Danbooru

Hard translations that are better than existing soft trans

Posted under General

Do I upload the hard translation and parent it as usual, or do I replace the spotty soft trans with the text from the hard trans, or...?
In this case, I'm looking at the "KYONew" (explicit) doujin; soft trans post #151543 , FAKKU's hard trans post #944441
This particular page is sort of almost readable in the soft trans, but several of the other pages look like someone went at them with google translate.

Updated

Unless you can read the original text and verify that the hard translation was correct (which I don't know why you would need to do if you can read the original text) you should not replace it.

There's no point in uploading the hard translated versions, either, because the odds of them passing the queue is virtually zero.

Log said:
Unless you can read the original text and verify that the hard translation was correct (which I don't know why you would need to do if you can read the original text) you should not replace it.

Makes sense.

There's no point in uploading the hard translated versions, either, because the odds of them passing the queue is virtually zero.

That's a shame. Although, is that working as intended, so to speak?

I'm guessing one of your problems was with the line

「赤玉だしちゃいますよ」 which had been translated "I'll take out my red jewel", which in a certain literal interpretation could be correct, though it ignores the context and the fact that 「赤玉」 is an archaic word for "patent medicine" or "snake oil". I've replaced that line with Fakku's because it does make more sense in context (though it also takes more liberties with the grammar to make it sound natural).

In cases like this, if you can read the original and are able to verify a hard-translation's better fit, feel free to swap it out or edit as necessary. If you can't, but suspect that there might be something wrong with a translation you could tag the post with check_translation and list your concerns in the comments, along to a link to the hard translation you feel might be more accurate if possible.

As for uploading hard-translations, they are explicitly not banned, but are usually not desired for a number of reasons: they alter the artist's original work (which is usually a no-no in itself), they can be of questionable physical or semantic quality (some "translators" simply make English up to fit the action), most importantly they can't be revised (as soft-translations can be), and they can't be verified for accuracy, as on their own the original language has been wiped out.

In short, they aren't banned, but for these reasons most approvers won't approve them, and they could be thought to be frowned upon.

Shinjidude said:
I'm guessing one of your problems was with the line

「赤玉だしちゃいますよ」

I've no skills whatsoever in Japanese, the translations throughout the series just felt very unnatural and hard to read. But I won't touch the soft trans.

As for uploading hard-translations, they are explicitly not banned, but are usually not desired for a number of reasons
...
In short, they aren't banned, but for these reasons most approvers won't approve them, and they could be thought to be frowned upon.

Then I'll leave well enough alone.

Alignn said:
the translations throughout the series just felt very unnatural and hard to read.

We have a fair few translators for whom English is not a native language. Most of the more prolific ones have improved a fair bit, but if you find one particular translator's work to be consistently substandard, you might send him or her a quick Dmail to say so.

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