A Note from the Translator

Well, we’re 10 chapters in.

Doesn’t seem like a lot, I know (especially for a 200+ chapter webnovel), but it’s around 2,000 words/chapter * 10 chapters, so 20,000 words. According to this random article I found online, the average novel is 90,000 words. So technically I’m almost 1/3 of the way there for a US-published novel. Less than 1/10 there for this particular webnovel. ( ╥ω╥ )

Translating has been interesting, to say the least. I never realized how different Chinese sentence structures are, and how many modifications I have to do to match them with English grammar. For example, a Chinese sentence feels basically like a run-on sentence, with a bunch of independent clauses smashed together, enough to form a paragraph, until the author decides to end their train of thought. Lol. My heart goes out to all the awesome translators out there, because this ain’t easy. Also the struggle of converting phrases: one of my first drafts of chapter 10 had something like “she was trying to win brownie points” and I was so proud of figuring out of a way to convey the Chinese tone. But then my partner, who looked over it, was like “wouldn’t ‘currying favor’ be a more appropriate and less colloquial phrase?” I was like,,, lmao u right. So going forward I had to be conscious of what kinds of phrases I used, and if they matched the historical context and tone of everything. Finally, I’m trying to be better with using variegated diction to spice things up with the story. There’s only so many times I can use “but,” “suddenly,” “it’s just that…”, “however,” etc. The sad part is that those are pretty direct translations from the Chinese characters, but in English you wouldn’t be using “But” to begin every other paragraph (lol). I guess that’s just another nuance of translating between Chinese and English. To be honest when I first picked this up I thought I could go about it like translating Spanish (as I was pretty comfortable doing so when I learned it for ~5 years in school), but my fallacy was not recognizing that Spanish and English are both Euro-based (Spanish being Romantic and English being Germanic with Latin influences). Joke’s on me!

TL;DR Translating has been a learning curve. Lmk if you have any constructive criticisms for the translations.

Anyway, I just wanted to write this note to let everyone know that I’ll be sticking with this story until the end! I skimmed over some of the MTL and omg it’s so precious. (๑˘︶˘๑) Here for the soft romance and village slice of life muahaha.

Btw: added a new page on the blog with personal Recommendations. Check it out if you’re looking for a new read!

Happy reading!