4 ms·

A bad translation can improve bad writing. By using unfamiliar phrasing and word choice it decontextualizes, allowing the player to imagine meanings and nuance

by rictic 6y ago

A bad translation can improve bad writing. By using unfamiliar phrasing and word choice it decontextualizes, allowing the player to imagine meanings and nuance where it isn't there.

kevingadd 6y ago
I get what you're going at, but I think it fundamentally misunderstands something. If the writing is bad, there's nothing that can really "improve" it other than the original author cleaning it up with the help of an editor. A bad translation is effectively a new work, at best inspired by the original bad script. You could replace a bad Japanese script with a "good" English one - this has happened before - but at that point it's questionable whether any translation has happened at all, you're mostly writing new content inspired by the original work or adhering to broad constraints. What I'd say you're doing here is improving the experience of playing the game, but you haven't done anything meaningful to the writing or script. In a few cases western companies have licensed Japanese works and spliced them together with entirely new plots for overseas audiences - Robotech is one infamous example where arguably there was nothing wrong with the source material and the result wasn't just a liberal translation.
- lmm 6y ago
  > If the writing is bad, there's nothing that can really "improve" it other than the original author cleaning it up with the help of an editor. A bad translation is effectively a new work, at best inspired by the original bad script. You could replace a bad Japanese script with a "good" English one - this has happened before - but at that point it's questionable whether any translation has happened at all, you're mostly writing new content inspired by the original work or adhering to broad constraints. What distinction are you drawing between working with an editor vs working with a translator? Often it's a very similar process, and there are cases where something is cleaned up in a translation and then that gets incorporated back into the next edition in the original language.
  - kevingadd 6y ago
    Typically the translator is not working with the author and they're not involved particularly early in the writing/publication process. They often come to the work months or years later. There are certainly exceptions, though.
userbinator 6y ago
One very amusing example of that being http://winterson.com/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.html http://winterson.com/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.... (there is a fandub too, watch it if you have the time...)

by rictic 6y ago

A bad translation can improve bad writing. By using unfamiliar phrasing and word choice it decontextualizes, allowing the player to imagine meanings and nuance where it isn't there.

kevingadd 6y ago

I get what you're going at, but I think it fundamentally misunderstands something. If the writing is bad, there's nothing that can really "improve" it other than the original author cleaning it up with the help of an editor. A bad translation is effectively a new work, at best inspired by the original bad script. You could replace a bad Japanese script with a "good" English one - this has happened before - but at that point it's questionable whether any translation has happened at all, you're mostly writing new content inspired by the original work or adhering to broad constraints. What I'd say you're doing here is improving the experience of playing the game, but you haven't done anything meaningful to the writing or script. In a few cases western companies have licensed Japanese works and spliced them together with entirely new plots for overseas audiences - Robotech is one infamous example where arguably there was nothing wrong with the source material and the result wasn't just a liberal translation.

lmm 6y ago
> If the writing is bad, there's nothing that can really "improve" it other than the original author cleaning it up with the help of an editor. A bad translation is effectively a new work, at best inspired by the original bad script. You could replace a bad Japanese script with a "good" English one - this has happened before - but at that point it's questionable whether any translation has happened at all, you're mostly writing new content inspired by the original work or adhering to broad constraints. What distinction are you drawing between working with an editor vs working with a translator? Often it's a very similar process, and there are cases where something is cleaned up in a translation and then that gets incorporated back into the next edition in the original language.
- kevingadd 6y ago
  Typically the translator is not working with the author and they're not involved particularly early in the writing/publication process. They often come to the work months or years later. There are certainly exceptions, though.

userbinator 6y ago

One very amusing example of that being http://winterson.com/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.html http://winterson.com/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.... (there is a fandub too, watch it if you have the time...)