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I decided to translate Season of the Storms into English.
I know that this was already attempted, but there are only two chapters done, and one interlude. I translated as much and additionally third chapter. Currently this is only a draft, it may make your eyes bleed, and be quite inaccurate in places. But I believe the best approach is to go on with translation and smooth things out when it's done. That's generally best approach when you write scientific paper, and it can't be that different.

I will post questions about translation here - sometimes I have no clue how to convey this idea or that.
So I see this was taken under scrutiny earlier - with previous translations - but lets discuss this again.
In chapter one Geralt meets an official of the kingdom. He is titled "żupan gminny" it would be "ispan of the commune" but I had some problems with this translation. I chose "county administrator" as county is more in keeping with the older meaning of "gmina". In modern Poland county would be "powiat" that is the higher tier of administration, but old "gmina" was probably much larger than today. Besides "żupan" administered "żupa" which is more or less equivalent of today's "powiat". Castellan on the other hand would be harder to grasp. So would be comes.

Then there a while later this exact official is compared to a bulb of "brukiew" (rutabaga or suede). No discussion over the internet would be complete without Hitler so here we go. Rutabaga/suede is almost completely unknown in Poland. First and foremost association that it brings forth is with watery thin rutabaga soup fed to prisoners of concentration camps. My grandparent's generation would not touch a rutabaga even if they would be dying of starvation. This generation is slowly dying away, so probably in a generation rutabaga will be once again just a vegetable. But today it's still instantly associated with concentration camps and thin soup that left you more hungry than before you ate it. So I had absolutely not a clue as to convey all this, and changed rutabaga into plain turnip that works well, but doesn't have this whole background that's unknown for most foreign people.

Third chapter has major problem right now. Namely there is a honorific title that I can't really translate. First part of the problem shows itself earlier. There is problem with translating honorary forms like vocative "panie Geralcie", "mister Geralt" somehow sounds off to me, but there is not other way I think. "Sir Geralt" does not work either because he is not a noble (Or is he? He was given title at some point by queen Meve of Lyria I think. But as Geralt left her service in a hurry and without agreement he was probably stripped of rank.) But greater problem is honorific for an advocate. I Polish it's "mecenas". And we have "pani mecenas". This would be roughly "miss advocate" but it sounds weird. My translation is sketchy in this part.

Next problem is - I'm not a lawyer. I don't know lawyer speech. I have not a single clue if my translation is even accurate here.

Yet another - Sapkowski uses a ton of Latin phrases in law passages. I left them as they were, but it would be probably good to have their translation in some form or another. I can do it - I mean translation part, as I know a bit of Latin, but what form of translation would be proper in book? I'm not sure that I can make a proper footnote with epub format.

I will post further questions as I will go on. And there are some that I left out probably, but I can't remember them at the moment.
TL; DR ?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j65a607avbshse3/season.epub?dl=0
First of all, thank you very much for your work and your huge effort, actually, you're an hero. :D
Second, about "Sir" yes he was a knight but since this book is way before Baptism of Fire I think that he can't be a real "sir".
Third, about latin, footnote would be the easy way, but since this is not docx format I haven't a clue how to do it in epub, maybe there's something to do with Calibre. I'll check.
 
I updated.the translation. Old link is good. Chapter four is done. But my eyes hurt. And I don't have enough power left to proofread it properly. This was one long chapter.
The most difficult idea here is "kłonica" it's part of joke here so it's quite important to convey proper idea. "Kłonica" is part of horse cart. To be precise of type that is called "wóz drabiniasty" in Polish. Drabina is ladder. And this kind of cart has ladders on it's sides that can be removed. The ladders are supported by four "kłonica"s. Now this was solid piece of wood. It's main use besides as a part of cart was for brawling.
I can't work on translation on weekends (I am away from keyboard every weekend, visiting family. Wife and daughter to be precise.), but I will continue the work on Monday.
Edit:
Some remarks about choices of words.
First chapter has a reference of some monster killing villagers in Rogowizna. I left this name as it is. Previous translator rendered is as Horns, which isn't bad, but not that exact. Rogi would be horns. The word as is has no meaning but if fits the pattern of word creation. "Rogacizna" is collective name for all horned farm animals, or just cattle. "Głowizna" is meat from the head after eyes, ears, tongue and brain were extracted. So it would be something related to horns, but not horns themselves.
The fourth chapter has Geralt drinking "siwucha". I went with moonshine here, but not every moonshine is siwucha. Name derives from word "siwy" that has few related meanings. Grey haired is one of them, grey is the other. It could be used in terms like "siwy dym" - grey smoke. Light grey with a hint of blue to be precise. Now siwucha is cloudy. And has this exact color and tint. Siwucha is quite crude so maybe rot-gut could be used. But not every siwucha is a rot-gut. It may be quite crude, but not necessarily nasty. Of course as murkiness is a result of siwucha containing fusel oils, it will give you the grandfather of all hangovers.
I think I left a word for "tur" translated as aurox, while it should be aurochs. Aurochs is extinct predecessor of modern cattle. Maybe bison would work here better?
Another ninja edit.
I spotted quite bad translation stemming from the fact that luck and happiness are both "szczęście". This got me thinking and I've put wrong word there. And thus whole grandmas sign was off. Not that much, but still. It's fixed. Then I spotted 15 or so places with no space after period. This are fixed now too. There are a few other minor problems, but I will look into them with fresh eye on Monday.
 
