Ave Lilium Translations

A brief update from me.

Hey everyone.

I know I’ve been absent for about half a year now, and to cut to the chase, I did abandon ShuuKura and Ubaware as I was no longer enjoying them considering how much time it took up to translate a single chapter. Apparently, it’s a lot of work and admittedly, I didn’t know what I was signing up for at first.

Seeing your guys’ messages and comments over the last half year has been very touching. I was happy that there were people still reading ShuuKura and Ubaware and that plenty of new readers had been introduced to the series. Ubaware in particular brought an uptick in viewership since the manga adaptation for it came first during the spring.

Now, it’s ShuuKura’s turn. I am aware that the manga adaptation had just come out recently, and this has brought a large influx of new readers to this site. At first, I turned a blind eye to this, but after receiving a handful of messages, I’ve decided to break the silence.

I’m not particularly into chasing clout, nor am I after any monetary gain. I just translate for fun, and I’ve always found it fun. I am sure if I paced myself better, I can find joy in it without burning out or running out of steam as easily.

That all being said, I don’t know about the state of the translations for ShuuKura and Ubaware. I’m making this post to see how many people are still interested in reading my translations. If a better, non-MTL version exists out there, I am happy to back off and not re-insert myself into the scene.

Please let me hear your opinions in the comment section below.

Thanks!

angela

42 responses to “A brief update from me.”

  2. Hi, thanks for this update. Your translation is the awesome, from all the novels I read on novelupdates, yours and another one are the best I’ve read. If you find a pace that makes you enjoy translating, I will be very happy to read your translation again!!

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  3. hello i have been checking this blog multiple times a week for over half a year now shuukura makes me very ill! i think you render haneda usa’s abrupt style really well and i find your approach to translation very ideal as someone who took translation theory classes in college. that being said, while i would ask for nothing more than to see your translations resume, it should under no circumstances be at the expense of your health. you could give it another go with a different philosophy and drop it once and for all if you find you would rather spend your time on other things, especially considering how considerable of an undertaking it is when you look at the big picture. but if you manage to take it in stride and just find fun in doing it casually, little by little, without the weight of commitment; then by all means. just don’t burn yourself out! passion and love are the cornerstone of hobbies, which this blog should fall under. if you don’t feel those anymore, it’s wiser to retire. there’s no pressure. thank you for everything up until now! cheers!

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    • Interesting you mention translation theory. I’ve never heard of that sort of topic before. If you don’t mind, could you tell me a bit more about what you’ve learned?

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      • to be fair i went to school in french so i had to roughly translate the name of the class, maybe it’s got a widely agreed upon english name i’m not aware of. it’s a traductologie class, or translatology? the study of translation, you name it.

        allow me to structure a bit or this will be painful

        the main goal of one of the classes was to answer the question of whether universal understanding was possible thru the lens of translation. we weren’t made to translate at all! the first half of the class consisted of people answering questions the prof had posed the week before & giving their own examples in their own languages (everyone who attended came from different language majors so it was super interesting), the other half was cold hard theory. we were taught basic stuff at first, like how absolutely nothing is untranslatable, yadda yadda.

        we were taught that any given language offers a certain perspective of the world that’s always 100% subjective, so there’s no such thing as truth; and translating is sharing your own perspective to a community. and even if different languages use different words for the same things (see colors for example), we as a species have “universals” (ecological ones, like cold/hot, animals & plant life cycles, day/night, & biological ones like being eepy and needing food and water), like the word “branch” doesn’t exist without the word “trunk” in any language (apparently, i haven’t checked). and this ties into two schools of translation theory, universalism and relativism, aka those who believe humanity has a common base and a similar perception of the world across the board (those “universals” are part of their arguments) vs those who believe cultures are extremely different from one another and being as close as possible to the original text when translating is the way to go.

