Seeking Beta Reader for Translation from Russian

[hhimring]

Dear Silm fans, especially fans of Maedhros and Fingon,

There is an excellent Silm novel out there, Tengwa Malta, by Sky Langolin (sky_swallow). Unfortunately for non-speakers of Russian, it is written in Russian and has not been translated into English so far. I became aware of this novel when I came across a lovely drawing of Fingon by gwailome on DeviantArt which is based on a scene in the novel. Gwai and I had begun a project of translating the novel, with the consent of the author, Gwai translating from Russian and myself beta-reading her translation. Sadly, I find that under my present circumstances, I've bitten off more than I can chew with this, so I am seeking someone who might be willing to take over that part of the project, at least for the time being.

The novel is partly set in present-day Russia, partly in the First Age. The parts set in present-day Russia are narrated in the first person. Scenes I've read so far (in Gwai's translation), include a hilarious meeting between the narrator and Maedhros on the Moscow underground and moving scenes between Maedhros and Fingon, both in Valinor and Mithrim. They are intense, heart-felt and vivid. (The novel is not slash.)

Knowledge of Russian is not required. Gwai's English is fluent, but she does need real help with idioms, etc., so this is definitely a  beta job, not a mere proof read, although the novel itself, of course, is finished.  But it is a really worthwhile beta job and I very much regret that I haven't been able to continue working on it! If you are interested, please PM Gwailome (or myself).

Links to English extract and other relevant links:

Illustration by Gwailome (Fingon) and extract in Russian and English: http://gwailome.deviantart.com/gallery/28094193#/d3it1ig
Illustration by Sky and Gwailome (Maedhros): http://gwailome.deviantart.com/#/d5jgiak
Russian text of the Tengwa malta: http://www.proza.ru/2011/02/26/610
Sky's DeviantArt account: http://skylangolin.deviantart.com/

Comments

[engarian.livejournal.com]

I wish I could do this, it's the kind of task I just love to do. But I know better and know that I couldn't possibly do it justice within my 'free' time right now. I hope someone steps up for this.

- Erulisse (one L)

[gwailome.livejournal.com]

Alas, alas, everyone is in the need of time at the moment
But may I keep you in sight for the future?

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Check with me in the spring and I'll see. I do beta work for a German fanfic author right now and have left her sitting on the back burner for the past three weeks while working on my novel. I need to get her caught up and then work on my own real life things, but I won't say "no" because I do enjoy working with authors from other countries. I just know that right now it is impossible.

- Erulisse (one L)

[gwailome.livejournal.com]

Well, I greatly hope that someone will take up the work earlier than spring but if not - I'll write to you)

[hhimring]

Thank you very much for even considering doing this, Erulisse! I know you have a very busy schedule and do quite a lot of beta reading already!

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

I would be extremely pleased to help, but I would not be able to start until at least mid-January 2013. I can be reached through my LJ. If either you or Gwailome are interested, various fics of mine can be found either in my LJ Memories or on HASA under "AWing" so that you can assess the quality of my prose.

[gwailome.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot for your eagerness and swiftness in answer) pity you can't take to the task soon, but if there will still be need I'll contact you in New year, ok?

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Certainly.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Anna would be a excellent resource for you. She's great!

- Erulisse (one L)

[hhimring]

Thank you very much, Anna! I've read some of your Maglor fic and also some of your comments on the theoretical background to your Middle-earth writings and been impressed by both the quality of your writing and your methodical approach!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'd be willing to help, but as English isn't my native language either, I have no idea how much I'd be able to help with idioms and the like ;_;

[gwailome.livejournal.com]

Alas, that's, of course, is not the wanted thing
But that means that you'll be able to enjoy the text)

[hhimring]

Thank you! I should think from what I've seen of your writing, you'd have absolutely no problems with the Beleriandic sections at all!
Not so sure about the modern-day ones, perhaps? Rendering descriptions of a Russian environment in a manner comprehensible to non-Russians can be a bit of a challenge.
But you actually do translating, don't you?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

No, translating is just one of the career choices I've been considering. However, so far all I've done in that direction is classroom practice stuff and translating letters for family. :P

Rendering descriptions of a Russian environment in a manner comprehensible to non-Russians can be a bit of a challenge.

