pretty disappointed with the way 7s have translated wwx's iconic 'right or wrong' speech.
"Thank you for keeping me company today, and thank you for telling me about my shijie's wedding,” Wei Wuxian said slowly. “But—right or wrong, the decision is my own. It doesn't matter what others think of those decisions. I will bear the consequences of my actions, whether they be good or ill. I know what I should do. And I believe everything is still within my ability to control."
it has very basic language & tone, it doesn't flow smoothly at all. wwx's remarks here are supposed to sound poetic.
'不過, 是非在己, 毀譽由人, 得失不論。該怎麼做,我自己心裡有數。我也相信我自己控制得住。'
the first sentence even uses that classic 4 character structure (this is what lwj's speech patterns are known for).
here's exr's translation for comparison. it reads far more smoothly and rhythmically, as do the other fan translations further down
‘Wei WuXian spoke slowly, “Thank you for keeping me company today. Thank you for telling me the news about my shijie’s marriage too. But, let the self judge the right and the wrong, let others decide to praise or to blame, let gains and losses remain uncommented on. I, too, know what I should and shouldn’t do. I believe that I’ll be able to control it as well.”’
i also think 7s' version obfuscates the meaning, 'But—right or wrong, the decision is my own. It doesn't matter what others think of those decisions. I will bear the consequences of my actions, whether they be good or ill.'
here is how some others have translated the same phrase
'Right and wrong lies within oneself; let others speak of ruin or glory; pay no mind to gains or losses.' (spicychickenyang)
'However, right and wrong is a personal issue*. Leave the slander to others. Let’s not talk about merits and demerits.'
*personal issue: WWX actually said ‘right and wrong are inside the self’' (translation + footnote from qinghe-nie)
wwx is explaining his moral philosophy, that people should decide for themselves what right and wrong is, and not factor what they gain or lose into moral decisions. this is critical to the themes of mob mentality, centralised authority and corruption in mdzs.
in 7s' version, it could be read as 'i make my own decisions, right or wrong is irrelevant.' it's ambiguous, but i don't know why they've chosen to add ambiguity that isn't present in the original text.
7s also added words/phrases that do not reflect the original text. the line 'I will bear the consequences of my actions' is entirely their own invention. the chinese phrase is '得失不論' 得失 = gains and losses, 不論 = do not speak of. additionally, wwx says 'my decisions,' 'my actions,' 'i will bear' — in 7s it comes across as if he's just talking about himself & his specific circumstance, rather than being a speech about his stance on morality in general.
finally, this line 'And I believe everything is still within my ability to control."' just isn't accurate. specifically, wwx does not say everything is within his ability to control, he says he believes he'll be able to control himself. the chinese line is '我也相信我自己控制得住。'我自己 = myself. wwx said this specifically in response to lwj asking if he will be able to control his cultivation earlier on.
i know people are gonna think, 'translation is nuanced, poetic language is hard to translate!' well, the fan translators did a pretty good job of it, why is it so hard for a professional publishing company to do the same?? why did 7s choose to add words/phrases and punctuation that aren't even present in the original text, making it disjointed and rambly? why did they ignore context and add meanings that aren't even in the original text?
