OotS French Patches

[Lissou]

I decided to create a new thread because I thought it was a different job enough from translating the strips. Also, I'm hoping it will attract a bit of attention so that if what I'm doing is wrong, I can be aware of it as soon as possible.

"French Patches?" you might be wondering. "What's that?"

Well, I've been working, with Alge'n and Borris, on OotS in French, OdB (L'Ordre du Bâton).
However, friends I pointed to the thread were unhappy with it. "We have to read while comparing with the pictures!" they'd say. "It sucks".
So, I thought about ways around that.

Now, I'm perfectly aware that I'm not allowed to alter the Giant's work in any way, which is why I followed a few rules:
1- None of the Giant art is available on the patches. You need to download the corresponding comic from the Giant's website and open both the comic and the patch to be able to read it.
2 - The web link isn't covered up by the patches
3 - As said in 1, people have to go to the website for the patch to have any effect at all. So it's not taken out of context.

Oh, and 4: the translations are good. But that's probably the hardest part for people to check.

Creating the patches is different from translating, and involves different skills. It's about putting words in already-set balloons, and therefore possibly modifying the best translation because it just can't fit (try translating an average sentence from English to French with babelfish, I woudln't be surprised if the length doubles).

Therefore, any comment I'd expect here would be about the more visual components on the patches: how the text looks in the bubbles. How the font looks (I used the same, so I guess, no big deal here). Other things I might not have thought about.

Anyway, here are the patches that already exist. I'll update them as I go. Suggested method: save target as. Then, you'll need to download each original strip, too. I'm not providing these.

Les Idiots du pillage

1er Round : Blagues loufoques de Donj'

1 - Nouvelle Édition (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0001-Frenchpatch.png)
2 - Ça me rappelle le CE1 (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0002-Frenchpatch.png)
3 - Détection, détection… (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0003-Frenchpatch.png)
4 - Le Pouvoir de la musique (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0004-Frenchpatch.png)
5 - Les Petits esprits se rencontrent (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0005-Frenchpatch.png)
6 - Y'a-t-il un prêtre dans la salle ? (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0006-Frenchpatch.png)
7 - 3615Thor (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0007-Frenchpatch.png)
8 - L'Avantage quand on a un Bluff élevé. (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0008-Frenchpatch.png)
9 - J'aimerais bien savoir, Elan... (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0009-Frenchpatch.png)
10 - Comme Discours captivant, mais en soporifique (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0010-Frenchpatch.png)
11 - Différences d'alignement (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0011-Frenchpatch.png)
12 - Niveau inférieur, niveau supérieur (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0012-Frenchpatch.png)
13 - Intrigue en vue ! (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0013-Frenchpatch.png)
14 - Pourquoi Roy est toujours fatigué (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0014-Frenchpatch.png)
15 - Soirée en famille (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0015-Frenchpatch.png)
16 - Pesez vos mots (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0016-Frenchpatch.png)
17 - Au fil de l'épée (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0017-Frenchpatch.png)
18 - Surprise, surprise (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0018-Frenchpatch.png)
19 - La Grande évasion (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0019-Frenchpatch.png)
20 - Aprofanypse Now (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0020-Frenchpatch.png)
21 - C'est juste une question de tension dramatique (http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd324/Ordredubaton/oots0021-Frenchpatch.png)

[Spiryt]

Wow. That's hell of a work to do I must say :smalleek:

Is there some special purpose, or you just do it for sport, if I may ask?

Anyway, all that I can say in French is FROMAGE!, so I can only make comments about how it looks. And it looks nice.

[Lissou]

Wow. That's hell of a work to do I must say :smalleek:

Is there some special purpose, or you just do it for sport, if I may ask?

Anyway, all that I can say in French is FROMAGE!, so I can only make comments about how it looks. And it looks nice.

Not really. I'm a translator, so that's what I do. And I haven't had a translation job in a while. As it doesn't pay, I got a full-time job, and, well, my teachers always said that if you don't translate everyday you'll lose it. So I thought translating something I really appreaciate reading would be the best option.
As for putting it into patches, I guess I'm a perfectionist and I don't like choosing the easy way :P I also was annoyed with the fact that I had been working on translating a comic book, yet didn't take into account the visual aspect.
By which I mean, selecting the translation that will fit best in the balloons, while being closest in meaning/being as funny, or both.

Also, I'd love it if many French people started reading the series, and it's hard to convince people to read transcripts. So I'm hoping this way will convince more of them.

