Dear fellow french speaking gamers, Pathfinder is being translated into French.
Black-Book Editions (www.black-book-editions.fr), a French company, will start releasing Rise of the Runelords next week, with first episode "Les offrandes Calcinées" (Burnt Offerings). The player's guide is already available for free download.
My understanding is that they will also offer Gamemastery scenarii translations. I knew this was coming, and here it is at last!
Now I assume that if you are a native french speaker and reading this post you do not really need those translations yourself, but I know that most of my players do!
Pass on the message to your non-english-fluent friends. A new era begins!
C'est fantastique!
Hooray! AWESOME news for our European Pathfinder brethren!
Now for German translations...
*pokes Mona with a spork*
Black-Book Editions (www.black-book-editions.fr), a French company, will start releasing Rise of the Runelords next week, with first episode "Les offrandes Calcinées" (Burnt Offerings).
We have played the AP in french [home brew translation].
"Les offrandes Calcinées" I do not like this translation, having a "ées" in a title sucks. Try "Des cendres en offrande" instead.
Liking the french language I might even buy it myself....on the other hand most German translations sound really incredibly stupid...like the D&D core books.
Brandopfer? (is ambiguous)...sorry, no thread jacking, great news. Merci beaucoup!
|
on the other hand most German translations sound really incredibly stupid...like the D&D core books.
I strongly disagree. Sure, there are bad translations out there, but most of the time it's just that germans think it sounds "cooler" in english. Which is quite often due to the fact that the readers do not exactly understand what a given term means in the english language.
Brandopfer? (is ambiguous)
Not more so than the english original. And given
I know from our Blog translations and from my Pathfinder reviews that people are interested in the Pathfinder Chronicles-line. The problem (for any translation into german) is that most players understand english sufficiently enough not to wait for a translation if they are interested in a product as Pathfinder. And with Pathfinder as a periodical you have to create a translation very fast. Sadly enough my french is not nearly good enough to judge the quality of the french Pathfinder translation. But this time constraint may very well be the biggest problem when it comes to a german one.
on the other hand most German translations sound really incredibly stupid...like the D&D core books.
While this is true, I mainly blame Amigo for this.
I can totally see Paizo hiring competent translaters who know what the missile in Magic Missile means (hint: It's not the same as rocket here!).
Brandopfer?
It is ambinguous (for non-German speakers: While Burnt Offering is translated as Brandopfer, brandopfer can also mean fire victim), though it could work. The ambiguity fits here.
You could, of course, use Verbrannte Opfergaben (verbrannt meaning burnt, Opfergabe being close to Opfer, meaning offering).
This all just shows that you know someone who knows what he's writing about here, someone who knows both languages and will find good translations that both fit the original meaning and sound good. As the saying goes, translations are like women - either pretty or faithful, not both. I'm not saying I subscribe to this belief, but in the case of translations, it's somewhat true: Translations that are both 100% faithful and sound good are rare, but I think a competent translater can find a good middle way.
To sum it all up: I know that German translations often do sound stupid, they don't have to be. Get a decent translator to do it and it should work out fine.
Anyway, good news for our neighbours in the west! Enjoy!
|
|
Get a decent translator to do it and it should work out fine.
I'd vote for Andreas Brandhorst. He's the german translator of Terry Pratchett, so he should be able to handle Paizo's love for puns* ^-^.
*At the moment I'm struggling with a good translation for Absalom's "Ivy District". There's a reason why "Ivy League" has not been translated into German as you would most probably lose one of two connotations if you tried. And now I'm sitting here thinking about "Efeuviertel"(the literal translation), "Meisterquartier" (Masters' Quarter), Künstlerviertel (Artisan District) or even "Efeupracht" ('Pracht' meaning splendor). Grrrr.
To get back to topic, I'm wondering why the french translator(s) chose to use the term "calcinée" as translation for "burnt". Isn't this a quite technical term to use here?
Well you can translate "calcinée" by utterly burnt...
Agree on the comments. Titles are often poorly translated, and I read comments on Blck Book editions forum about the poor text of the Player's guide. Now, poor from translation or original... I leave this to players! ;-)