After a couple weeks of life, with it's incessant jealousy of art, interfering at every possible opportunity, we're up to almost 30,000 words, and one more update of this length will bring us to the end of the story.
I've been experimenting with formatting for ebook versions because Pastebin can't handle the illustrations or all the formatting in the original, so check them out if you want to see the hearts and musical notes that punctuate Deruella's dialogue. Symbols like that display better in the MOBI than in the EPUB, while the reverse is true of the header image I made from the original title page, but I hope to have found some way of correcting both issues by the next update.
Expect to hear from me again in a week or so, and then it will be on to Baphomet Complex and editing.
Addendum:
I realized after I first posted this that I forgot to explain a point I had been meaning to, so I'll just touch on it briefly here. Some of you may be wondering why I chose to translate 魔王 as "dark lord" when the existing translations of the encyclopedia entries and sections of the world guides have rendered it fairly consistently as "demon lord." The latter would of course generally be a more literal rendering of the Japanese term, but there are several considerations in this instance that lead me to reject it. 魔 is commonly used throughout the encyclopedia and related fiction, either on its own or as 魔物, to mean "monster" — the occasional use of the English word as interchangeable renders this translation relatively definite — so that 魔王 ought to be read not as "ruler of demons" but as "ruler of monsters." The translation "monster lord," which many anglophone readers of the encyclopedia are likely to be familiar with from its recent use in other works, very naturally suggests itself as a solution to this dilemma, but in the case of the encyclopedia I consider that it fails to capture a second crucial part of the meaning suggested by the original, namely its association with established fantasy archetypes. The encyclopedia is at its heart a parody of what has come to be the generic Japanese fantasy world — largely derived, of course, from Western source material, but still possessing distinct features sufficient to merit separate consideration — and in such a setting, one expects the forces of darkness to be lead by a 魔王. "Dark lord" is the equivalent omnipresent post in Western high fantasy, dating back at least to The Lord of the Rings — although it should be remarked that Sauron's title in Japanese translations I have seen is 冥王, literally "dark king" and also used to express the name of Pluto. It is sufficiently universally understood to admit of parody in works such as The Dark Lord of Derkholm. For this reason I choose it as the best English rendering of the encyclopedia's 魔王.
Addendum:
I realized after I first posted this that I forgot to explain a point I had been meaning to, so I'll just touch on it briefly here. Some of you may be wondering why I chose to translate 魔王 as "dark lord" when the existing translations of the encyclopedia entries and sections of the world guides have rendered it fairly consistently as "demon lord." The latter would of course generally be a more literal rendering of the Japanese term, but there are several considerations in this instance that lead me to reject it. 魔 is commonly used throughout the encyclopedia and related fiction, either on its own or as 魔物, to mean "monster" — the occasional use of the English word as interchangeable renders this translation relatively definite — so that 魔王 ought to be read not as "ruler of demons" but as "ruler of monsters." The translation "monster lord," which many anglophone readers of the encyclopedia are likely to be familiar with from its recent use in other works, very naturally suggests itself as a solution to this dilemma, but in the case of the encyclopedia I consider that it fails to capture a second crucial part of the meaning suggested by the original, namely its association with established fantasy archetypes. The encyclopedia is at its heart a parody of what has come to be the generic Japanese fantasy world — largely derived, of course, from Western source material, but still possessing distinct features sufficient to merit separate consideration — and in such a setting, one expects the forces of darkness to be lead by a 魔王. "Dark lord" is the equivalent omnipresent post in Western high fantasy, dating back at least to The Lord of the Rings — although it should be remarked that Sauron's title in Japanese translations I have seen is 冥王, literally "dark king" and also used to express the name of Pluto. It is sufficiently universally understood to admit of parody in works such as The Dark Lord of Derkholm. For this reason I choose it as the best English rendering of the encyclopedia's 魔王.
Thanks muchly, enjoyable as always :)
ReplyDeleteYou're quite welcome; I'm glad to see someone is enjoying it.
DeleteHey man, just spotted the Addendum (I personally use Maou since its easiest :P ). I have to say man, you don't need to defend your choice of translations. Back when I was doing some translations I had certain readers challenging me on every single choice that deviated from their favoured translator and it eventually made me give up on translating pretty much altogether (I just pay other folks to do it for me now). So I guess, keep on trucking and don't let others who can't even read Japanese brow beat you into explaining your choice of wording or you'll end up writing constant justification of everything.
DeleteOh, I don't feel defensive; I just like talking about translation decisions. Part of it is probably also that I'm just used to explaining translation choices because the translations I've put the the most effort into have been for a more academic audience and demanded full introductions and annotations.
DeleteExplanations are always nice to have, in my view they help lessen controversy, even if it means just agreeing to disagreen. I very much like your compromise of "dark lord" personally, though I fear it may be too late to change the term in the majority of the translations.
DeleteI never intended for anyone else to abide by my thinking; one of the greatest pleasures of translation is seeing all the different correct (or at least equally incorrect) solutions different people choose to convey a single original.
DeleteThank you very much for translating this. I can't wait for the rest, and Baphomet Complex.
ReplyDeleteThank for translating it, I really love reading but I'm not good at Japanese yet.
ReplyDeleteThanks. If you're studying the language, be sure to keep up with daily practice and remember that it's never too early to start reading, even if only textbook sentences or children's books. It can be a slog at first, but the wealth of untranslated Japanese literature makes it very much worth it.
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