        one of the arguments that popped up in class, and perhaps my favorite one? was that even if a given word doesn’t exist in another language, the atoms of meaning that compose it are mastered by most people who speak a language, so it’s always possible to reconstruct the meaning of something in another language. relativists tend to leave things as they are, aka the reader makes the effort to look up stuff they don’t understand. they usually keep the structure of the original text too, so you end up with different punctuation & formatting & some languages like german have a lot of syntactic weight and it feels off to read if the translator didn’t strip some off of it in some way (a lot of texts were like that back in the 18th). but it’s also more “exotic”, i guess, and some people do prefer that! more of the culture shines through. i don’t think it’s a good way to go about it if you’re translating for people who don’t speak a shred of the original language, but no translator wants to do sloppy work, so it’s good to keep an open mind. i’m just universalism pilled.

        i find the relativist approach was quite widespread among fansubbing philosophy back in the day, but now it seems it’s shifted to a more universalist approach (see sobsplease, among so many others). you want to make your text as approachable as possible to as many people as possible. i think you would fucking die if you tried translating japanese to english in a strictly relativist way considering some relativist arguments and how kanji works anyway lol

        and the thing is, you can come up with a translation that is perfectly recognizable when you put it side to side next to the original text. everything seems correct, but it lacks spontaneity. and that’s kind of the biggest thing for me? and i think you’ve been doing an increasingly good job at making your translations feel spontaneous, hence me saying what i said. and on that note, modern translation philosophy is also more about trying to make the reader of a translated text feel the exact same way the reader of the original text did (see dynamic equivalence). basically, you wanna try writing the text the way the author would’ve if they spoke the language you’re translating to (you’re not gonna translate “snow white” to “snow white” if most people who speak the language you’re translating to don’t know about snow, you’re gonna find something else they know that’s pure white). translating ください systematically as “please” would feel slightly off in a good amount of languages too. stuff like that. there’s a lot to consider. i think it’s interesting! sorry this was really disjointed, there’s more but you get the gist of it. i hope.

        i remember one of the examples being (french jumpscare sorry) “la linguistique appliquée, c’est comme une chauve-souris, parce qu’elle n’est pas chauve ni une souris.” and we had to come up with an appropriate way of translating it, which I Guess literally translates to “applied linguistics is like a bat, it’s neither a b nor an at.” (“chauve-souris” means bat, but it literally means “bald mouse”). so, how do you translate this like a normal person? well, you find something that encapsulates the wit of the original statement. “zebra” in arabic means “monster donkey”, so you could replace “bat” with it, it’s close enough. in english though? maybe dragonfly? dragonflies are flies though, so it doesn’t fit either… i don’t know what would work, but you get the point. i hope.

        so, to loop back around to the original point, there’s no such thing as universal understanding– nothing is untranslatable, but absolute understanding doesn’t exist even outside of translation. none of us is omniscient, so we’re gonna interpret things based on what we know. everything, everything we see and hear and read, not just translated texts. and we all know different things. that’s about a semester worth of translation theory. i hope it didn’t read too lecturelike… thank you if you made it this far! i dropped out cuz college haha but translation theory is still something i care about a lot so i’m glad i got to yap about it

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      • to be fair i went to school in french so i had to roughly translate the name of the class, maybe it’s got a widely agreed upon english name i’m not aware of. it’s a traductologie class, or translatology? the study of translation, you name it.

        allow me to structure a bit or this will be painful

        the main goal of one of the classes was to answer the question of whether universal understanding was possible thru the lens of translation. we weren’t made to translate at all! the first half of the class consisted of people answering questions the prof had posed the week before & giving their own examples in their own spoken languages (everyone who attended came
        from different language majors so it was super interesting), the other half was cold hard theory. we were taught basic stuff at first, like how absolutely nothing is untranslatable, yadda yadda.

