Re: Defender of Public Morals: Swordswoman Asagi (Ahriman) 風紀剣士アサギ
Yet you just had to whine "oh but muh thread", implying you weren't satisfied with the current thread (which I don't see you post anything there either)
On translation: If you got your translation from the machine translation, just say it outright and don't pretend that it's definitely the correct translation (most of the time it's not)
Also why suddenly dropped the 'Zhen' part? Too shameful to present that as part of the title even though THAT is what your translation method tells you? What if that's actually important to the title that you accidentally removed cuz "muh translation"?
Just to give an example of how interpreting machine translation ends up making something completely wrong.
In a certain story, this is a line in the translated chapter:
The actual raw:みんな死なないでね？
Machine translation for that part if using the whole line: we do not everyone die?
What's in the chapter "won’t all of you die?"
Did that seem to make sense to you?
Well, if you haven't realized given what I said before this, that is wrong.
Machine translation with just that part alone: Please do not everyone die?
Actually proper translation: "Everyone try not to die, ok?"
So by relying on the machine translation, that translator just changed the tone of a line completely from asking the others not to die to demanding that they die.
tl;dr - If you can't actually translate, don't pretend you can by copying machine translation. It makes people who can't understand the title get a wrong impression, and the people who do only see you as an idiot.
Well, I didn't whine, first of all. I stated that my thread was removed, then made a joke about it. I don't see a problem with being proud about something I worked on, I think that's natural for most people.
I don't feel like posting anything to the other thread right now, which is why I haven't. (It's almost like it's common sense)
If you were under the impression I was a professional translator, that's
your mistake not mine. I never said my translations were professional, and I'm not sure why you would assume so. It'd be like asking someone off the street to paint your house and then getting upset when it's not a professional job, without any prerequisite questions on your part. Oh, and I'll say what I please; I'm not withholding information, if you've got a question it's up to you to ask it.
The title is translated as well as possible, with my interpretation of the information presented. Since I believe it is as accurate as possible I'm going to stand behind what I said, and anyone is free to disagree if they feel like it is inaccurate. It's called "confidence". My goal is to create an accurate translation that
also makes sense to the English speaker. If you are expecting absolute perfection, you will be disappointed.
Anything I translate is for the benefit of people who don't read Japanese and don't know how/don't want to translate the text themselves.
In short, I ommited Zhen precisely because I wasn't sure it actually was important. The word Zhen doesn't even appear when translated through another website.
What I am sure of are these facts: The protagonist's name is Aoi, Ahriman has a history of having female swordsmen who have special names for their sword techniques (a quick peek at the translation of Asagi's move list is a great example), the story is about Aoi, who also uses a specific sword technique (or style), and the translation outright says " demon Sword style of AOI". I'm not saying a machine translation is perfect as is, I merely see it as a starting point for understanding what is said, before using context and common sense to pull all the pieces together into a coherent translation. Understanding the context is essential for translation and my own understanding of the context is part of the reason why I am so confident in what I say.
Demonic Swordstyle Aoi works as a title because it presents information that the original title does, in an easy to read phrase. Would "Aoi's Demonic Swordstyle" work? Sure. Would "The Demonic Sword Style of Aoi" work? Why not. If discrepancies with semantics are the biggest concern, I think that just boils down to personal opinion on how people want to say the same thing. I personally wanted to emulate the word placement for a slightly more authentic sound.
BTW your example isn't great because you don't provide context until
after answering your rhetorical question. It's like saying "No, 2 + 1 isn't 3, it's 21. You're dumb for not knowing the context of the question without me telling you what it is beforehand."
Tl;dr I'm not a professional translator, nor have I claimed to be. My goal is to create accurate translations that make sense to English speakers. Machine translation is merely the starting point for my translation, and only after using my knowledge of the context and a bit of common sense (along with research of the meaning of individual characters when necessary to fully understand all possible meanings) do I decide a translation is as accurate as possible while still making sense to English speakers. Your example sucks.
