his revenge or aww’ing over couple interactions, rather than getting hung up on “wait, that should’ve been peek instead of peak
” or being clobbered over the head by Ben and his crew?

I’m always excited to share my work with friends and recommend translations around the community based on what they like to read. But I also often get feedback that they didn’t read past a few chapters because of the mighty Alphabet Soup clan turning out in full force, idiom errors, or awkward sentence structure getting to them. That’s always sad, and a lost opportunity to convert a new reader. 🙁

ROS Chapter 200 Giveaway!

To celebrate reaching 200 chapters of my favorite webnovel, I’m running a giveaway on Instagram!

Simply leave a comment on this IG post sharing what your favorite ROS scene has been thus far, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for some etvo chicken scratches, souvenirs from Taiwan, Japan, and Tokyo Disney~ The giveaway will run through to Oct. 28, 2018~

Drop a follow too to keep up on love, life, and moar etvo!

SOTR chapter betting kicks off!

It’s our favorite time of the year, Worlds 2018 for League of Legends!

Since etvo is a huge League fan, chapter betting is always a thing around this time of the year!

Correct majority votes leads to an extra SOTR chapter!

First bet: Who will be the second seed out of Group A?

Given the explosive first day results… that’s a big question!

And what other bets would you guys like to see? Let me know on Twitter!

çŸ…ćż—ç„„Show Lo – 怠äș† Let go

Let Go by Show Lo (Although I think the title is better translated as “Enough” XD)

The stories the public spins need no supporting evidence,
a lot of mouths fire off attacks day and night,
creating discord but pretending to be jokesters.
It’s all making up their own stories from a single picture,
picking at nothing to pick at.

Who’s there creating something out of nothing again?
Oh, this is something you heard? Oh no, now it’s something you dreamed?
You’re idiotic,
drunk,
crazy,
quite a character,
and blahblahblahblahblah. Are you done yet?

There’s not that much time in a day,
why do you have nothing to do?
You only dare start drama in the shadows,
Enough! Get down, get down.

Clear dangers before were easy to dodge,
now the threats are all hidden in keyboards.
Your brain’s halted in the Jurassic age,
just get down, get down.

Enough! You’re like poison by my side.
I don’t care who complains about my attitude (x4),
enough! Let let let let let let let let the bass go.

What attitude? What hard to get along with?
You only know to spar with your words and give empty promises of happiness.
You fling out parasitic poisons and are blind like the others.
Eat dirt. Just continue being foolish.
Who’s pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger?
Here’s a band-aid. It’s my gift to you.
That gift’s starting the countdown now,
and I’ll make you wholeheartedly submit to me.

Down. No need to trust, no need to listen to nonsense.
This is just a reality show.
What’s real and what’s fake?
Down. Playing the victim. Pretending to be innocent.
Some people applaud, but they’re both the audience and the culprit.

[rap not translated]

ç›§ç‘źèŽ‰ LILY 【那怋äșșè©Čæ˜Żæˆ‘ă€‘That Person Should Be Me

Lily – That Person Should Be Me

You’re still here,
but with her.
You’re just as gentle as always,
I can only ask you with a smile,
“How have you been lately?”
You respond with empty pleasantries,
seeming to want to rush elsewhere.
And yet, you pick up her hand carefully.

Chorus
Oh that person should be me,
the one hitting the same alarm clock as you,
the one in the passenger seat.
I can’t hold back the regrets,
on all those lonely nights,
If I didn’t like to complain so much,
If I was more understanding of you,
If I knew to think a bit more.
Listen to me.
No, that person should be me,
sharing in your joys and sorrow,
with every changing of the seasons.
I feel that if I could set aside my pride,
if I could walk one more time with you,
perhaps you’ll think that we’re meant to be together.

Friends just told me about,
some stories about how happy you two are now,
your wedding pictures,
putting rings on each other,
and the vows you exchanged.
That should’ve been us.
Those paths we’ve once trod can no longer be visited,
time cannot be halted.
You and her match so well,
but it should’ve been us?
I pretend to laugh and don’t say that,

Chorus x2