/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I just finished translating a short doujin, about 50 pages of actual text/dialogue. It was on my own volition, definitely not with permission of the original author, and as such I most certainly didn't get paid for it. I'm not saying what it was, mostly because I'm sure most everyone here isn't interested in the basic theme.

I felt ecstatic when I originally finished it. It was the first real "full" translation I've done of anything since nearly 10 years ago when I first started learning how to read "moonspeak." I know that makes me sound amateur at best, but I'd probably boarder between JPLT 1-2kyu if I ever actually took the test; my skill as a translator is really the only thing I hold in question.

Which, leads me to my dilemma. Did I create something? I certainly feel like I did. I spent hours pouring over dialogue, trying to feel what it really meant and then regurgitate it in my own language, rereading what I wrote and tweaking it into what I believe the author would have intended.

But did I? Create something, that is. People not so blessed probably look at translation as nothing more than word swapping. If it were so easy we'd just feed everything through babelfish... But even if it's hard? Does that mean it's still not creation? I laugh at the irony thinking of Japan as a nation of imitators, and then think of myself as doing nothing but the same.

What I do know is those words didn't exist in such phrases before I wrote them. However, I also know they would never have existed without the original. And so, I'm torn. Is this just something a translator has to deal with? Is there any solace?

In return, Gunkanjima. Not related. Or is it? A photographer takes different angles of something beautiful, and yet they're still just copies of something that already was. Yeah, probably not related, but I'm trying to dig deep here...