croptoptux (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
croptoptux) wrote2025-05-10 12:25 am
croptoptux) wrote2025-05-10 12:25 am
Entry tags:
MDZS JP Bookclub restart?
After the initial hullabaloo about Seven Seas' inability to translate, I was pretty miffed that no one could point me in the direction of actual objective errors. It seemed like it was mostly emotions, until someone showed me this:
https://x.com/doufudanshi/status/1530285641795350528
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KpH12RQXVoTiNfDKM25-iRKQxvWqE30tCxQao4917B4/view?pli=1&tab=t.0
It's 13 pages and utterly scathing.
It also made me ask myself, is there anything actually defensible about the 7S translation?
I was able to get my hands on an archived copy of the ExR translation, but none of the others due to C&D orders, since I was pretty late to the party already. I didn't discover an archived version of Fanyiyi until pretty recently. I'd still like to have seen some of the other ones lauded for being actually good. TamingWangxian had some excellent notes that were still up, even if their translations were removed.
There are some serious disconnects between publishers and readers that aren't being addressed and I can soap box about that until the cows come home, but, put simply, READERS WANT FOOTNOTES. PUBLISHERS DON'T WANT TO DO EXTRA-CONTRACTUAL LABOR.
So it's up to weirdos like me to actually put in the legwork. I'm doing the best I can without being able to do primary source research in Mandarin.
I brushed off the old Classical Chinese and Classical Japanese textbooks to just sift through all the poetry. I've been attempting to actually read as much of the Classical Chinese literature I had to for class in full. I cannot express to you how much of a headache that is. Digesting the texts is one thing, finding reliable translations with commentary is another beast entirely.
Anyways TLDR: I'm going to be reading the Japanese translation of MDZS, trans. 鄭穎馨 Cheng Ying-Hsin (pinyin: Zheng Yingxin*), and intermittently commenting on it versus the English translations I've been able to get my hands on. And then getting lost in the weeds, and in ladder translations. The miscellaneous Chinese poetry will be sectioned into its own posts.
Initial thoughts: I really like Cheng's translations, though I hate the way this novel is formatted in paperback form. The footnotes are all inline, and the chapters are all consolidated. The production team at Frontier Works needed to reconsider how they were breaking up each volume in print. Vol 4 has a whole extra booklet with six of the extras shrink wrapped to it.
Look at this stupidity!!
And I really don't love Exiled Rebels. It's clunky as hell. Very obvious that the translator was a novice and has no idea what they're doing. It requires at least two more editing passes to make it readable. I cannot believe this one is considered the "better" translation on the merit of it being the only one who finished the entire novel.
*I can't find this translator's professional profile on any sort of job board, but all my googling produces Taiwanese vendors, so I'm making a judgement call to use Wade-Giles.
https://x.com/doufudanshi/status/1530285641795350528
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KpH12RQXVoTiNfDKM25-iRKQxvWqE30tCxQao4917B4/view?pli=1&tab=t.0
It's 13 pages and utterly scathing.
It also made me ask myself, is there anything actually defensible about the 7S translation?
I was able to get my hands on an archived copy of the ExR translation, but none of the others due to C&D orders, since I was pretty late to the party already. I didn't discover an archived version of Fanyiyi until pretty recently. I'd still like to have seen some of the other ones lauded for being actually good. TamingWangxian had some excellent notes that were still up, even if their translations were removed.
There are some serious disconnects between publishers and readers that aren't being addressed and I can soap box about that until the cows come home, but, put simply, READERS WANT FOOTNOTES. PUBLISHERS DON'T WANT TO DO EXTRA-CONTRACTUAL LABOR.
So it's up to weirdos like me to actually put in the legwork. I'm doing the best I can without being able to do primary source research in Mandarin.
I brushed off the old Classical Chinese and Classical Japanese textbooks to just sift through all the poetry. I've been attempting to actually read as much of the Classical Chinese literature I had to for class in full. I cannot express to you how much of a headache that is. Digesting the texts is one thing, finding reliable translations with commentary is another beast entirely.
Anyways TLDR: I'm going to be reading the Japanese translation of MDZS, trans. 鄭穎馨 Cheng Ying-Hsin (pinyin: Zheng Yingxin*), and intermittently commenting on it versus the English translations I've been able to get my hands on. And then getting lost in the weeds, and in ladder translations. The miscellaneous Chinese poetry will be sectioned into its own posts.
Initial thoughts: I really like Cheng's translations, though I hate the way this novel is formatted in paperback form. The footnotes are all inline, and the chapters are all consolidated. The production team at Frontier Works needed to reconsider how they were breaking up each volume in print. Vol 4 has a whole extra booklet with six of the extras shrink wrapped to it.
Look at this stupidity!!
And I really don't love Exiled Rebels. It's clunky as hell. Very obvious that the translator was a novice and has no idea what they're doing. It requires at least two more editing passes to make it readable. I cannot believe this one is considered the "better" translation on the merit of it being the only one who finished the entire novel.
*I can't find this translator's professional profile on any sort of job board, but all my googling produces Taiwanese vendors, so I'm making a judgement call to use Wade-Giles.
no subject
I ran into a strange footnote problem this week. I finished a book and realized the author had two sets of footnotes. I noticed that I was approx 300 pages from the end, and the footnote numbers were up in the 40s or so, but when I got to the end of the chapter, there were like 5 footnotes! He had 250 pages of footnotes, references, indices, etc. Whoever put together this ebook didn't bother differentiating through style which were chapter and which were book footnotes.
Regardless, it was an excellent read.