I MUST BE TRANSLATED…
SO….
I just finished an interview with this French comic magazine thingee, and it reminded me: I MUST BE TRANSLATED. Or… well, the first two Serenity Rose books must be, anyhow. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but now is the time to put words into action! (By putting words into other words!)
I’ve already got a Spanish translation in the works, Japanese seems pretty well covered, and some folks have already called dibs on Danish and Swedish, but I’m still looking for French (MUST HAVE FRENCH), German, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Korean, Tagalog, Yiddish, Jive, Muppetesian, etc. etc. etc. The idea is to create a separate, slightly simplified version of my site for each finished translation.
(NOTE: The translation does not (NOT) have to be perfect. I just need something a little more solid than what, y’know, Babelfish or Google will give me. I already have people from around the world coming to the site to see all my little pictures… It’d be nice if they could understand the STORY, too. Gorgeous wordsmithing is always welcome, but utilitarian translations are just fine for now… Give it your best shot!)
For anyone who feels up to the challenge, I finally went ahead and typed up proper transcripts of “Working Through the Negativity” and “Goodbye, Crestfallen!” and you can find them tucked away right in here:
Okay, now… PLEASE (please please please please please) don’t let those high page counts leave you paralyzed in bladder-loosening terror… I gave every “um,” “uh,” “mmm,” and “blugh” its own line in here (double spaced!), so the transcripts ended up a bit inflated. But either way, translating these things will definitely be a big job, and although I don’t have much in the way of money to give you, I can offer a few things:
1) SIGNED COPIES of SR Vol. 1 and SR Vol. 2!
2) One ORIGINAL SKETCH (any character you want, mine or otherwise) for each book translated!
3) Set of three PRINTS for each book translated!
4) CREDIT AND A LINK on each page when the site goes live (of course)! And if you ARE an incredible wordsmith who really WOWS your audience… well, who knows what our publishing future might hold? YOUR MOMENT IS (POSSIBLY) AT HAND.
CAN YOU ASSIST?
Contact me at SERENITY@HEARTSHAPEDSKULL.COM to claim a language now!
(After the break, an SR Vol. 1 page Babelfished into français. Can you tell which page?)
PANNEAU 1: LÉGENDE : Culte d’idole sans scrupule
PANNEAU 2: MÉCHANT : Bien, je ne pense pas que je serais particulièrement versé « au style de vie entier de vedette du rock. » En fait, je suis TOUT À FAIT sûr je serais excessivement MAUVAIS à lui. Juste pas en mon ADN. LÉGENDE : Chuchotement méchant – chanteur/sorcière
PANNEAU 3: MANDRIN : Ainsi
PANNEAU 4: MÉCHANT : Je veux dire, si quelqu’un montait à moi colportant toute la façon des sexies et des druggies et… des briques d’or et… les tiges chaudes, je dirais « au loin avec vous, vous scalawag ! J’ai des pensées importantes à penser ! Je ne peux pas flâner environ dans de la stupeur capitaliste ! »
PANNEAU 5: MÉCHANT : Bon seigneur ! Je ne sais pas même CONDUIRE une tige chaude !
PANNEAU 6: MANDRIN : Ouais, j’ai voulu vous interroger au sujet de celui. Vos textes montrent très souvent un sentiment anti-business très fort. Les titres de chanson aiment, oh…
PANNEAU 7: MANDRIN : « Napalm sur Wall Street. » « Américain fait dans Taiwan. » « Perte de configuration au manoir de play-boy. » MANDRIN : Certains disent que vous inspirez des ÉMEUTES.
PANNEAU 8: MANDRIN : Que diriez-vous à ces personnes, Mme Whisper ?
PANNEAU 9: MÉCHANT : Bien, je sais conduire, naturellement. Matière simple des pédales, vraiment… Quelques affaires avec le « décalage. » MÉCHANT : C’est juste que je NE DOIS JAMAIS conduire, ce qui avec pouvoir voler et tels.
PANNEAU 10: MANDRIN : Droite. MÉCHANT : Tout à fait maniable, celui !
