Reachmahjong.com

Hey everyone! Right now a couple of my friends and I are scantillating the Legend of Koizumi; I\'ll be posting updates here as we go. So far, we\'ve already scanned the entire first book and have began translating. For my part, the mahjong terminology, I would like to ask for your input, on things such as:

1. Whether to use the romanji terms of the hands and basic words (Ron, Tsumo, Dora, Pinfu, tanyao, etc.)

2. Whether to use English words when given in katakana (Koizumi calls his Kokushi musou \'Rising Sun\'

3. And how exactly to translate Men Tan Pin Tsumo or Pun-ri haha

Excluding everyone on this forum, I\'ll need to make a sheet with the basic terms for readers with little to no knowledge of the game, so I need to know how much I should do. Let me know your thoughts! Your posts will motivate me to finish it quicker!

1. use romaji terms of hands and basic words.(what would you use otherwise if youre translating to english?)

2. i love the katakana/english hand names , \"emerald green\", \"apocalypse now\" ron and \"bush doctrine\" riichi make it sound more over the top. you should definitely use the english names, but maybe put a translators note the first time koizumi does the rising sun explaining what it really is.

Well there are english terms for the hands like flat hand for pinfu and all simples for tanyao and thirteen unique orphans for kokushi, which i know, sound pretty watered down haha

I like the idea of using the ridiculous names of hands, and I agree that anything written in katakana should just be de-katakana-ized. As for the glossary of terms, I don\'t think anyone who doesn\'t already play mahjong would care to much to see George Bush and Koizumi throw down, so you are probably safe without a glossary.

My advice would be to keep everything in romaji and use translators notes and a glossary for people who don\'t know the names of things. I bet if you asked the people who scanlated saki or akagi you could just use their glossary.

El Scorcho wrote:As for the glossary of terms, I don\'t think anyone who doesn\'t already play mahjong would care to much to see George Bush and Koizumi throw down, so you are probably safe without a glossary.

I don\'t know about that. While most people wouldn\'t be interested in a general mahjong manga, this is a pretty special one. Did you see the Salon.com coverage?

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/01/ ... index.html

Wow. I had no idea it was getting so much attention.

There doesn\'t appear to be a smiley with it\'s foot in it\'s mouth, so use your imagination.

Heya!

Thank you for using the boards! It\'s great to see it get lots of use!

Okay... firstly... sorry to come in with the legal stuff.

Discussing translation of terms, words and sentences etc is very welcome. Just please do not post too many frames of any copyrighted material here. As a rule, anything within \"fair-use\" is okay. Thank you!

Just remember that although these mangas have never been translated into English, they may still have had licenses purchased for English publication in North America and Europe. I know that this is true for some of the mahjong manga we enjoy.

I work as a professional translator within this business so I know the ins and outs. =)

And as a translator... this is my two cents:

You need to work out your audience. Who is going to read and enjoy this scanlation?

1) Mahjong fans

- Romanize hands. Leave in san/chan. Render katakana simply into English. Fandom loves this and you will have a happy base of hardcore mahjong readers.

2) Manga fans

- These people may not know mahjong so I would translate hands into English. The reasoning for this is that they may have a working knowledge of card games (poker particularly) so they will pick up faster. However, this fandom still like san/chan, notes and simple English rendering of katakana.

3) Everyone else (publishable)

- This is the step beyond translation. Takes time and creativity. Everything is translated and exciting terms are created. Notes etc, are the last resort as they\'re a distraction. The page should be fluent English and should be enjoyed, not used as a study tool. This will appeal to a wider audience but may isolate your hardcore fans.


The latter is true localization. It gets a dirty name these days but that\'s either fandom trying to assure you that \"genki\" has some indisputable quality which can never be grasped by a gaijin unless given to them in nihongo, or people have experienced poor localization. (Or in some cases, it\'s American PC going crazy, \"Magic Tea\" anyone?)
Some fans seem to have it in their head that localization loses the author\'s intent. The author\'s intent was to have something enjoyed and read without the need to be constantly referring to translation notes. (Japanese people don\'t need translation notes ;) ) All those years ago, I would never have played Final Fantasy if it has san/chan all over it. But I did and look where I am now! ;)

Anyway, I digress. You need to decide who you think will read it and what the purpose is. To learn more Japanese words and idiosyncrasies or introduce people who may never have even heard of mahjong to this game. Neither is right or wrong, you just need to have a clear aim in your mind.

Either way, that you\'re thinking of glossaries makes me so happy! Warms this translator\'s heart! Consistency will probably be your greatest enemy.

Good luck!

Well I would simply make a translation note part where all the common terms are described, this should be enough. Maybe if a term only comes once and never again, a note at the same page, but the common parts are on one side.

And use the japanese terms of course ... just for the feeling ;-) (also the manga kiddies take every japanese term they can find and to learn gg)

Thanks everyone for all the helpful advice! I think for the time being I shall cater to you guys, the mahjong crew; this way, I can at least churn out the translation quicker :D If I have time, I would also like to have it translated for a universal audience, but I think thats wishful thinking.

I\'ll definitely look into the licensing of the work, and worst case scenario, I\'ll continue it for my own use. Back to work!

Update: Hey everyone, looks like this book is too off-the-wall to ever be licensed in America or Europe! So I\'ll continue working on it!

oxoboxo wrote:Update: Hey everyone, looks like this book is too off-the-wall to ever be licensed in America or Europe!

Yeah, I\'d say so. I work with that publisher fairly frequently, so let me know if you ever want anything passed on.

Oh, and I wouldn\'t worry very much about any legal action on their part. When I translated part of Mahjong Princess Miko, I talked with the editor beforehand. He said that as an editor, he doesn\'t really care, and personally he\'d actually like to see more fan translations since they increase interest in his business. Don\'t quote him (or me) on that, but basically I don\'t think you have to be very nervous about this project.

Sorry for the hiatus, but back with updates!

The translation for the first chapter is complete, in the processing of putting it on the pages, will start chapter two right away!

http://xamayon.org/koizumi.php

Here is the link to the download site to the first chapter; will try to get the translations out for the next chapters ASAP! Tell me your feedback! Remember, YOU guys are the audience, so I\'ve assumed a lot of the mahjong terms. Enjoy!

THANK YOU!

Wow... what an awesome series! Love the straight-faced insane surrealism and wit. Can\'t wait to read more. Is there any possibility it might get animated at some point?

Fantastic translation by the way. Really spot on!

Haha thanks, my friend did most of the translation, I just helped with the mahjong terms; I\'ll be doing most of the next chapter though!