Our Community Fan Translations

[Corylea.723]

Your insanely complicated and incredibly work-intensive translating method also raises some questions...

I have 3 versions of the books - Polish, Czech and Spanish.

How, where, and WHY did you acquire THREE copies of the books, in three languages that you don't even speak?

I have three google translate widows open and I copy in the paragraph I working on from each version.

Do you have e-versions of the books, or do you have to type in each paragraph -- type it in THREE times, and in languages that you don't speak?

I speak some French and no Polish, but because some things in Djinni are in Polish, I often have to type them into Google translate in order to figure out what's going on. I know from doing this that copying a line of a foreign language that I sort of speak, like French -- even for words that I DON'T know -- is much easier copying a line of Polish. The arrangement of letters in French makes sense to me, whereas I'm always looking at the Polish in disbelief and double-checking that yes, it really is spelled like THAT. So if you have e-books, that's still a lot of work, but if you're TYPING it, typing in a language that's very different from your native tongue is surprisingly hard and takes a very long time.

I then sit there and decypher the mess that google translate shows on screen.

Sometimes it gets it right.
Other times.... well it has caused me more than one headache.

It would never even have occurred to me to do what you're doing, but your results are surprisingly good. It's a very labor-intensive method, and we're all extremely lucky that you've undertaken it. Thank you!

Um and you've seen the results.

You've been getting excellent results, actually. Your figuring-out skills must be strong.

And thank you -- once again -- for the huge amount of work you've done in order to translate these books.

 

[grregg]

Ah my translating method...

I don't speak a second language (I have picked a few words of spanish from watching Dora the Explorer with my two year old daughter)

I have 3 versions of the books - Polish, Czech and Spanish.
I have three google translate widows open and I copy in the paragraph I working on from each version.

I then sit there and decypher the mess that google translate shows on screen.

(...)

I hope you don't mind me saying so but this is insane. I would have never ever believed that someone can translate a book that way.

(...)

The arrangement of letters in French makes sense to me, whereas I'm always looking at the Polish in disbelief and double-checking that yes, it really is spelled like THAT.

(...)

So what's wrong with 'chrząszcz', pray tell?

 

[nocny.945]

Your insanely complicated and incredibly work-intensive translating method also raises some questions...

(Google Translator)

I use Google to read all international forums. (Not only witcher forum). Text spit out by Google Translator is strange, but some patterns are repeated, so after a while it reads almost like normal speech.

It's a matter of habit. In the beginning of what we perceive as chaos is order and patterns. The effect of translation is like a third language. A child of two languages.

Sometimes I'm looking for information about something. Many more people speak English than Polish language, so - in proportion - more information is available in English than Polish.

I translate from different languages. Most English, German, Russian. Sometimes, Czech and Slovak, and others. Interestingly enough - despite the fact that the Russian, Czech and Slovak are similar to Polish, Google did not translate them better. Maybe even worse. But perhaps it's just a subjective impression, because I'm used to the style of the English translation.

Besides, I have more bearing English language than any other language. I am understanding more of the text in English than in other languages ​​...

Google translation of each language is different. I'd probably distinguished by the translation, whether it is in English or German.

So if I can understand Google translator, I think that others should understand what I am writing with Google Translator.

When translating into English:
- I try to write short, little complex sentences.
- I try to pay attention to the order of words in a sentence. Because in Polish order of the words in the sentence is probably less important than in English.
- Sometimes I have to remember the words such as "I (Ja)", "She (Ona)". Although I usually do not remember, because Google is usually well translates.

 

[username_2093396]

That translation method is incredibly clever

So what's wrong with 'chrząszcz', pray tell?

I don't even know what letter this is: ą I definitely don't have it on my keyboard so I'm relieved that I don't have to type words which use it (I had to copy/paste it from your quote ).

 

[Vojtas]

Your insanely complicated and incredibly work-intensive translating method also raises some questions...

Second to that.

I'm curious how Asheral is able to translate Polish archaisms. E.g. Polish word 'chędożyć' is an archaic version of 'to fuck' (having sex). Words like this are not recognized by Google Translator. So Asheral... You just remove those archaisms, right?


@ Ward Dragon

ą = right alt + a
ę = right alt + e
ć = right alt + c
ś = right alt + s
ń = right alt + n
ó = right alt + o
ł = right alt + l
ż = right alt + z
ź = right alt + x



You have to use font with ISO 8859-2 standard character encoding also known as Latin-2 (central and eastern European languages such as Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian etc.).

