According to a post on the visualstyle Editor’s Diary, there has been talk of releasing a version of Itaru Hinoue’s (illustrator for Key’s Kanon, AIR, CLANNAD, Little Busters! and Rewrite) artbook overseas, which requires an English translation of the text in the artbook. visualstyle is a free monthly magazine released in both print and electronic form that features interviews and coverage of games released by Visual Art’s.
The following is a translation fo the diary entry in question:
This is my second post of the day. If I miss the June 26th deadline for the next issue of visualstyle, please blame it on this. (laugh)
Currently, there’s talk of releasing a version of Itaru Hinoue’s artbook overseas. Unfortunately, there are no plans to release that version domestically. We’d need to attach English explanations for this artbook, but the English translation process has been a painful uphill battle.
Recently, the lyrics “Okinawa~ Okinawa~” and thoughts of Miyakojima have been circling around in my head, making it quite difficult to work on English. If I don’t revive my English brain quickly enough, I’m going to collapse from my brain overheating.
By the way, if we just stick a sample line into a machine translator…
“この画集の表紙用に描き下ろされたイラストです” [This is an illustration drawn specifically for the cover of this art collection.]
becomes
“It is an illustration that drew for the cover of this picture collection and was lowered.”It feels like I’m on a 100-game losing streak here…
Of course, if the artbook were just translated like that, I know we’d end up with some bizarre creation. And this is why I’m translating directly, even while my brain is overheating. The result is totally like a typical unpolished English translation produced by a Japanese person… (cry)Someone~ please translate this into English~ (cry)
The post also includes an screenshot of the editor’s desktop, including the current work-in-progress opened up in Notepad. Sample translations include:
- 本画集の表紙用に描き下ろされたイラスト、『リトルバスターズ！』より神北小毬。
This illustration is one written only for cover of this Art book,Komari Kamikita(LittleBusters!). -
タイトル発表時に公開された小鳥のイラスト、髪の毛の変化が何を表しているのだろうか。
This Kotori’s illustration was open to the public.It is a title announcement.Changing of her hair.What does it show? -
『visualstyle』2009年1月号の表紙を飾った小鳥のイラスト。
This illustration is cover of [visual style](January 2009 issue).
UPDATE: A recent post on June 5 indicates that they have currently received at least 500 orders for the artbook. There was no indication in the post of where the orders were coming from.