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The Witcher 2Fan translation of the Witcher stories and novels(43 posts)(43 posts)
(43 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 30, 2011
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Hey all, after some browsing and digging around, I have compiled a list of sources where fan translations can be found / downloaded.

The Sword of Destiny (complete)

1. Limits of the Possible / Bounds of Reason
2. A Shard of Ice
http://chomikuj.pl/Karen582/Dokumenty
Credits: Unknown.

3. Eternal Fire
4. A Little Dedication
5. Sword of Destiny
6. Something More (Edited version here)
Link to original version of all 4.
Credits: Psiharis (Something Awful forum) - Thread
p/s: Thanks to Ren02 for telling me about this thread.

An alternative translation of Eternal Fire
http://www.mediafire.com/?cvfp11025huo8b0
Credits: Someone back in the old Witcher forum
p/s: Thanks to Piluso for emailing this to me


Times of Contempt (WIP)

Translation is currently being undertaken by chicra, vilgefortzPL, and possibly Piluso. See thread: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/times_of_contempt_translate

Chapters 1 and 3 are translated while Chapter 2 is partially translated
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ssvnMXcV2BO7NmK6q0tf-V7L9Q1G8yN36o6n4o0OEtQ/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CLSAkqUN
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17JrRvs3Af1_iIjqOJjczh8Ie9cAxSqLhO-33OSrApJg/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CIamq9gL
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1inEErqE9DiQiCT7SnaltqtIFMaaE1rrkfGKzYqj9PHw/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CJeXupMG
Post edited July 05, 2011 by vAddicatedGamer
Posted June 30, 2011
Thanks for the links, vAddicatedGamer!

It's been enormously frustrating to wait for the official translations to get published. Does anyone know what is causing the delays? It can't be that difficult to translate Sapowski's books, so I'm guessing that there is some legal issue frustrating publication.
Posted June 30, 2011
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ElvisX3K: Thanks for the links, vAddicatedGamer!

It's been enormously frustrating to wait for the official translations to get published. Does anyone know what is causing the delays? It can't be that difficult to translate Sapowski's books, so I'm guessing that there is some legal issue frustrating publication.
Credits should go to those who volunteered to translated the work.

Not sure why it is taking so long. Anyone who is fluent in both Polish and English can translate it in much shorter time. So yeah, it is probably some legal issues not revealed to the public.
Posted July 01, 2011
Thanks for the links!

As for why a translation takes a long time, and as to why when the "official" translations hit they should be worth paying for, you should ask those who are bi-lingual and who do translations for a living.

For instance, it would be very possible for a person fluent in Polish and English to do a translation word for word; you make sure the verbs are conjugated properly and that you're paying attention to grammar and...no problem.

Thing is, The Witcher stories/books are literary works, which means that there is some craft and some decision-making by the original writer on the choice of nouns, descriptors, and verbs. All too often when reading something translated without giving due consideration to those factors as a reader you become completely cognizant of reading a translation that may not be conveying all the meanings of the original.

Having read the officially released first book of stories, what is so wonderful about them is that the translator absolutely *nails* it. If you didn't know that collection was originally written in another language, you wouldn't be able to tell by reading and that is a great compliment.

One of my favorite authors writes in Spanish, and his works are bankrolled by two of the biggest publishing houses on the planet and even they need 18-24 months to get English versions of his novels to print. It's a process, no doubt.
Posted July 01, 2011
Sapkowki sometimes used words from old polish language that i weren't aware they even exist for the first time i've read his books. Or he used words for i.e. description of surroundings that probably are only in biggest oxford dictionaries, like "namorzyny"(type of forest) or "łęgi"(another type of forest lol) both newer used in common polish. Thats the main difficulty, to translate and keep the spirit of his work. Even the commonly used word for f...k he used "chędożyć" is not used in polish from centuries. <<(lol, i've used word "used" 3 times in that sentence, is it ok? ;])
Post edited July 01, 2011 by Endrevius
Posted July 01, 2011
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Endrevius: Sapkowki sometimes used words from old polish language that i weren't aware they even exist for the first time i've read his books. Or he used words for i.e. description of surroundings that probably are only in biggest oxford dictionaries, like "namorzyny"(type of forest) or "łęgi"(another type of forest lol) both newer used in common polish. Thats the main difficulty, to translate and keep the spirit of his work. Even the commonly used word for f...k he used "chędożyć" is not used in polish from centuries.
I don't doubt it, it being his use of older words and the need for careful selection of words. Doesn't necessarily mean that translation work would take this many years though. One but need to look around to see the various language to which his works have been translated. Which is why the idea of legal / administrative issues makes more sense here.

Btw, how did you learn about meaning of the old words if you weren't aware that they existed. A large dictionary?
Posted July 01, 2011
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Endrevius: Sapkowki sometimes used words from old polish language that i weren't aware they even exist for the first time i've read his books. Or he used words for i.e. description of surroundings that probably are only in biggest oxford dictionaries, like "namorzyny"(type of forest) or "łęgi"(another type of forest lol) both newer used in common polish. Thats the main difficulty, to translate and keep the spirit of his work. Even the commonly used word for f...k he used "chędożyć" is not used in polish from centuries.
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vAddicatedGamer: I don't doubt it, it being his use of older words and the need for careful selection of words. Doesn't necessarily mean that translation work would take this many years though. One but need to look around to see the various language to which his works have been translated. Which is why the idea of legal / administrative issues makes more sense here.