 

[Yourself.409]

...
Cheers

That sure seems like a lot of work! Thank you very much for spending your time on doing these excellent translations !

(I'm very sorry that I accidentally voted your post down, I wanted to vote it up SO BADLY that I pressed the wrong one..Sorry! )

 

[username_2186574]

@ Corylea - I work from word docs.
I found the three version in ebook format around the net and copied them into word.

Then I copy/paste into google translate.

@Vojtasass - If google translate doesnt get the polish version of what is going on, it usually picks up the Spanish or Czech version.


It makes me happy that everyone likes what I'm putting out there.
I know it isn't a 1:1 translation, but I don't think it loses too much.

And I'm also grateful for the other forum members who have helped with getting these books translated and formatted.

 

[esiasch]

Wow Asheral! Just...wow! I had tried a similar method with a Spanish and a French version of Sword of Destiny before that was translated and it worked surprisingly well. However, the sheer magnitude of effort one has to put forward to get it to work was enough to throw me off the scent after a few pages. I really didn't think it was possible if only for the amount of time it takes when all is going smoothly (let alone when it doesn't make any sense). In my mind, I already figured you had put an enormous amount of effort into this. To find out that it was this much more just makes all the praise myself and so many others have given you fall that much shorter.

 

[MiSP.383]

Wow. That's... impressive, to say the least, Asheral. We are eternally grateful!

 

[Aditya]

oh dam sorry been busy with other stuff, looks like ppl are ever on to it.
I'll check the entire thing again and let you know soon cory and thank you to all those for your efforts!

 

[username_2186574]

Good morning everyone,

Chapter 9:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?xihdrq77xii20oc

I'll kick off Chapter 10 this weekend.

Cheers

 

[mtb133]

I can't believe I found fans translating the Witcher novels into english for everyone to read.
Thank you all so much I've been dying to read these since I played the first game.

and further note, wow the latest chapter is freaking awesome!

 

[username_2186574]

Ahhh just be aware that I wrote Chapter Ten instead of Chapter Nine in the document above.

It is Chapter Nine.

I was just jumping the gun a bit.

 

[tnu001]

In which order should i read the books?

 

[Corylea.723]

In which order should i read the books?

1. The Last Wish (short story collection, available in English in official publisher's edition)
2. Sword of Destiny (short story collection, available in English in fan translations)
3. Blood of Elves (novel, available in English in official publisher's edition)
4. Times of Contempt (novel, available in English in fan translation)
5. Baptism of Fire (novel, available in English in fan translation)
6. The Tower of Swallows (novel, available in English in fan translation)
7. The Lady of the Lake (novel, currently being translated by fans; the first 9 chapters are available)

 

[Torpeda]

@ asheral82

You’re doing a great job. If you're not tired of translating I have something more. It’s a MA thesis, written in Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL): Arthurian myth in a series of novel about witcher Geralt by A. Sapkowski - http://wiedzaiedukac...tarzyna-lek.pdf
This essay is the key to understand the story of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri.

Moreover, I can also send you a scan of polish book: Geralt, witches and vampire, Andrzej Sapkowski cultural recycling, Katarzyna Kaczor.

 

[MiSP.383]

@ asheral82

You’re doing a great job. If you're not tired of translating I have something more. It’s a MA thesis, written in Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL): Arthurian myth in a series of novel about witcher Geralt by A. Sapkowski - http://wiedzaiedukac...tarzyna-lek.pdf
This essay is the key to understand the story of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri.

Moreover, I can also send you a scan of polish book: Geralt, witches and vampire, Andrzej Sapkowski cultural recycling, Katarzyna Kaczor.

WOW! That would REALLY be an interesting read. Crossing my fingers! (However, Asheral's current translation method as described a few posts ago wouldn't work that well with only one source text.)

 

[Corylea.723]

Asheral doesn't speak Polish. If you want to see what Google Translate can do with your text, well, go to http://translate.google.com/

 

[Adonai-]

Asheral doesn't speak Polish. If you want to see what Google Translate can do with your text, well, go to http://translate.google.com/

I work with a Pole and often send emails in Polish that I've run through Google Translate. She understands about half of them

for extra fun, run them through a few other languages then back to English.

(She endeared herself to me when I told her that I only knew one Polish word - Wiedźmin - and she knew exactly what I meant

)

 

[MiSP.383]

After working in construction with Polish people the whole summer, I too know only one word, but that's really not befitting here...

Back on topic; if anyone could find any way to translate the thesis, I think many fans would be extremely grateful and interested in reading it. Perhaps someone could contact the author?