PANNEAU 11: MANDRIN : C’est un point intéressant, réellement. Évidemment, en raison de qui vous êtes et de ce que vous pouvez faire, vous avez pu atteindre une assistance énorme en dépit de n’avoir aucune étiquette principale
PANNEAU 12: MÉCHANT : Mais pourquoi ces vedettes du rock ONT-ELLES BESOIN de tant de voitures, quoi qu’il en soit ? Est-ce que je, pourquoi la dépense de grands gobs d’argent sur des frivolités signifient devraient être de la raison de faire un HÉROS de quelqu’un ? Je te demande…
PANNEAU 13: MÉCHANT : Queest-ce que si HÉROÏQUE au sujet des millions snoodling de dollars est haut son nez tandis que – juste un houblon au-dessus de la frontière – les petits enfants travaillent fort loin dans ces maquiladoras pour un penny une espadrille ? MÉCHANT : Peut-être ils voudraient quelques pesos aussi, ouais ?
PANNEAU 14: MÉCHANT : Ils font certainement beaucoup plus que pissent autour avec une guitare.
PANNEAU 15: MANDRIN : HÉ ! MANDRIN : Si ces personnes étaient disposées à travailler aussi dur que nos vedettes du rock, elles pourraient faire les fortunes, aussi. (APOSTILLE : Ceci ne s’est pas vraiment produit.)
PANNEAU 16: MÉCHANT : … Naturellement, l’état de conception d’espadrille est aujourd’hui franchement APALLING… Je préfère de grandes bottes de dragon skully, moi-même.
PANNEAU 17: MÉCHANT : Ceux sont mignons.
Er, um, I can do ubbi dubbi? Does that count? I want those shiny things.
In Ubbi Dubbi:
Uber, ubum, Ubi cuban dubo ubububi dubdubdubi? Duboes thubat cubount? Ubi wubant thubose shubinuby thubings.
Ubin Ubububi Dubdubdubi:
Yes, I would be honored to have a “Mushmouth” version of Serenity Rose. Probably wouldn’t loosen up my schedule to re-letter that one until sometime in 2032, unfortunately…
Ha! Understandable. You’re the second person to say it sounds like Mushmouth today XD I’ve been on an Ubbi Dubbi kick lately. I just wish I had someone to speak it with.
Wikipedia says Bill Cosby was speaking a “variant” of Ubbi Dubbi on Fat Albert. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubbi_dubbi Who knew there were different dialects?
Now THAT I didn’t know!
Yubah, thubat’s rubight. Ubi knubow ubadvubanced subecrubet lubanguubagubes. Ubit’s lubike pubig lubatubin ubon stuberuboids.
Mube uband ubanubyubone whubo hubas subeen Zuboom.
heh. is “tiges chaudes” REALLY the french word for “hot rod”? i think it’s one of those lost in translation words, maybe.
the thing about your loverly comics, monsieur alexovich, is that you use too many slang and occasional flat out MADE UP words that it would be horrifying for someone to translate.
good luck!!
Aw, it doesn’t have to be HORRIFYING… Like I said, I just need these things to be utilitarian. There’s usually a more straightforward, utilitarian version of all my make-em-ups.
Man, running that French translation BACK through Babelfish returns some real bits of gold: “CHUCK: If these people were been willing to work as hard as our high-speed motorboats of the rock’n’roll, they could make fortunes, too. (FOOTNOTE: This s’ is not really produced.)”
(High-Speed Motorboats of the Rock’N’Roll is opening for Eagles of Death Metal this summer, I understand.)
NORWEGIAN! GIMME! PLEASE! I would be fucking honoured, man.
The fucking honour is yours, Kjersti!
YES!
This is so awesome. There’s no way I can sleep now. I need to start right away. I know — no pressure, but I’m insomniac and I like translating stuff. So there.
Finally, learning Pig Latin in play school is going to pay off.
Ha! It’s the page where Vicious is being interviewed by the first of many frustrated reporters. It took me a few minutes to figure out why it kept using the word “méchant,” which literally means “mean.” Turns out, that’s how it translated “Vicious!”
If you really don’t have any other takers for translating from French, I could take a crack at it. Gotta put that college education to some use. Now if you don’t mind, the High Speed Motorboats are playing tonight, and I have front row tickets.
I bet that’s what the press calls Vicious whenever she’s touring through France: “Mademoiselle Méchant.” The High Speed Motorboats open for her every time she’s in Paris.