        we were taught that any given language offers a certain perspective of the world that’s always 100% subjective, so there’s no such thing as truth; and translating is sharing your own perspective to a community. and even if different languages use different words for the same things (see colors for example), we as a species have “universals” (ecological ones, like cold/hot, animals & plant life cycles, day/night, & biological ones like being eepy and needing food and water), like the word “branch” doesn’t exist without the word “trunk” in any language (apparently, i haven’t checked). and this ties into two schools of translation theory, universalism and relativism, aka those who believe humanity has a common base and a similar perception of the world across the board (those “universals” are part of their arguments) vs those who believe cultures are extremely different from one another and being as close as possible to the original text when translating is the way to go.

        one of the arguments that popped up in class, and perhaps my favorite one? was that even if a given word doesn’t exist in another language, the atoms of meaning that compose it are mastered by most people who speak a language, so it’s always possible to reconstruct the meaning of something in another language. relativists tend to leave things as they are, aka the reader makes the effort to look up stuff they don’t understand. they usually keep the structure of the original text too, so you end up with different punctuation & formatting & some languages like german have a lot of syntactic weight and it feels off to read if the translator didn’t strip some off of it in some way (a lot of texts were like that back in the 18th). but it’s also more “exotic”, i guess, and some people do prefer that! more of the culture shines through. i don’t think it’s a good way to go about it if you’re translating for people who don’t speak a shred of the original language, but no translator wants to do sloppy work, so it’s good to keep an open mind. i’m just universalism pilled.

        i find the relativist approach was quite widespread among fansubbing philosophy back in the day, but now it seems it’s shifted to a more universalist approach (see sobsplease, among so many others). you want to make your text as approachable as possible to as many people as possible.

        and the thing is, you can come up with a translation that is perfectly recognizable when you put it side to side next to the original text. everything seems correct, but it lacks spontaneity, and that’s kind of the biggest thing for me? and i think you’ve been doing an increasingly good job at making your translations feel spontaneous, hence me saying what i said. and on that note, modern translation philosophy is also more about trying to make the reader of a translated text feel the exact same way the reader of the original text did (see dynamic equivalence). basically, you wanna try writing the text the way the author would’ve if they spoke the language you’re translating to (you’re not gonna translate “snow white” to “snow white” if most people who speak the language you’re translating to don’t know about snow, you’re gonna find something else they know that’s pure white). translating systematically as “please” would feel slightly off in a good amount of languages too. stuff like that. there’s a lot to consider. i think it’s interesting! sorry this was really disjointed, there’s more but you get the gist of it. i hope.

        i remember one of the examples being (french jumpscare sorry) “la linguistique appliquée, c’est comme une chauve-souris, parce qu’elle n’est pas chauve ni une souris.” and we had to come up with an appropriate way of translating it, which I Guess literally translates to “applied linguistics is like a bat, it’s neither a b nor an at.” (“chauve-souris” means bat, but it literally means “bald mouse”). so, how do you translate this like a normal person? well, you find something that encapsulates the wit of the original statement. “zebra” in arabic means “monster donkey”, so you could replace “bat” with it, it’s close enough. in english though? maybe dragonfly? dragonflies are flies though, so it doesn’t fit either… i don’t know what would work, but you get the point. i hope.

        so, to loop back around to the original point, there’s no such thing as universal understanding– nothing is untranslatable, but absolute understanding doesn’t exist even outside of translation. none of us is omniscient, so we’re gonna interpret things based on what we know. everything, everything we see and hear and read, not just translated texts. and we all know different things. that’s about a semester worth of translation theory. i hope it didn’t read too lecturelike… thank you if you made it this far! i dropped out cuz college kek but translation theory is still something i care about a lot so i’m glad i got to vap about it

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    • Apparently I can’t reply to your other comment, but I think what you said is really interesting. To be honest, I used to believe in what you call the relativist approach. It’s not “localization” at that point, but just plain “translation”. I believed it was the best way to keep the translated text as faithful to the original text as possible.

