Sanju Mariko - Vol. 2 Ch. 9

[MangaDex]

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

Thanks for the chapter!
(Reads end page . . . wait, wait, wait, you did what?! Don't go substituting your own dialogue, WTF?)

 

[HighStream]

@yolo5406 Thanks for picking this one up! I was hoping I'd get to read more of this.

 

[yolo5406]

@Purplelibraryguy I didn't write that much about it on the last page cause it was mostly an aside comment about translating being annoying sometimes lol, but let me clarify that I'm not just randomly "substituting my own dialogue." With Saitou and the chief and their emotions/intentions this chapter, not all of them are directly stated in the dialogue (and that's perfectly normal). Some of it is subtext (like the connotation of the word 同棲, literally meaning cohabitation but having the connotation that the two are romantically involved), some of it is visual (like the flower heart, the shocked sfx, or just seeing Mariko and Yaosaka constantly blush whenever they're together), and as a translator I'm going to factor those in to how I translate the dialogue.

I value having dialogue that flows naturally, and if that means occasionally filling in the blanks like at the top of page 9 where Saitou says この人には.../lit. But with this person... to have him say So she was fine staying with him..., then that's what it means. The sentiment of him being a bit jealous/feeling inferior to Yaosaka for Mariko not relying on him when she needed help is the same; I'm just making that sound more natural in English instead of blindly directly translating everything. None of this is baseless; it's all grounded in the text.

I hope I haven't rambled too much and don't sound too aggressive. You don't have to agree or like my translation values or how I translate, but I wanted to give you my rationale and assure you that I'm not going off with my own story here.

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

@yolo5406 I see. Well, I can see your position, it's a judgment call and a matter of your approach to translation. I don't think your approach is out of line. Personally, although it's good to have flow and so on, in translation (um, of other languages, since I don't speak Japanese) I tend to prefer erring in the direction of trying to capture the sort of cadence and feel of how conversation goes in the other language. It might feel more alien, like in English people don't say things that kind of way . . . but then that's sort of the point, in the other language they DO say things that way, in that other culture they express themselves in maybe a more roundabout fashion, and that too is maybe something I want to get across, so I'd sacrifice a bit of ease for a more full experience, or something.
But people have different, valid positions on this kind of stuff.

 

[trimurti3]

@yolo5406 I appreciated both your endnote to the chapter and this longer reply here. As someone who's been around the scanslating world for decades (oh god) and reading manga for even longer, the issue of localization and how much one should translate literally or not has been argued about to death, then had its corpse dug up and beaten some more. The thing that really has to be understood is that Japanese is a language of implication, and that's not something carried over into English very well when translated literally. It's certainly still readable, but there's just too much that an English reader (and most likely someone who is not familiar with unspoken cultural nuances) will miss--and a full translation means taking heed of these things and conveying them properly to the readers. Hence, localization.

In other words, you're doing a great job and thank you for your efforts on what was an abandoned scanslation. I'm looking forward to more!

 

[lemika96]

Thank you so much for picking up this series!! I'm emotionally invested in this 80 year old lady 😭😭

 

[yoshiea]

NOOOOOOOO T^T

Dont cut her!

Thank you so much for translating this gem!

 

[yolo5406]

@Purplelibraryguy I totally get it. Things do get conveyed a different way, and I've found that the more of the source language you know, the easier it is to understand when it's translated more directly because you understand the implications and nuance of what is being said. But if you don't know any of the source language, it just seems confusing and somewhat obtuse, so you really can't win :/

@trimurti3 yeppp. Part of the reason I was a bit defensive in my response is because unless you take a stance on how you want to translate and stick to it you just run around in circles on how things ought to be translated tm. I'm glad you're enjoying the translations so far

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

@yolo5406 I probably have a bias, come to that. I understand almost exactly zero Japanese, but I've been reading manga a lot--far too much, really--for about 20 years, and of course with a lot of different translation styles (and skill levels) . . . so over time I've probably internalized quite a bit of Japanese idioms and conversational approaches. A more literal translation might well suit me more than most of the audience, so translating to suit my taste might not be a good approach.

 

[Nixnaw]

Thanks for the hard work. The editor is really cute with his culture shock, understandable lol. Sensei's (potential?) boyfriend is a little odd with how he wants to read her work first when its like...her editor? But... okay. I wonder if she will find another avenue to write if she gets kicked out from serialization. Like maybe go as ebooks/online or something?

 

[firefly04]

I thought Satou was a woman. Are they really a guy? Their face and behavior seem very feminine to me

Edit: wow, I don't know what made me think he was a woman. I reread all the chapters, and it seems that he's a guy )

 

[afureteta]

Thank you for translating this. This manga is lovely.
The way these youngsters (a millennial and a zoomer? or an x-r and a millennial) are discussing her falling in love "at that age? omg can't compute" is quite annoying indeed.

 

[Zonko]

Ahhh this manga is great! I can't wait for more chapters. Thanks for translating this!

Pls don't cut her editor-san

 

[Sloowbro]

Thank you for the wonderful translation! Tbh my heart hurt when they said they'd cut her even if it prob won't happen...but it could 😥

Fun fact for ppl in comments section: older adults are still really into love, sex, and relationships. STDs are a big problem in retirement homes bc old people really don't give a sh*t 😂

 

[gronkle]

Tbh having all the works of a multi-decade career out on display is a bit creepy, and not telling her until then was just weird. I get artistic license, but it came across a little like

Spoiler

Anyway, cheers for the translation; I'm still enjoying the ride so far