Sometimes when adding notes to translate posts, I come across ones like this post #117009 where the one who wrote the dialog clearly didn't know Latin very well, if at all. There are other cases where the writing is much more intelligible but still contains some glaring errors. When I come across them, such as post #2314484, should I be translating it with the error included or should I translate it as it was probably meant instead (that particular post is pretty easy to figure out and has a description with a translation to boot)? I usually try to preserve the meaning, but I'm not sure if accuracy of text or accuracy of (presumed) intention is more important here. Thanks in advance, and I mean no offense to the creator of either arts used as examples. A literal translation of the first image references would amount to near nonsense (the translator did their best to derive the meaning/vibe the writer was going for despite the grammar) while the second would just be a little clunky (wrong tense, questionable spelling choice, etc).

Translation notes should only show text in correct grammatical form, without any additional addendums that would clog up the textbox.
Grammatical mistakes from the author/artist should be ignored in favour of having an accurate translation in the notes.

I have also read somewhere (don't remember which thread, but clarify me if I'm wrong) that notes should not even be used to correct minor spelling errors in the artwork (e.g., "its mine" rather than "it's mine", "their wrong" instead of "they're wrong").

thegreatwolfgang said:
Translation notes should only show text in correct grammatical form, without any additional addendums that would clog up the textbox.
Grammatical mistakes from the author/artist should be ignored in favour of having an accurate translation in the notes.

I have also read somewhere (don't remember which thread, but clarify me if I'm wrong) that notes should not even be used to correct minor spelling errors in the artwork (e.g., "its mine" rather than "it's mine", "their wrong" instead of "they're wrong").

You probably read it here

thegreatwolfgang said:

Grammatical mistakes from the author/artist should be ignored in favour of having an accurate translation in the notes.

Just to be clear, by correct grammatical form you mean 'write it how it should be written in English'? Accurate to intended meaning that is.

thegreatwolfgang said:
Translation notes should only show text in correct grammatical form, without any additional addendums that would clog up the textbox.

I'll go back and edit my old notes that have unnecessary details in them then. Some were kind of interesting, though. I'll just edit it into my comment (or post them as comments if I didn't already comment). My favorite was a tattoo in Latin but the text was a mix of Tironian notation and Elder Futhark Nordic runic script, which uh... well, the shapes don't always match with similar letters in the latin alphabet, which had the first person who tried to translate it very confused (because they were assuming the futhark letters would be making the sounds they are supposed to instead of the sounds they'd make if they were in visually similar latin letters).

Of course you shouldn't add intentional errors to your translations. Translation isn't math. The point is to convey the intended meaning/nuance/tone to the target English-speaking audience in a way that sounds natural. Perfectly conveying the meaning and the nuance/tone and sounding natural all at the same time is often impossible of course, and the translator may need to make a subjective judgement call on what to prioritize. However, a typo, for example, isn't part of the meaning/nuance/tone.

I guess this thread is about if you should add a translator note mentioning the error. That's probably fine if the error is egregious enough. See Lafcadio's comment below. I don't have a strong stance on this, since I probably wouldn't translate egregiously broken text in the first place.

Personally I do think it's worth indicating when text is written unnaturally/incorrectly, though do make the intended reading obvious when you can.
post #933723 post #1220605 post #1927550 post #2289996 post #3194283 post #3194288 post #3208320 post #3366532 post #3635051 post #4046991 post #4053006 post #4078388 post #4174750