      However, now that I have some more experience with both translating and reading light novels, I’ve come to the realization that localization is important. It makes the text accessible for English speakers and it helps the reader relate more to it.

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      • yeah! sorry this took time but that shift in your translation philosophy is palpable in your translations for sure. i think you could probably still make a sound argument for a relativist approach if you’re translating an audiovisual work *specifically* for a community that has the basics of the original language + culture down pat and can hear what’s being said, but otherwise (and even then) i believe an universalist approach to be strictly superior.

        this reminds me of a thing i saw recently regarding the scene in your name where the girl swaps bodies with the boy and attends school for the first time in his body, talks to the boy’s friends, says she was late cuz she got lost on the way to school and uses the wrong pronoun many times. the original official subs say “i… (watashi)” & so on for every pronoun she says, which i think is kind of unforgivable for a piece of art that has as much reach as a shinkai film does lol, but translating this kind of stuff is daunting so i also understand (even if i hate it) and the thing is there are always workarounds! @ScriptingJapan on twitter suggested the following translation:

        “how did you get lost on the way to school?” 「お前さぁ、どうやったら通学で道を迷えんだよ」

        “give me a break girls, i…” 「ああ・・・えっと・・・わたし・・・」

        “girls?” 「「わたし？」」

        “come on, friends?”「わたくし？」*glare*

        “cut it out guys?”「ぼく？」 *glare*

        “lay off me bro?”「オレ？」 *nod*

        this example has stuck with me since i saw it, you *can* get creative with localizing, you can avoid changing anything about the core message & interactions and still make it soo much more accessible for your audience comprised of millions of people who don’t speak a shred of japanese. and people who do speak an amount of japanese get to witness both the creator’s wit and the translator’s creative take on it, and the more the merrier (when the more is good and when you’re not weird about the art of localization)! but workarounds like this can take a lot of thinking aka time, god knows deadlines exist, so i understand why the original tl went this route… but i hate it… (glad to see you back!!!!!!!)

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      • I don’t want to start a back-and-forth about what’s “best”, which is unresolvable, but I do want to dissent about what I like. What I want isn’t what many pro translators and localizers seem to think I should want. I don’t want to read a translation and pretend it was written by a modern American; I _want_ to learn about the source culture and differences.

        If a story includes a Japanese girl mostly using ‘boku’, I don’t want a translator rewriting that into their idea of “masculine English”, which I don’t think would work anyway; I want to learn that Japanese has gendered pronouns and that it’s relevant here. And I think that’s closer to the native experience anyway: give me the same information that they have, and I’ll make the same judgement, for the low cost of a footnote.

        (And for me it _is_ a low, nearly non-zero, cost. Even as a small child I diligently read any Prologues, footnotes, non-citation endnotes, or glossary that a book provided, whether fiction or non-fiction. (This probably why Pern was always ‘science fiction’ to me; the Prologues make it rather obvious, and I read them first.))

        “you can avoid changing anything about the core message & interactions”

        You can _sometimes_ do that. But there are also cases where I have never seen advocates of strong localization give a satisfactory answer, where the only options anyone has come up with are: translate in a clunky way; make it seem smooth by simply discarding information; or teach the reader something about honorifics etc.

        (And if there’s some genius 4th way that rewrites smoothly without losing anything… well, most people aren’t geniuses.)

        It’s not just me being a weeb, either. I don’t have any attachment to Korean culture (sorry, Koreans), but I’m reading a manhwa where a character refers to the MC as “noona”, the TL notes tell me it’s a term of respect for an unrelated slightly older girl (like non-family “onee-chan/san”), and that’s fine. And if the character ever stops using “noona” it’ll be easy to show in the translation.

