Seven days, er, months? of a romance novel

[nnozomi]

First draft of pseudo-romance-novel translation finished! (I've posted about it before but I really should make a tag for it, let's do that.) This is translation for fun rather than for work, it's a book by Miura Shion called The Seven-Day Romance Novel which I'm very fond of.

The book is narrated by Akari, a translator who has a seven-day deadline to turn out the Japanese version of a very standard, boring pseudo-medieval romance novel. She starts off dutifully rendering it into suitable cod-medieval Japanese, but then her own personal life starts interfering, including her happy-go-lucky boyfriend Kanna and his sudden off-the-wall life decisions, pretty Masami, a neighborhood friend who seems extremely fond of Kanna, and Akari's father, who has inconsiderately broken his arm and is demanding household help. Akari's translation starts veering further and further away from the original in response, and the deadline keeps getting closer.... The text alternates chapters of the "romance novel" with chapters from Akari's point of view, and it's way too much fun both to read her salty narrative voice and to watch her (or rather Miura) playing with tropes in both contexts.

Surprisingly short; my rough draft amounts to just over 51K, does that even count as a novel in formal terms? (For fun I did the math on the rough character count of the romance-novel chapters, and concluded that the seven-day deadline is not actually especially unreasonable as a professional assignment, assuming they're not expecting deathless prose.) I feel a little guilty for a) taking MUCH longer than seven days to translate the whole thing lol, and b) for having done my best to translate it faithfully, I feel like it would only be in the spirit of the book for me to mess with the plot/characters in turn. On the other hand, Miura is unquestionably a better author than the fictional one she's spoofing, so less messing with is needed.

Next step, to revise it, ugh, I hate revision whether it's translation or original writing. (My immediate instinct is: there are lots of other books I want to translate, why can't I just move on instantly to one of those?) The medieval parts do need to be more Medieval in tone, though (although authenticity not required), and there are various minor inconsistencies and infelicities throughout that definitely need dealing with.

If it ever does get revised properly, I guess the next step would be to figure out how to get it published, oh dear oh dear.

Comments

[scytale]

Oh, how cool! Congratulations on finishing the first draft!

And here's hoping for a published version!

[nnozomi]

thank you! here's hoping <3

[marycrawford]

Hey, congrats on the translation, that sounds very fun. And thank you for the card, it just arrived this weekend and cheered my morning!

[nnozomi]

thank you! and glad the card arrived safely <3

[el_staplador]

This sounds like a lot of fun!

[nnozomi]

It is! I almost wish it was longer, working on it was a fun daily activity...

[nineveh_uk]

That sounds like a fun book, congratulations on finishing the translation (draft 1).

[nnozomi]

Thank you! It is a very fun book.

[chestnut_pod]

my rough draft amounts to just over 51K -- out of curiosity, does the Japanese original "feel" like a novel when you're reading it in terms of length? Is that why it's surprising?

Ugh, revision IS the worst, so I wish you lots of luck!!

[nnozomi]

does the Japanese original "feel" like a novel when you're reading it in terms of length?
It does, but also I read much slower in Japanese and I did my translation a little tiny bit at a time, so that may have added to the sense of length (plus it's published as a standalone novel, a little slim paperback).
and thanks for good wishes!

[clevermanka]

Congratulations!!! 🥳🎉🍾

[nnozomi]

Thank you!

[trobadora]

Congrats on finishing your draft! And that sounds like so much fun! :D

[nnozomi]

Thank you! It really is :)

[halfcactus]

I've seen the anime adaptations of some of Miura Shion's books so it's really cool to see someone talk about her actual books. XD The plot of this one seems... on-brand for an author who once wrote about creating a dictionary hehe.

I can't believe you managed to translate the actual thing though!!! Congrats and good luck with the rewriting!!!!! I really hope you get a chance to get it published!!!!! Maybe the existence of one official English translation (Run with the Wind, Harper) will make the process easier?

[nnozomi]

There is a lot of Miura Shion--not all her novels are my thing but the fun ones are REALLY FUN, as you may have guessed from the anime. She also has lots of short essays, some serious and many silly, which are absolutely delightful to read, except I don't think they'd work well in English because half the attraction is the voice and you'd have to get that down perfectly as well as dealing with the content...

and thanks for good wishes! I do mean to look into existing translations for information etc.

[skygiants]

This sounds amazing, congratulations on finishing the translation!!

[nnozomi]

Thank you! It is a very fun book.

[amedia]

That sounds like an utterly delightful novel! And I'm super impressed by your work on it. (The translations that TODS and I do are graphic novels, which have challenges of their own, but the scripts are *much* shorter than a typical novel.)

I hope you're able to get it published! Ours have all been "work-for-hire" where the publisher reaches out to the translators, sends us the book (or a PDF), and it goes from there.

I feel like it would only be in the spirit of the book for me to mess with the plot/characters in turn LOLOLOL!!! That would be SO meta.

[nnozomi]

Thank you! I mean, I have been working on it but a) it's not revised and b) the quality of my translation is anyone's guess, so don't be impressed yet ;)
Translating graphic novels sounds like another kettle of fish, especially since you have to be aware of maximum text lengths, etc. Nice!

[china_shop]

This sounds legit amazing, and I'm so looking forward to it, however it eventually comes out. <333

[nnozomi]

Thank you very much <3

[luzula]

Oh wow, how cool--it does sound like a fun book, and fun to work on! Best of luck getting it published.

[nnozomi]

Thank you! If only all my translation work was this much fun ;)

[sakana17]

Hurray for finishing the first draft! The book sounds so delightful. I hope you find a publisher. I would love to read this.

(Ugh, revision. I hate revision.)

[nnozomi]

Thank you! It's a very fun book.
(And always good to know I'm not the only revision-averse person...)

[karanguni]

Holy cow this is awesome and also so timely because I was just starting a translation of Miura Shion for personal practice! What!

[nnozomi]

Oh, neat! Which one(s) are you working on?

[tinny]

(For fun I did the math on the rough character count of the romance-novel chapters, and concluded that the seven-day deadline is not actually especially unreasonable as a professional assignment, assuming they're not expecting deathless prose.)

omg i love this! :D

No need to feel guilty for anything. <3 I applaud you for going to the trouble of editing and polishing it. I want to read it, this is going to be awesome! *fingers crossed*

[nnozomi]

thank you for the kind words! I wish my actual work assignments were this fun to do. (And yeah, based on the amount of characters I expect to translate professionally per day, Akari would probably have been able to knock out a rough translation of her romance novel by her deadline if she hadn't gotten distracted by a) life and b) making up her own version lol)