Hi! I have a translation question: what do you mean when you say that if there is a recognizable style, the translator isn't doing their job properly? I know little about translation so I'm just very curious (btw, I agree with your take on mha's official translations).
translators are supposed to be invisible. when youāre translating or adapting a text from a source language into a target language, you need to alter the text as little as possible while still trying to keep true to the meaning / message (or style if youāre translating writing). Caleb not only takes many liberties with the source material (the most obvious one being the āchicken soup for the soulā localization he did in chapter 290 without a real need for it, but in general he tends to embellish things to sound as smart as possible whenever possible), but he also injects his own biases in the translation, like when he purposefully softens the heroesā harshest lines and instead makes the villains sound more evil
Compare the two versions:
the meaningās the same, the nuance is different. The fantranslation makes it very easy to see the flaw in Jeanistās reasoning and recognize that heās wrong in not seeing Dabiās victimhood, because thereās a stress on his concern for discretion. He sounds selfish and casual, just how someone whoās brushing off child abuse should sound like. The official translation not only sounds way more demonizing of Dabiās actions, putting emphasis on how unjustified Dabiās claims supposedly are, but he also calls him a fiend. If you check the raws here he calls him ā č¼ęÆćā which just meansĀ ādamned Dabiā. Itās a simple imprecation that Caleb took as an opportunity to slip in his bias. Nowhere on the text is there a mention of Jeanist calling him a fiend.
Ah, by the way. Iām stating this before someone accuses me of reading too much into it. Iām not making up the fact that Caleb is unsympathetic towards the villains. He freely admitted it himself on more than one occasion.
Just two I can think of off the top of my head. Iām sure thereās more. I stopped reading this ānotesā when it became clear that he justified a military state that uses child soldiers to kill abuse victims.
Now, I definitely understand not being as incensed as I am about this. For me, this kind of behaviour is unjustified both because heās the official voice for bnha for the whole western fandom, and as such his opinions are regarded as absolutes, and also because I have a degree in languages & translation and I notice these things and they upset me because thatās my dream job right there, and heās doing it wrong.
Iām not saying anyone should agree with me, but regardless of my feelings on his ability to translate, itās still pretty shitty of him to make his bias so obvious. Translations aside, heās demonizing abuse survivors and heās doing it as someone who has authority in the fandom (as was just confirmed by the anon coming here like a white knight to defend his honor)
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