        Audience matters, of course. It’s easier to have notes or parenthetical comments in printed material than in a movie or TV. And I talked with Ken Liu one time about his translation of the Three-Body Problem, something like “I have to assume this will be the only novel from Chinese my readers read, that they’re not willing to put any effort into learning about a low-prestige language like Chinese, and that every footnote will halve sales, or so my publisher believes. While a fan translator of manga can assume their readers are highly invested, willing to make an effort, and spreading that effort over many works; the translator also doesn’t have to worry about sales.”

        So he didn’t carry over Chinese honorifics, and I think (can’t swear) mostly didn’t try slipping subtle effects into the text, while a manga can just tell you about -kun, -san, and -sama, and then transparently convey any story effect those have.

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  4. Your translations of this series have given me a broad new view on Shuukura, and has let me understand the characters a lot better than I did before. I absolutely love the way you translate things, and even use your own creativity to help with it. If you are considering, please continue!

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  5. I think you already did a great service to ShuuKura! So please continue if it is fun for you personally, not out of some kind of obligation.

    While struggling my way through the JP Vol 1, I was put off by Miyagi’s weirdness. I’d like to imagine my mediocre JP reading comprehension somewhat parallels the experience people had reading the MTL version.

    Your non-MTL version was essential to properly introduce the story me and many others. Now that I’m deeply familiar with how Sendai-san and Miyagi tick, reading the WN is a blast.

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  6. To start, I am absolutely interested in you continuing if you enjoy it and are able.

    Honestly, this series and your translation are the reason I decided to go full on translation/interpretation alongside my other majors. I had read a little of the MTL version prior to finding your translation and it didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t get through it because it felt off and fake (I didn’t know it was MTL at the time). Yours completely changed how I experienced the story.

    When I read your version, for the first time in several years, the tension in a story made my heart race and I was craving more. It’s hard to describe what I was thinking at the time but, it’s this experience that made me look deeper into translation. I want to be able to let people experience the same thing I did while reading.

    I’m currently on a year long study abroad in Japan and every so often I’m asked why I’m here, I give this as one of my reasons every time. Whether or not you decide to continue, I am incredibly grateful that you started at all. It gave me a goal and a purpose, so thank you very much.

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    • Thank you for your kind words. I didn’t think I could leave such an influence on another person, so it’s really touching to hear.

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  7. Really sad to hear that, since your translations were really good. There isn’t anybody else translating either of those as far as I’m aware (other than Story Seedling, but they’re MTL).

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  8. Obviously I’d love it if you continued your translations but not at the expense of causing yourself stress. You mentioned you’ve received comments asking you to consider and I do hope they were all polite because every word you translate for free is one more word English speakers get to enjoy that they’d otherwise be unable to. Only a fool would act entitled to your translations instead of thankful for them.

    I think I enjoy your translation even more after having suffered through the MTL. I enjoyed the series quite a bit in MTL but your translation is like seeing the world after getting corrective lens for the first time. All the emotions and motivations of the characters are so much more distinct and vivid. The story feels alive unlike in the MTL.

    I’ve been beating the drum that Shuukura will eventually be mentioned in most conversations about “best yuri” and I’ll continue to beat those drums like Subaru(GBC best girl) would. You’re not in this for clout but your translation is doing a great service to the Yuri fandom by translating this masterpiece.

    Perhaps as the manga is translated you’ll find it stoking the embers of your enjoyment in translating the WN? Or perhaps you could include in your end of chapter TL note that you’re looking for a translator to hand the reins over to?

    Whatever you decide, nothing will change that your translations are already loved by many and more continue to read them. I hope you’ll return to translating if it’s not too much a burden on you.

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  9. I check in on you periodically because I have been looking forward to your translations, to be honest. ^ ^’ So many translations are so terribly literal or garbled and you do such a good job of giving the words life. Even if there are other translations out there, I’d much prefer to read yours.

