open invitation to translate the fic "Foreign Languages"!

[starfishstar]

Calling all language fans, Torchwood fans, and everything in between...

I wrote a little Torchwood fic (actually a series of 5 drabbles) highlighting little character moments for each of the Torchwood team through the use of 5 different languages. Since the fic focuses on languages, I was extra thrilled when someone asked to translate it into Russian. In fact, I liked it so much that I went ahead and did a translation too, into German!

To keep the fun going, I thought I'd open this up to the world... Anybody else want to try their hand at a translation?

It actually makes quite a fun little translation exercise, because it's very short (500 words), but there's also the additional challenge (if you want it) of trying to the same word count as the original, of exactly 100 words per drabble. (You don't have to do it that way, though, unless you want to.) You don't even need to be familiar with Torchwood, necessarily; my German-language beta said she enjoyed the fic and got a good sense of the characters despite not knowing them beforehand.

Here's the original fic:
"Foreign Languages" on DW or on AO3.

Here are the translations so far:
"Другие языки" translated into Russian by bfcure – on AO3.
"Fremdsprachen" translated into German by starfishstar – on AO3 or on DW.

Anybody who wants to join in, go for it! Post or link in the comments here; and/or post and link on AO3. (I really like AO3's linking feature, and would be happy to link to anyone's translation there!)

Comments

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

I just want to say that this is a really cool idea!

[starfishstar]

Thank you! It was fun to do, and of course anything that involves multiple languages gets me excited. :-)

[nightchild78.livejournal.com]

Hi,

You really piqued my interest. Maybe I should try to translate it in French. I'll let you know if I can manage to write something decent enough.

Anyway I love this series of drabbles and your concept. :D

[starfishstar]

Oooh, yes yes, please do!! That would be wonderful! :-)

I wouldn't have dared to translate it into German if I hadn't found a great German-speaking beta to work with...so maybe there's someone you can collaborate with?

(Sorry to throw lots of excitement and advice at you, I just think it would indeed be awesome if you did try your hand at a French version.) :-D

[nightchild78.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I think I can manage to write it alone. I'm French, actually, so it shouldn't be too hard for me. lol ;D

I hope I'll respect the essence of your work. I've already translated the first drabble, but I don't think French allows me to respect the 100 words if I want it to be understandable.

I'll do my best and will tell you when it's done.

[starfishstar]

Oooh, hurray, I'm glad you're trying it out! Definitely don't worry about the word limit – I stuck to 100 words in German because I liked the extra challenge and I'm a bit ridiculous like that, but it's really not necessary. ;-)

[nightchild78.livejournal.com]

All done!

Here is the link to AO3. Thank you for having given me the chance to try my hand on this kind of exercice. It was fun!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7548628

[starfishstar]

Ooh, exciting!! I'll go have a look right now. Thank you for translating it!

[jo02]

You know, the big downside to all this is that I can't actually read any of the translations, just be happy that someone did them :)

[starfishstar]

I know, right? At least French and Russian I can somewhat parse; the couple other times fics of mine have been translated, it's been into Chinese, which I can't read at all! But even then, I just find it so fascinating to see the same work but in a different language. :-)