Jocelyne Allen

Oh dang! You are in for such a ride!! This series is so much fun!

Oh cool! I've not seen it used like this before. Definitely a useful distinction

Easy mode is good! It keeps us translators employed!

There's also 裸身, 赤裸, and 丸裸! So many words for starkers! Not to mention the classics 裸体 and すっぽんぽん. Is the list of words for naked in Japanese in fact endless??

The fact that both 裸 and 全裸 exist always pleases me. It’s not enough to have a word for “naked”, we also need a separate word for “completely naked”. Plus 全裸 is so much more satisfying to say than 裸. #AmTranslating

Oh cool! Maybe I should check it out. I clearly need to brush up on my references to media from previous decades!

I actually didn't! I thought you were trying to riff on the Black boy thing?? And I was very confused??? But your Heinz post made me understand what you mean by work!

Dang! I'd read that essay

This is ANOTHER reason why it's so important for manga companies to focus on quality instead of quantity: destroying the trust our customers have in us.

It's so easy for manga readers to find stuff for free online with terrible quality. We have to give them a reason to pay for our products!

We're nowhere in the same realm at Viz but we actively reject the encroachment of AI tools. Our artist agreements specifically call out the use of them as forbidden and we commit to never using them as a publisher.

🫡🫡

Translation is an art! You need human beings reading/understanding the text, and in the specific case of manga, understanding the text in the context of the images accompanying it. You need a brain that can pick up on culture/other nuances, and the word barfer cannot do that! It is not intelligent!!

Uhhhhhhh. Depends on what you mean by work

Why shouldn't it be translated like that? I'm glad you asked!

GenAI would never figure out that ショーウィンドウ越しにトランペットを見つめる少年のような眼差し should not be translated as anything to do with trumpets, for instance, because ⬇️

The heartening thing about this is just how many people are jumping up and screaming "no!" at the top of their lungs. Readers don't want garbage generated by the plagiarism machine! If only every company trying to shove it down our throats would realize that the way to our wallets is not genAI!

When Something Sounds Weird, Look It Up: A Case Study

Doing my usual translation thing, I come across the phrase ショーウィンドウ越しにトランペットを見つめる少年のような眼差し. I'm completely baffled! What boy is staring longingly into a shop at a *trumpet*??? A toy maybe. Candy, sure. But a trumpet?? I have Doubts.

It's the not thinking part that so many people forget/ignore/don't even know when they use these "jumped-up Markov chains" (great expression btw!). And then they try to use them to translate works that require more thought than a cursory word-word exchange and end up with a boy staring at a trumpet

This kind of thing is so interesting, right? Common knowledge is so often not common at all!

Mochikomi: Fresh Ink | Kodansha House Have what it takes? Submit your manga before 8/10 for a chance to get a live portfolio review from a KODANSHA editor.

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This was inspired by leaf blowers waking *me* up, so the circle is complete!

Your post made me realize that this is the perfect example of why machine translation and genAI can't work for fiction translation. The trumpet thing wouldn't sound weird to them; they'd just translate it the way you note.

MANGA: Wandering Cat's Cage Chapter 01, by Akane Torikai This week, we're giving everyone a free preview of the first chapter of our latest MSX manga series, Wandering Cat’s Cage by Akane Torikai.

You can read my translation of one of her books over on @mangasplaining.bsky.social at least! And a print edition of that book is coming soon, so there is hope if you are a Torikai fan!

Look at this video! Look at how many Torikai books they get in French!! It's unfair! We deserve more Torikai in English!!!

(Also, if you could hire me to translate those books, that would be great, thx!)

(As an aside, my searches kept leading to トランペットを欲しがる黒人少年のように, and I sure am glad my author got rid of the Black kid part because it reads oddly racist. Like the trumpet part is weird enough, but then why a Black boy specifically??? I mean, I know why having seen the CM, but it still sits weird)

My translation thus needs to convey that intensity with a metaphor that is equally commonly understood in NA English. Keeping the trumpet in there is only going to baffle English readers the way it baffled me, and the author's intent/the actual meaning of the text won't be conveyed to them.

So now I know I can ditch the specificity of the trumpet and focus on the longing part of the metaphor. This is where our old pals equivalence/functionalism come into play! The author is trying to convey the intense desire the character is feeling using a commonly understood (in Japan) visual.

YouTube video by Kainai inaika 少年とトランペット

Is this maybe just a quirk of the author? Maybe he really wanted a trumpet as a boy?? But better make sure bc I am a Professional. A quick search later, I discover there was a credit card CM 30-ish years back that became a cultural touch point of sorts, kind of like Calgon take me away.

When Something Sounds Weird, Look It Up: A Case Study

Doing my usual translation thing, I come across the phrase ショーウィンドウ越しにトランペットを見つめる少年のような眼差し. I'm completely baffled! What boy is staring longingly into a shop at a *trumpet*??? A toy maybe. Candy, sure. But a trumpet?? I have Doubts.

Wishing once again for the power to destroy with my mind all leaf blowers within hearing range.

Games & Machines Welcome to the Internet's premier resource for classic coin-operated arcade and video game machines, featuring a comprehensive database, top-rated games, popular sections, advanced search options, nic...

Found this very cool resource you should check out if you are even vaguely interested in gaming and the history thereof! Tons and tons of info about all the machines and games we have made to entertain ourselves! #TranslationIsLearning