    It makes perfect sense that – as a passion project – this is a huge undertaking without a lot of return. You have to take care of you first. ❤ Thank you for everything you’ve done so far. I’d love to read more of your translations, but only if and/or when you have the time. ❤

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  10. It was an amazing experience reading ShuuKura and your translation of it. It’s a shame you’re dropping it but I believe if you no longer enjoy doing something, then it’s not worth it. Thank you so very much for translating it, I’m one of the new readers, but reading everyone’s comments every chapter was really fun and I wished I could’ve been part of this little book club earlier. I just want to let you know that if you ever decide to pick it up again, I will definitely read your translation, it was very well done and high quality. It really got the mood of ShuuKura right, I feel.

    Again, Thank you for translating! I really loved reading your translation, it was a lot of fun.

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  11. I’d absolutely be interested in reading more of your translations, especially shuukura! When I found it last year it really reignited my love for the series, since getting to finally read a good translation of it was exactly what I needed to fully understand the characters and their worldviews. That being said, of course you should prioritize yourself, and if translating doesn’t bring you any joy anymore you shouldn’t feel forced to do it. Just know that if you do decide to go back to it you definitely do have an audience in me

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  12. going to echo what others have said – a continuation of the translation would be nice, but dont do it if its not something that you enjoy doing first and foremost. the amount you’ve already done is a monumental undertaking and extremely impressive, and any cunts who get on your back about ‘where’s the next chapter’ ‘cant believe this disappeared’ or whatever arent worth listening to

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  13. Just pitching in as a person who devoured what you had posted after getting my interest piqued with the manga.
    I adored your contribution and I am amazed at the amount of time and effort you have put in to this series so far. Thank you for all you have done!
    As far as other translations go it is pretty fucking dire ngl. I had a look just to even atleast try and finish up the current plot thread and I cannot for the life of me suffer through MTL. We have been so spoiled by what you have given us.

    If you can find a way to get back into this whilst keeping a healthy relationship with it you will have a bunch of people who will absolutely adore you for it.
    But otherwise please look after yourself do what makes you happy and focus on those things. Hopefully the series will one day get an official translation and we can wait till then if we really need to.

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  14. Obviously your life should come first. I think that’s without doubt. If working on translating this is just too stressful or too time consuming or just isn’t fun, I don’t want you to do it. Why would anyone do something like that, especially for free. No, you should only be doing this if you genuinely want to.

    That out of the way, I have to say that your translation of ShuuKura is in like the top 5 fan translations I’ve ever read. And I’ve read a lot of fan translations. In the realm of Web Novel translations, this is probably the best one. I can’t think of anything that comes close that wasn’t a Light Novel. You’ve brought this to English in a way very few people have done. You manage to make the characters feel believable, but you also manage to do it in a way that makes sure we keep in mind that they aren’t *actually* speaking English. You make sure we know that they are Japanese students and live in a very different environment than the average reader here. I think your preservation of the honorifics especially is part of that, but plenty of people do that and it doesn’t have the same effect. Something about the way you translate the way they talk to each other makes it so I understand their words and the meaning behind the original writing.

    its not something I see very frequently. You should be very proud of the work you’ve done. I imagine it takes a lot of effort. I’ve learned a lot about Japanese as a language through your little translation notes as well.

    If there is another manual translation that exists, I am not aware of it and it isn’t listed anywhere. And the MTL is just straight trash, as most MTLs are.

    So I would absolutely love to see you continue your work. There’s nothing else like it. Of course, the final decision is up to you, but if you’re willing to spend your free time providing a free service for like a few hundred people on the internet, I would be very happy.

    Either way, I support your decision. And I appreciate the work you had done.

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  15. I’m one of the people who left a comment on ShuuKura after the manga adaptation came out, although I probably wouldn’t have if I realized I was going to be one of five people leaving basically the same exact comment (didn’t mean to dogpile, but I guess it happens when you can’t see new comments lol). I’ll just reiterate what I said there- if you continue with it, I’d enthusiastically read it. The MTL version really isn’t great, and it feels especially not great after getting the first portion of the story through a translation as great as yours. But at the end of the day, this is something fairly difficult that you’re doing for free, and if it’s something that stops being enjoyable for you, you shouldn’t force yourself to do it. Anyone who would get upset at you for starting/stopping is wrong.

