I absolutely love the translation notes. This way, you can both retain the originality of the translation and read the manhwa way smoother because it is localized into English (especially idioms). Great job!
Did the artist really just type "Rank: 2 stars" instead of, y'know, putting two actual stars in there?
@lionfromnorth Pretty much this. Words have little innate value other than the meaning they transmit, so when translators prioritize dictionary definitions over the actual overall meaning of a sentence, it drives me up a wall.
tbh if you're going to make a small translation decision you may as well just not have the translation note, like I don't think anyone would have cared or even noticed that the dude's title was "fallen empire" so adding the translation note just draws unnecessary attention to it.
I can see why you feel that way, but, as I mention below, I do think that it’s important to at least inform readers of deviations from the author’s wording as this specific wording may be important, and my deviation from it could take away from that.
I’m glad you feel that way, because I feel that, though localization is useful in translation, giving readers background, cultural insight, and informing them of deviations from the author’s wording is important as well.
I mean ideally if you're afraid of incorrectly portraying the author's intentions upon deviating from the author's wording to the point that you have to make a separate translation note about it, it would be better to just not deviate in the first place. I'm not against the idea of translation notes overall (especially for cultural stuff) but at the level of "this said 'disappeared empire' but I'll change it to 'fallen empire'.... but just in case 'disappeared' makes more sense I'll let people know that I changed it", I personally think it weakens the credibility of the translation more than it strengthens it.
I guess I might be the only one who thinks this, though (I imagine most people don't pay that much attention to TL quality) so w/e I guess you can ignore me
I like the translation notes as they sometimes let one get the cultural context, while at the same time it doesn't make the actual dialogue awkward, stilted, or gay.