Btw, how did you learn about meaning of the old words if you weren't aware that they existed. A large dictionary?
If not with the dictionary, You can always get the real meaning from meaning of overall sentence or paragraph. And my father was a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi literature, he encouraged me to read his collection as well, so in my early youth i was reading like 1 book per day, getting knowledge of my own language way faster than my non reading friends. Part of legacy that my father left me is a huge library of like 2k fantasy and sci-fi books.
As for delays of translations i would point at Sapkowki himself, hes well known from being a bad ass and i bet he wouldn't let the publisher release translation that he's not pleased with.
Posted July 01, 2011
Awesome! Now I'll be able to read The Sword of Destiny before tackling Blood of Elves. I can't believe the publishers skipped this collection when translating the books to English.
Posted July 01, 2011
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Endrevius: As for delays of translations i would point at Sapkowki himself, hes well known from being a bad ass and i bet he wouldn't let the publisher release translation that he's not pleased with.
That would make sense. Although it begs the question: "Is the English translator(s) that much inferior to the other translator so much so that they didn't manage to get the author's approval after all these years?". This might boil down to a matter of preference too. Ah, the joys of speculation!
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Kindo: Awesome! Now I'll be able to read The Sword of Destiny before tackling Blood of Elves. I can't believe the publishers skipped this collection when translating the books to English.
I have read the stories in a non-linear fashion and found that they did not lose any charm for that. One reason was that the stories stand well on their own. Second reason being that I am used to non-linear narrative structure (Memento comes to mind) and good stories are supposed to withhold some information from the reader anyway. To me, reading the stories in the "wrong" order, so the speak, is no different from say, playing on one path then playing on another in TW2.
Post edited July 01, 2011 by vAddicatedGamer
Posted July 01, 2011
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Endrevius: As for delays of translations i would point at Sapkowki himself, hes well known from being a bad ass and i bet he wouldn't let the publisher release translation that he's not pleased with.
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vAddicatedGamer: That would make sense. Although it begs the question: "Is the English translator(s) that much inferior to the other translator so much so that they didn't manage to get the author's approval after all these years?". This might boil down to a matter of preference too. Ah, the joys of speculation!
Thats the only reason i can think about. Maybe Sapkowski doesn't like english at all, or maybe he knows it to well so he delays translations cause they are bad. Bad ass is the least harsh word i've heard about Sapkowski. In fact the only person i knew that met Sapkowski and wasn't talking bad things about him is my father. He met him at some fantasy convent, from witch he brought one of the books with his signature, he claimed that he spoke with him and said that he's not as bad as ppl used to talk about him. Maybe its only because my father was a bit of a bad ass himself, or maybe... You may know that feeling when it seems that every single person that surrounds You is a mere idiot, maybe Sapkowski has that feeling all the time and he's like normal only when he meets an intelligent and erudite person.
Well, those are only speculations. Sapkowski lives in same city as me, so maybe i should find out where he lives exactly, then come to his house and ask personally ;].
Posted July 01, 2011
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Endrevius: Thats the only reason i can think about. Maybe Sapkowski doesn't like english at all, or maybe he knows it to well so he delays translations cause they are bad. Bad ass is the least harsh word i've heard about Sapkowski. In fact the only person i knew that met Sapkowski and wasn't talking bad things about him is my father. He met him at some fantasy convent, from witch he brought one of the books with his signature, he claimed that he spoke with him and said that he's not as bad as ppl used to talk about him. Maybe its only because my father was a bit of a bad ass himself, or maybe... You may know that feeling when it seems that every single person that surrounds You is a mere idiot, maybe Sapkowski has that feeling all the time and he's like normal only when he meets an intelligent and erudite person.
Well, those are only speculations. Sapkowski lives in same city as me, so maybe i should find out where he lives exactly, then come to his house and ask personally ;].
Wow, interesting. Yeah, you should go talk to him.
Posted July 01, 2011
I know several authors and artists and they are all extremely picky about how their works are reproduced. I would be too if it took me as much hard work as I know is put into these things to make in the first place.


(edit for typos)
Post edited July 01, 2011 by Treasa
Posted July 01, 2011
I was looking for information on Sapowski and came across this interesting interview with him from 2008 in two parts:

http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/part-i-of-june-2008-fantasymundo.html

http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/part-ii-of-june-2008-fantasymundo.html

edit: links should work now.
Post edited July 01, 2011 by ElvisX3K
Posted July 01, 2011
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ElvisX3K: I was looking for information on Sapowski and came across this interesting interview with him from 2008 in two parts:

[url=]http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/part-i-of-june-2008-fantasymundo.html[/url]

[url=]http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/part-ii-of-june-2008-fantasymundo.html[/url]

edit: can't seem to get the urls to link properly. If they don't work for you, try copy and pasting them.
Hey ElvisX3K whenever you want to post a link, just copy and paste the link in your post and it will be automatically parsed by the forum's script. Using the "hyperlink" button is not necessary.
Posted July 01, 2011
Thanks for the tip, vAddicatedGamer. I'll try and edit the post again.

Edit: Links working now. Thanks again, vAddicatedGamer!
Post edited July 01, 2011 by ElvisX3K
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The Witcher 2Fan translation of the Witcher stories and novels(43 posts)(43 posts)
(43 posts)