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  16. Would 100% read your superior translation my man. There is only you and MTL. Many of us pay for the MTL chapters we are hungry for this series and would 100% read it and support you if you translate it

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  17. I absolutely love your translations! Especially Shuukura is amazing! I am absolutely still interested in reading it!

    Please only do it if you feel like it though. I don’t want you to feel like this is an obligation or something like that.

    I would like to thank your for all the chapters you have translated so far as well.

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  18. Personally, your translation is the only way for me to read ShuuKura, I can’t handle the MTL. It’s one of the if not the best fan translation of a WN/LN I’ve seen, which makes moving on to the MTL unbearable. It’s honestly so good it’s made some other non-MTL stuff hard for me to stomach.

    If you find a way to enjoy translating ShuuKura again, I’ll be here all the way ’til the end. If not, you’ve already provided a gigantic amount of entertainment for me, so all I can say is thanks for the work.

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  19. I love your translation so much, but not to the expense of your health. It’s ok to take rest definitely, your translation has been such a wonderful service to the yuri community, and it should come with the translator enjoying it and not being burdened by it.

    If the series only has that mtl version, it will only hinder this peak story being spread around (like some ppl here has been initially bored in just a few mtl chapters; and I had never picked up this series despite my friend rec when I learn there was only mtl – that’s why i’m so grateful to cross upon your blog).

    As much as I would like to see a continuation of your translation, you have been doing spectacular already, there should be plenty of Shuukura readers now to make a huge praying ritual… I mean, potential audience for an official English license of the LN.

    So once again, thank you so much for your translation, and pls keep yourself in good health.

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  20. This site is kind of confusing to use as far as the comments go. But here’s what I meant to comment to this post but probably did it in the wrong place.

    Sorry if this wasn’t the comment section you were talking about but I still hope you see it. I’m the one that suggested you start charging money for it lol. I totally understand what you’re saying that you’re not interested in doing that but I was just trying to express my desire to continue reading your translation because it’s so good. Unfortunately I don’t foresee any other translator picking this up anytime soon and besides I’ve already gotten used to your writing and your awesome footnotes. Don’t know what else I can say to try and convince you to continue your translation but if I could I would offer anything I can. Just something about this story that I love and would really like to be able to continue reading a good translation of it. I hope you get to see this message as I’m not sure if you get notifications or if I even commented in the right place. But if you feel up to it I’m on my knees begging that you continue to translate it haha.

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  21. I’ve read much of ShuuKura from the mtl (I didn’t find this site until recently), but your translation really makes a huge (and much appreciated) difference in terms of quality. If you’re up to it, I would 100% read more of your translations!! And if you do decide to pick it up again and feel like you need to take a break, take as long as you need. Whether it’s a month or a year, we’ll be eagerly waiting (and hoping you feel better)!!

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  22. Hi! So I started reading Shuukura last night and just caught up to your latest translated chapter, and the despair I now feel after reading less than a page’s worth of the mtl is immeasurable. This series isn’t worth reading for me if it has to be interpreted through barely legible english. Not that that has anything to do with you at all, I just wanted to say that not only are there people out there who really appreciate your work, but there are snobs like me who can’t even do without it lol.

    Anyway, whether or not you decide to continue, thanks for all the chapters you’ve done until now, and I hope to be able to read more of this series in the future 😉

    ps. if you throw up a patreon, I’m on that for at least $5 a month

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  23. I am really thankful to you for introducing me to Sendai and Miyagi.

    The manga adaptation just started and that will definitely push many people to read your translation.

    Please consider continuing to translate Shuukura, yours is the best version available.

