But Then Translating Gets So Hard - Tumblr Posts

I like. Wanna figure out a graceful way to put honorifics in my English writing. And like this frustration is so near and dear to my heart because my first language has a formal/informal tense that is fucking. Impossible for me when I'm writing in English because I so desperately need it there. And it works the same vice versa, I struggle translating English to my native language because when and how do you take a decision to change a text in that way and when is it appropriate?

Ack. It's so. It's so difficult because English is not made for that and for me the swapping to the other language just ruins the sort of suspension of disbelief. It takes you out of the immersion. And when you're translating it's always good and proper and I love it when there's long appendices detailing those things out but when you're writing original/fanfiction that is in a different language than the setting or source work it's just such a difficult editorial decision to make.

I've kind of landed on. When you're writing your own thing you should follow the conventions of the language you're writing in (ie, no formal tense/honorifics/specific conjugations if you're writing in English) but still making it clear within the linguistic context of the setting what it would be otherwise.

This is a nuance that's hard to capture and I don't think I'm good at it yet? This is also why I genuinely feel that all translation is impossible without some degree of loss, like there's always a little bit of the original sense you're going to miss. And that's okay, and I accept that, but it SUCKS as a writer. Like I once wrote a short story set partly in Russia and it's INCREDIBLY HARD to capture the sense of familiarity in nicknames and patronymics in English, even if you just use them straight up. My friend who is a native Spanish speaker INSISTS that magical realism just does not work in English because there's an inherent loss. I can't enjoy translated poetry. It's one of those things.

Anyway all of this is to say I am rocking back and forth on the floor because man writing is so hard writing convincingly within a setting where you don't speak the language is hard writing in your second language is hard translation is hard everything is hard.

Just don't write I think.