Was doing my usual browsing of the internets when I came across this excellent, thought-provoking article: “On Translation” by Matt Thorn.
Manga translation further requires an ear for voice.
In any decent manga, each character has a distinctive style of speech. In some cases it is more subtle than in others. It seems that most manga translators today (Have any of them lived more than a year in Japan?) have their noses buried in their dictionaries, translating word by word, rather than looking at the speech as a whole, and considering the personality, background, and mindset of the speaker.
They cannot see the forest for the trees.
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