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  24. I don’t know how much this means, but I picked up your translation of ShuuKura a few days ago and kind of completely fell in love with it, honestly, to the point that I’m still a little heartbroken by the realisation that I’d hit the end and the rest of what I had was MTL. I really do adore how its written and I imagine your translation is a big part of that.

    Anyway, translation is hard, tedious work and you don’t owe anyone shit obviously, certainly not for free. But if you’re wondering if people are interested, I absolutely am, to the point that in the absense of other options I’m seriously, very foolishly, wondering if wanting to read the rest of this series might be the thing that gets to make a proper attempt at learning the language.

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  25. I started reading your translations of ShuuKura a week or two ago and loved it. I tried getting through the MTL translations, but they are a big step down from your work and I wasn’t able to get through it. I would love it if you continued to translate the story, but please don’t do so at the expense of your health or happiness.

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  26. It’d be great if you could rediscover the enjoyment and enthusiasm you had for this project – it’s such a good story, it deserves an excellent translation, and you were definitely providing that. But finding a way to sustain that enthusiasm can be hard, even more so when you have to find it again after burning through it once already . . .

    If it helps, I’d be happy to provide editorial assistance again, and I’m sure there’d be others who’d be happy to participate too (probably many of them better editors than me!).

    Regardless, I hope you’re doing well, and continue to do well.

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  27. I would love to see more updates for ShuuKura! Couldn’t care less about Ubaware (I’ve finished the other translation and the plot fell off pretty hard after the first few chapters if you ask me), but I’d probably read that one too since it’s relatively short in comparison. Reading MTL is like trying to watch a show on a dying cassette tape with a foggy TV screen—you can get a general idea of what’s happening but you have to fill in the gaps and inconsistencies with your own conjecture. I never would’ve gotten hooked on ShuuKura without your translation honestly.

    If you do decide to pick up translation again, don’t feel pressured to put out on a schedule or anything. Nothing crushes the joy out of a project like self-imposed deadlines imo. I will be elated to see any updates no matter the rate they’re released at.

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  28. Although I can’t properly explain it but after reading your translations, I can’t seem to like other ones except for yours. I just absolutely prefer it when it comes from you TvT So selfishly saying, I’d love to read more of Shuukura from your translations:) I would be reallyy happy if you decided to pick it up again! But of course if you really don’t feel like continuing then that’s totally fine, since your happiness and health is top priority!

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  29. I just read your ShuuKara translation over the past few days, and really enjoyed it. It was more engaging than many ‘pro’ light novel translations I’ve read. I hope you resume it. I would probably enjoy your other translation too, but since there were only 3 chapters I haven’t looked at it yet.

    I think “translation theory” is basically all the debates about literalism and localization etc. in translation, from keeping honorifics in English to 4Kids turning onigiri into “jelly donuts”.

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  30. I just found your translation a couple weeks ago, and it has been an absolute delight to read about these two from your words. I can’t really imagine reading any other translation right now, so I would love to see you come back to it. Of course, your health and other priorities come first, but I’d suggest maybe opening a patreon to make this venture at least a little monetarily worthwile? Anyway, those are my two cents. Thank you for all you’ve done until now, truly.

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  32. I just finished catching up with all the translated ShuuKura chapters in two days, and I have to say, it’s one of my favorite Yuri stories so far regardless of mediums.

    That’s definitely in part due to the quality of your efforts in translating the web novel from Japanese to English; it really feels like something I’d read from a professionally localized LN or something.

    I do hope you continue to translate the series, but it’s completely understandable if you choose not to. I can imagine it must take a lot of work and be really stressful.

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  33. Thanks for providing an update, I can completely empathize with your reasoning. The quality of your translations are impeccable and I can’t begin to imagine how long just one takes!! I would have never stuck with the MTL version of ShuuKura. This is truly the first light novel series I’ve really enjoyed, so selfishly I would love more chapters at whatever pace works for you. But either way, thank you so much for your work thus far, you’ve definitely introduced so many people to ShuuKura!!

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