(no subject)

[roselightfairy]

I've been working on some image descriptions/alt text for this exciting new project I'm working on (for reasons that will be revealed eventually, though I don't really think the people who interact with me here are much in the fandom it's for), and it's prompting very interesting ruminations on medium and translation. Specifically, the fact that attempting to write narrative image descriptions is tripping me up in the same way that my few stilted attempts at writing translations have. There's this constant tug-of-war between wanting to be faithful to the original medium in a way that works for the target medium. In this case, that's struggling between when to describe panels individually and when to summarize the motions that the sequential panels are meant to represent-- but it reminds me a lot of translating between languages, and the times you have to sacrifice accuracy for sense. (Or, if you're like me, waffle back and forth between the two and end up with something in the middle that doesn't quite satisfy either thing.)

It also reminds me of attempting to translate poetry because of the tension between accuracy and creativity-- which ties into the above, but also adds another dimension. Should I translate the words literally, or write them according to my interpretation in a way that flows well for the reader? What if I'm leaving something out in adding in my interpretation? Is it okay if I try to add a little poetic flair? Is adding poetic flair actually more faithful to the source text anyway, since it's meant to be read as a poem? In the case of the image descriptions, should I add my own interpretations to the images, imposing emotions onto facial expressions as I see them? Or is that taking away the level of interpretation that the viewer should ordinarily have to draw their own conclusions? But if the viewer doesn't have access to the source image, can they really draw conclusions with all the information, though...?

With all this in mind, it's no wonder I've flailed so hard in my attempts at translation. If nothing else, the overthinking alone would doom me. But in a way, realizing it's a similar skill set makes me even more determined to stretch these particular muscles. Translation is something I so dearly wish I were better at, and what better place to play with it than fan projects?

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Oof, you sure have a bunch of interesting questions. :)

[roselightfairy]

Questions I have never been able to answer to my own satisfaction. :P (my previous attempts at translations have been... not great, let's say.)

Hey, do you do translating as your job? I feel like I haven't been subscribed to you long enough to see that many of your personal posts, but I think I recall something about that.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

I do! I'm an inhouse linguist at a translation agency. My job consists of translating technical/practical copywriting (by which I mean lots of things but no fiction unless you count ads...) as fast as possible, to meet sometimes very specific requirements from the clients. For the past few weeks it's been mostly instructions of medical devices. :)

This kind of translation sort of takes some of the philosophical questions off my hands, since clients often like to micromanage us and they will tell us how close they want us to stick to the original text and what kind of style they expect.

[roselightfairy]

And I imagine that some technical translation would at least someone diminish the question of style... though that might just be wishful thinking. I can overthink ANYTHING. ;)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Yeah, I mean, it doesn't have to be beautiful. It does generally have to be clear and easy to understand. Some clients care whether we use the active or passive voice, stuff like that. Everyone always likes to say that they want the translation to sound natural, as if originally written in the target language. Every now and then, we get style guides waxing lyrical about the Voice of the Brand: make us sound competent yet not arrogant, friendly without being too familiar, yadda yadda yadda.