It looks like I’ve found a native French speaker for translation duties here, and man, she’s fantastic. A couple of other folks have also offered, too, though… maybe I should put together a team of some kind and make the French version SUPER-WICKED-AWESOMETASTIC. I’ll let you know. Thanks for the offer!
Ah, well go for them, then! Or the super team thing, like some sort of comics Francophone Voltron.
…
I’ll form the head!
I could do Russian if you like – I have a completely free summer, and would make the seven years I spent learning it worthwhile.
FABULOUS. I’ve actually already been contacted by a native Russian-speaker, but it looks like his time might be a bit tight. If you want to take a shot at it, by all means, give it a try! Maybe I can just employ this other fellow to help you out. Thanks so much!
Ooooh that’s lucky! Well, I’ll definitely have a go and you can use my stuff to fill in what he can’t do or get him to check over mine or something. Endless possibilities!
That’s me he’s talking about. I’ll be relatively free after tomorrow, so send me a message over twitter or something. I’m more than willing to cooperate.
Cool, I’ll send you a dm now.
Hello; we’ve decided to split it between us – he’ll do the first book, and I’ll do the second, and then we can swap and check for errors.
Sounds perfect! If you have any questions, I’m always around.
SHAMELESS IDOL WORSHIP!
You just *had* to pick the page with the easiest first line in the book, dincha? 😉
Aw man, then there’s the second line…. “Well, I don’t know” actually scores a “Bien, ….”!
I would have rofl’d but my knees are sore 😉
I’m having so much fun with this translation shit I almost feel like I should be ashamed of myself.
Victoria Vicious Whisper in norwegian, though… That will be a challenge.
Yay! Glad you’re enjoying it!
I wouldn’t worry about translating proper names. If you think it’s important for people understand the meaning of “Vicious,” we can just put the Norwegian equivalent of the word at the bottom as a footnote or something.
Ah, that’s a good point, didn’t think of that.
Still, I’m kind of a consistency-freak — the internal struggle going on within me is that if I translate some/most of the bandnames (which I have decided to do, because it’s both challenging and trés fun), then it might be weird if I leave some english words in… But the three “V” sounds will be difficult to convert into norwegian and then still keep the meaning intact. What do you think? Maybe I’m obsessing, but I wanna do a good job, and I’ll gladly take any piece of advice you have to give.
Yeah, in this specific case I’d say leave it in English. I don’t suspect anyone would be confused… It’s just her name. Can’t wait to see what you do with the other band names, though!
Right you are, luv!
i can really see Sera getting over in Japan.
Yeah, how incredible would THAT be? Still not sure how I’m going to rework the word balloons for that, but it should be a fun problem to solve. Or a ghastly awful one. One of those.
Weeee! Late reply, but I can do French if you still need someone to do it, and for parts I need help on I have a French penpal who helps me get the grammar right. :3
Thanks, Lunitaire! I think we’re actually good for French right now, but I appreciate the offer! I’ll definitely forward the script to you when it’s done, though… the more proofreaders, the better, right?
my offer for a Greek translation still stands !! 😉
Go for it! A Greek translation would be all KINDS of amazing.
In the following days I will send you an email with a few questions. 😉
But a Greek translation would be really interesting indeed !! 😀
Hey there!
Just thought that I’d post here too, because I’m anoying little freak 😛
Like i said, I’d love to do the German translation. so if you still need
someone who does that one, sign me up 😉
Hi Mercury!
Are you or someone else already on the job? Me and alphatroll were also thinking about doing it (what with me being a natvie speaker and him having studied german), but if it is already taken care of I don’t want to intrude.
Hey ho Mechatronix!
Someone else is already on the job, but I told Aaron that I’d like to proofread the script when it’s done.
Allthough, I would ask him, I think the more proofreaders there are, the better :3
…if it wasn’t for the german proverb that “too many cooks spoil the porridge”.
But if it helps to find some really critical mistakes I would love to participate.
Oh no oh no oh no. How embarrassing. I didn’t read this before I emailed you, Mr. Alexovich. I’m sorry.
No reason to be sorry, Cogi! We can always use more proofreaders. Thank you for the offer!