*Flails Wildly*

[donutsweeper]

In what was a wonderful surprise, lobstergirl on AO3 has translated my Sherlock/Discworld crossover "Yea, Though I Walk" into German!

I am ashamed to admit I'm useless in any language other than English, but it looks wonderful and it's just so exciting she liked my story enough to do the translation. For those of you who know any German, please go take a look at "Und ob ich schon wanderte" and drop her a kudos or comment!

Comments

[sam80853.livejournal.com]

Oh, I gotta check this out:)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Isn't it neat?

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! You must be chuffed. Someone translated one of my stories into Chinese once, and it was very cool. I also had someone do it in Gerrman, which turned out to be very much not cool. But still, congrats! Makes you feel professional, doesn't it? :-D

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

It really does! I wish I could read it, but I've no knowledge of German whatsoever so I just look in awe. :)

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

You could run it through Google translate. It's not perfect, but it'll give you an idea of the words that were chosen.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I ran bits through google and bing translate and it seems to work pretty well? It reads mostly like the original story, some emphasizes are different and a few odd wording choices, but pretty much accurate for the original.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I found the same with the Chinese translation. It worked but the words were funny here and there, probably because they could be translated more than one way and the instant translator chose a different one. She also had a few things she had footnotes for and one thing ('wiggle room') which she didn't know how to translate, so just left a note saying she didn't know what I meant.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh that's kind of cool- there are some phrases that just don't make sense in other languages at all, actually I'm always amazed how many things don't make sense even in the same language (I still remember fonding someone complaining about a Doctor Who episode saying 'it was pants, just pants' and I was ??? because while I knew pants in UK English= underwear in US English I wasn't sure if they were saying it was good or bad or what)

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, 'that was pants' is one of my favourite British expressions. It's just so random. But yeah, I've spent a long time trying to sort out British English, and I still make mistakes all the time.

Translating is really hard. I sometimes translate songs and there are always lines that are extremely hard to find a way to convey in English. I have never been able to find a way to express the French title of Colours of the Wind. It's something like 'the feeling of the air of the mood of the wind'.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Your French abilities amaze me. :) I couldn't even begin to imagine translating songs because so little has to do with the actual words as opposed to the overall sense and feeling of what's being sung.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Thanks! They are very limited in terms what I can do. I can basically translate written French to written English, but anything else is beyond my abilities. I don't speak it very well, and I only understand spoken French slightly better.

I think the challenges what makes it fun for me. I used to go very literal, but now I aim more for conveying the feeling over the words, if that makes sense. You can always throw in a couple of footnotes to explain your choices if need be.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Your French is still 100x better than mine! :)

Footnote explanations are a great idea

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

That is really neat! Yay. :)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I'm just so excited about it :)

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

*twirls you*

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

WHEE!!!