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Hi so I'm new here but have read the first seven books that were translated. I was wondering if anyone had any info on a fan translation of 'something ends, something begins' (the whole book not just the short story of the same title), and the progress of a fan translation of 'season of storms'. Thanks.
 
First chapter has a reference of some monster killing villagers in Rogowizna. I left this name as it is. Previous translator rendered is as Horns, which isn't bad, but not that exact. Rogi would be horns. The word as is has no meaning but if fits the pattern of word creation. "Rogacizna" is collective name for all horned farm animals, or just cattle. "Głowizna" is meat from the head after eyes, ears, tongue and brain were extracted. So it would be something related to horns, but not horns themselves.
I've tried to translate some names of villages here: http://witcher.gamepedia.com/Tukajan_Foothills#Villages
 
Huge, Huge Thank you to everyone involved in these translations. I just finished the series a few days ago, which would not have been possible if the missing books weren't translated. The translators have done a truly noble and great thing for this community, their hard work is appreciated very much.
 
Chapter five done. Dropbox file updated. It was going rather slowly today. I will try do do next chapter tomorrow but it will be quite tough. Busy week at work. It comes in waves. I wait for someone or something and then I have a lot of time. For example for crystal to be cut. Or equipment to be available. And there are moments like this week - few things come to an end at the same time, so I have a lot of samples to measure in short time. I'll try to keep at least one chapter per weekday tempo.
 
Thank you all good people, because of you I don't have wait till 2017 to be able to read last two books. These are better than nothing. Great thanks...
 
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I'm about to finish Baptism of Fire and I see that there are two versions of each of the remaining books. Is there one that's recommended?
 
JackalJ-You're welcome.
I just updated the epub - I think I'll be able to finish chapter eight later today. It's quite long and a lot happens. I think I will switch to daily updates as I'm on page 102 or so, and there are ca. 400. But there are only twenty or so chapters, so later chapters are longer. When I'll have chapter ready I will update the docx version. I found some funny mistakes that I missed. I do just spell-checking so no real proofing and this lead to problems like something happening few moths ago. Moths are in dictionary obviously. Sometimes this makes it hard to understand "what artist had in mind" .
 
What in the WORLD. What's been going on in here, and why have I not realized it yet?

Huge thanks @spektroskopista, I will now proceed and drop everything I'm doing, and spend the next hours catching up.
 
For those who still douby

READ THEM, for several reasons, complex history, awesome characters, beautiful grey tones, in contrast of exciting colors....

and, the great volunteer effort of those who make this translation to English possible, just for you.
 
Still no joy. But hopefully I will get the chapter translated tomorrow. We have a technician visit us to recalibrate our lasers so no experimental work. And I could shuffle translating into work-flow. Just seven pages left. Maybe I will manage it before going to work. So epub updated, docx still waiting. After this chapter there are some short interludes (three of them to be exact), so it should be quicker.
 
JackalJ-You're welcome.
I just updated the epub - I think I'll be able to finish chapter eight later today. It's quite long and a lot happens. I think I will switch to daily updates as I'm on page 102 or so, and there are ca. 400. But there are only twenty or so chapters, so later chapters are longer. When I'll have chapter ready I will update the docx version. I found some funny mistakes that I missed. I do just spell-checking so no real proofing and this lead to problems like something happening few moths ago. Moths are in dictionary obviously. Sometimes this makes it hard to understand "what artist had in mind" .

Still no joy. But hopefully I will get the chapter translated tomorrow. We have a technician visit us to recalibrate our lasers so no experimental work. And I could shuffle translating into work-flow. Just seven pages left. Maybe I will manage it before going to work. So epub updated, docx still waiting. After this chapter there are some short interludes (three of them to be exact), so it should be quicker.

Just take your time, I rather have a good translated chapter every other week then see you work your butt off just to get a chapter out as quickly as possible.
At this point I'm just glad someone is translating them. :hatsoff: :cheers:
 
Chapter eight done finally. It was a long one. Much happened in it. Both docx and epub have been updated and contain full eight chapters now. It's all draft right now, but I share my current boss' philosophy - first there must be something to correct. Currently I'm on a page 115 from total 404.
 
Every other week ? I think that's expecting a bit much of anyone. The professional translators who have done the other Sapkowski books got years! I am grateful for whatever you produce at the rate you can.
 
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