Translation of Lone Wolf: Flight from the Dark

[yonim]

Hi,

I would like a Hebrew translation of the book for personal use. I don't think it exists.

Any suggestions how to go about translating it?
I can't afford a professional human translator, but I can try to translate it myself...

Who has the copyrights for the book today? Need I contact them?

Thanks

[Zipp]

Jan 30, 2023 23:16:57 GMT yonim said:

Hi,

I would like a Hebrew translation of the book for personal use. I don't think it exists.

Any suggestions how to go about translating it?
I can't afford a professional human translator, but I can try to translate it myself...

Who has the copyrights for the book today? Need I contact them?

Thanks

If you want to translate something for personal use, you do not need to seek permission from anyone. But the key word there is PERSONAL USE. If you are going to release this in any format anywhere, including sharing the file with friends, you'd want to contact Ben Devere at Holmgard Press and talk more about it.

If you are looking for a quick and dirty option, Google Translate works pretty well for English to Hebrew. Just pop text in there, such as "In the far distance you can just make out the silhouette of Holmgard on the horizon."

And get "מרחוק אתה יכול פשוט להבחין בצללית של הולמגארד באופק"

It's not perfect, but it's decent enough to do the bulk of the work and then you can clean it up from there.

[yonim]

Thanks Zipp.
I want to give it as a gift to a friend (for his son). I'll contact Holmgard Press.
I understand that there is an extended version of the first book (which I did not read). I wanted to translate the original, am I making a mistake? Is the revised version better?

By the way, the sentence you translated with Google Translate is a good example. The algorithm miss translated the phrase "just make out". It translated it to "simply make out" instead of "barely make out". Maybe the new GPT3 engine would be better, I'll let you know.

[Black Cat]

Jan 31, 2023 10:56:25 GMT yonim said:

I understand that there is an extended version of the first book (which I did not read). I wanted to translate the original, am I making a mistake? Is the revised version better?

It all depends what "better" means to you. As a longtime fan that has read the original story many times, the extended version is "better" because you get to explore many more places on your way to Holmgard, along with the fact that you take part in the fight at the beginning. However, that version is more difficult than the original (although the DE version reduced the difficulty a little bit over the CE version, but it's still difficult).

If your friend's son is young and has never read a gamebook before, maybe the original version is "better" for him. It is simpler and easier (and shorter! Kids don't have the same attention span than teens or adults). And let's face it, if it is easier, he will be able to complete it easily and there's nothing like success for a kid to get more interested in something (playing the harder version might prove too difficult for him and he might lost interest rapidly not only in that particular book, but in the series in general).

[yonim]

Thank you. The original version it is then...

I don't know if this is the place to ask about specific translation conundrums. One of the first I have is translating "Kai Disciplines".

Disciplines can be understood in different ways. For example:
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus/discipline

I have several options for translation:
a. דיסיפלינות (Disiplinot). This is the direct translation, it is not really Hebrew so it does not say much.

b. מסורות (Masorot) or מנהגים (Minhagim), which mean Traditions.

c. שיטות (Shitot), which means Methods.

d. התמחויות (Hitmakhuyot), which means Specialties.

e. משמעת (Mishmaat), which means Self-Control but also Punitive Measures. Only singular, no plural, in Hebrew.

f. פרקטיקות (Praktikot), which means Practices.

g. חלישות (Khalishot), which is very archaic and is the plural of being in a state of control. Kids won't know this word.

h. מיומנויות (Meyumanuyot), which means Skills. I think Joe Dever uses Disciplines and Skills interchangeably. If I use this it would very much simplify the text.