This Old Neon Forum

This is just a general discussion thread on something I find interesting in many fields and media: translation.

It's less an issue in video games nowadays than it used to be back when space (both visual and memory) was a limitation in converting Japanese to English text, for example, but you still do run into questions of whether translation should be as literal as possible vs. retaining as much of the spirit of the original as possible, even if that means changing idioms, structure, etc. Working Designs famously inserted a lot of North American pop culture references into their RPGs.

This also applies to books. What do you look for in a good translation? I've read three separate translations of Luo Guanzhong's Three Kingdoms now, and there are things I like and dislike about each. Are there any books you've read that have had vastly different translations? What did you prefer? The Bible is another good example of different translations affecting the interpretation of the text and the cultural fractures it has caused. Heck, the Quran takes this even further and is apparently only meant to be read / understood in the Arabic.

The Harry Potter books are translated into many languages. Because I collect them, I have a deep interest in this topic!

The British / Canadian versions are different than the American English. After reading them both, it is mostly just localization of slang words. (ie - boot/trunk, football/soccer. But there are a few phrasings that are switched around, presumably just to reflect on locals again. I can't even think of a good example of that one because they weren't that drastic.

The weirdest and coolest translation is the Norwegian version. In every other language translation, the characters' names are the same. In the Norwegian version, they somehow got around this and literally renamed everyone except Harry. The new names are based off of Norwegian mythology and local culture.

I have almost 50 of these books and it is still cool to get more!

How many languages has it been translated into? If you have 50, how many more do you still have to collect? I did notice when reading the first book that there were a couple of English words/terms in there, but I didn't think anything of it, because it's written by an English author. I didn't realize they tweaked those little things until you told me. Kind of interesting.

Kong Wen wrote:How many languages has it been translated into? If you have 50, how many more do you still have to collect? I did notice when reading the first book that there were a couple of English words/terms in there, but I didn't think anything of it, because it's written by an English author. I didn't realize they tweaked those little things until you told me. Kind of interesting.

Check the notes section of my facebook page for the complete list of ones I have.

There are either 74 or 79 total depending on the how you view it.

Kong Wen wrote:How many languages has it been translated into? If you have 50, how many more do you still have to collect? I did notice when reading the first book that there were a couple of English words/terms in there, but I didn't think anything of it, because it's written by an English author. I didn't realize they tweaked those little things until you told me. Kind of interesting.

I mean, you did notice the entire title of the first book is different in the US, right?

This has been debated since Roman times. Roman playwrights such as Terence were preoccupied over the problem of whether translations of Greek plays should be literal/completely faithful to the original Greek or adapted to suit their audience. The issue recurs in literature up until the present day.

I don't think the issue is any less relevant in video games than in the past. In fact, I think debates over localization have exploded in recent years due to how globalized the world has become. There are many controversies about whether or not localizations change a character too much, if it's for the better to do that, if inserting popular culture or English memes is appropriate, etc.

I am somewhat on the fence as I can see the merits of both sides. I think that I veer more on the side of non-literal, not entirely faithful translations which take some artistic liberties. This is definitely an unpopular view these days, especially in video game communities.