Presumably. I mean, I wouldn't know. I'd assume that you can pick up "Russian environment" like you can pick up any other environment (after all, we can write about places we've never even seen, let alone grown up in?). But I have to admit that my knowledge and interpretation of "The Russian Environment" ATM would basically be based on Sergej Lukjanenko, a Russian Lord of the Rings parody film the name of which I've currently forgotten, and the GDR. :P
However, I would assume that the actual rendering would be done by the translatress, and as her beta, I'd just try to modify it into something I understand? Except that I might not go far enough, because ot all non-Russians share the same background...

[hhimring]

I guess my line of reasoning was that possibly someone living in the UK or the US might have an easier time coming up with the closest equivalent in some cases, once Gwai has explained what the Russian implies. (Whereas we all have to research Beleriand equally!) I'm not sure how valid that reasoning actually is, when I think about it...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I guess my line of reasoning was that possibly someone living in the UK or the US might have an easier time coming up with the closest equivalent in some cases

That probably makes sense. Everyone else might be able to think of yet abother paraphrase, but native speakers are reasonably likely to come up with an actual equivalent, if there is one. They'd also know if a term actually has to be translated!

[gwailome.livejournal.com]

offtop

Someone here (I won't point my finger at))) told me that your pen-name is Lyra. It's absolutely beautiful because last year I've found your fic "Unprecedent" and rendered it into Russian)) it's one of the sweetest and good-humored texts of this kind I've seen, and everyone at our community was charmed by Feanaro pictured in the fic)
I wrote to you for the permission then but unfortunately got no answer but of course I pointed out the copyright. Since that will you give your permission now?) and of course if you're interested I can present you the Russian version)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Aww! I never got your request for permission (which is why I didn't answer), but the answer would definitely have been yes - I feel flattered that you enjoyed "Unprecedented" so much that you cared to translate it!
Unfortunately, I don't read or understand Russian, but I guess it would still be curious to see it. (I have to admit that what I'm most curious about is how you dealt with the "who"/"whom" issue. Is there a similarly confusing grammatical issue in Russian? ^^)

[gwailome.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not surprised because contacts have tendency to lose their currency. And to translate this text was a pleasure to me)

Yeah, I undestand, but nevertheless I think that for every writer it's a stirring moment to see his text getting a reflection in a whole new mentality)

As for the grammatical issue. Tell me, is there only grammatical or some semantic nicety? I got only the former
And as for Russian, one cannot mistake the pronouns there, they're too obvious even for a child, so I played with prepositions) in Russian we have two ways (the same as in English, as far as I know) to say that something is done according to some feeling or emotion. It's close to "do smth out of" and "do smth for" and sometimes these variants can be interchanged. But not when we talk about marriage. So in Russian text Finyo says "But I thought we should marry OUT OF love" and Feanaro corrects him "FOR love"
Ah, it's so cool to analyse and compare the ways of languages and culture^^

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Everyone's a winner then! :)

Stirring is the right word. You're the second person who has told me that she translated something of mine into Russian, and it makes me feel so proud and accomplished! So, thank you for doing that, and thank you for letting me know!

It really is a grammatical problem. Actually, I wouldn't quite know how to translate it into my native language. In German, we have the subject case "who", which is wer, and then we have two object cases, the dative case wem and the accusative case wen (both of which translate to "whom" in English), and nobody would confuse the subject case with the object case. I guess a child might confuse wem and wen, though. But it's kind of impossible to translate that mix-up back into English then. Oh dear!
I think you solved that problem very cleverly. Yes, it's absolutely fascinating to see how these things can be rendered in different languages! And damn, now I wish I knew Russian! XD