Translating poetry

[Circon]

In this thread we ended up writing a poem describing the Initiate->Ancient Lich chain. It was first noted by Cedric that this might pose a problem for translators.
I'm suggested free transliteration is in order. I've converted the first verse into Norwegian, and I'm working on the rest.

Can we have some other translators' comments on this?

[Viliam]

Translating poems will be:
1) very challenging,
2) time-consuming.

However, having poems is:
3) cool,
4) very cool,
5) absolutely cool,
6) original (i.e. not taken from Warcraft or any other game I know).

So far I can offer only one solution: make each description contain text, and (optionally) poem. The text should make sufficient sense without a poem.

Translators may at first skip poems, and concentrate on the other parts of translation. Later, poems may be added, at any speed. Translation should be considered "complete enough" without poems.

[sanna]

So far I can offer only one solution: make each description contain text, and (optionally) poem. The text should make sufficient sense without a poem.

Translators may at first skip poems, and concentrate on the other parts of translation. Later, poems may be added, at any speed. Translation should be considered "complete enough" without poems.

I think this is a good compromise, that will allow us to use the very nice poems that are being written now, while not totally drowning the translators...

It could of course also be left to the discretion of the translator whether or not the description ot the unit works better with the poem in its original (english) form, or without the poem...

[autolycus]

I think it also depends on the type of poetry being used. Sonnets are harder in some languages than others, due to lack of useful rhymes. Italian is most excellent because it seems easier to fold into shape. Wesnoth is sort of West-North European in flavour, so Scandinavian languages probably can translate the words well and add some additional flavour.

[Le Gnome]

We have two solutions for translating poems :

• * either translate the words, without keeping the whole in poetic style
  * or translate using a poetic style but adapting the words to ensure the poetic rules

My 2 cents,

Le Gnome

[yeti]

So far I can offer only one solution: make each description contain text, and (optionally) poem. The text should make sufficient sense without a poem.

This is IMHO no-brainer -- having no human readable (;-) description, only verse, would be counterproductive as players usually look at the description for information, not for poetry.

That said, translating poetry (well, poetry can be hardly translated in the usual sense anyway) is feasible provided that the translators possess good langugage skills (in their language), which can be probably assumed as they decide to translate the game. Nevertheless, the time for translation of poetry in unit descriptions will come when the tutorial and senarios stop being rewritten, rewritten, ... and rewritten again (not mentioning episodes like transitionto gettext).

[Circon]

We have two solutions for translating poems :

• * either translate the words, without keeping the whole in poetic style
  * or translate using a poetic style but adapting the words to ensure the poetic rules

My 2 cents,

Le Gnome

I think this is also a no-brainer. I did mention transliteration in the first post, and I've posted the meaning of the Norwegian translation.

[autolycus]

A third solution is to write a different poem more appropriate to the linguistic context.

[Atilla]

Well, the best translations of this type of works I've seen are the ones that capture the meaning and the mood of the poem, tha ones that preserve the artistic value and the spirit of the work. I've had the chance to read two different translations of Shakespeare's works by two different Bulgarian athors. Both are done by persons that have contributed a lot for the Bulgarian literature, however one is totally disgusting to read (in my opinion), while the other "feels" like when you read it in English. Precise words and order can be sacrificed, and possibly always should be sacrifised in order to translate the message and the mood in the text, not the words themselves. Different languages express the same thing with different words and grammatic constructions.