(And fromage is an important word to know in French :P)

[Spiryt]

(And fromage is an important word to know in French :P)

Indeed. And it's tasty.:smallamused:

[Morty]

My French isn't the best around to say the least, but it looks good. As an aspiring translator I know that translating comics, books etc. is harder that it'd seem, so good job.


(And fromage is an important word to know in French :P)

Really? From what I recall, there's a separate word for every type of cheese in French.:smalltongue:

[Lissou]

Really? From what I recall, there's a separate word for every type of cheese in French.:smalltongue:

There are separate words in English too, you know :P
And knowing the word might help you find the cheese section in grocery stores, if only that :smalltongue:

[Spiryt]

And knowing the word might help you find the cheese section in grocery stores, if only that :smalltongue:

But, there is no cheese in cheese sections, anyway.

[Lissou]

But, there is no cheese in cheese sections, anyway.

What do you mean? I meant the cheese section, as in, the section that has only cheese... Is it a reference to something, like the Monty Pythons?
Or is it something else?

[Mauve Shirt]

Yes, the Monty Python Cheese sketch. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KBuQHHKx0)

[Fitzclowningham]

Please forgive me, but I don't understand how to view the patch over the comic. The background of the patch is white, not transparent. Do I need to bring the patch-image into another program? Help?

p.s. L'Ordre du Bâton est merveilleux.

[Lissou]

Please forgive me, but I don't understand how to view the patch over the comic. The background of the patch is white, not transparent. Do I need to bring the patch-image into another program? Help?

p.s. L'Ordre du Bâton est merveilleux.

They should be transparent, actually, I saved them as such. What program are you using?
Personally I use inkscape and it works for me.
If it's a problem on my end I'll try to fix it, though, but I'm not sure how to.

[SensFan]

J'aime beaucoup ton travail sur L'Ordre du Baton, c'est tres bien fait! J'ai juste une question, comment feras-tu les blagues qui sont dependent sur langue? (Un niveau de plus, un niveau de bas?)

English version, for those that aren't biligual
I really like your work on L'Ordre du Baton, it's very well done! I just have one question, though, how will you translate the jokes that are language-dependent? (Up a 'level', down a 'level'?)

*Note, the French words for 'level' (level 1) and 'level' (floor) are not the same.*

[Spiryt]

J'aime beaucoup ton travail sur L'Ordre du Baton, c'est tres bien fait! J'ai juste une question, comment feras-tu les blagues qui sont dependent sur langue? (Un niveau de plus, un niveau de bas?
English version, for those that aren't biligual

I am (in theory, my English sucks a bit) bilingual, but I don't get it anyway :smalltongue:


I really like your work on L'Ordre du Baton, it's very well done! I just have one question, though, how will you translate the jokes that are language-dependent? (Up a 'level', down a 'level'?)

*Note, the French words for 'level' (level 1) and 'level' (floor) are not the same.*

What words would be exactly used? I checked in dictionary get those

1 niveau
2 diapason
3 horizon
4 plan
5 étage
6 palier
7 nappe
8 taux

results, but which are which?

[Morty]

J'aime beaucoup ton travail sur L'Ordre du Baton, c'est tres bien fait! J'ai juste une question, comment feras-tu les blagues qui sont dependent sur langue? (Un niveau de plus, un niveau de bas?)


Je crois Lissou utilisai les mots touts differents.
In other words: I think Lissou used entirely different words. How bad was the above?

[SensFan]

What words would be exactly used? I checked in dictionary get those
Level 1 = Niveau 1
1st Level (Floor) = 1ere Etage

Je crois Lissou utilisai les mots touts differents.
In other words: I think Lissou used entirely different words. How bad was the above?
Oui, mais la page entiere existe pour la blague que 'level' est un homophone (homonym? Je ne peux jamais me rappeller quelle est quelle...).
Yeah, but the whole strip exists for the joke that 'level' is a homophone (homonym? I can never remember which is which...)

[Lissou]

I've already translated that one, actually. We're up to the 50s as far as transcripts go.

I used "niveau inférieur, niveau supérieur". "Etage" means "floor", "level" happens to be "niveau" in both cases too. It's how it is translated in RPGs anyways. So that wasn't such a big deal. The "spell level" part was harder.

The link in my sig leads to the transcripts, if you're interested. At first I added comments with them all, but then I didn't have enough room for that in the first post, but made comments when posting new transcripts. You'll just have to find them :P

[Lissou]

I added #9 and #10.
10 was tricky, and I have the feeling that Elan's "concentrate" in the late 30s is going to be just as tricky.

As always, comments are appreciated.

[Studoku]

My knowledge of French is nowhere near good enough to translate OotS but I like the idea. I'm tempted to try and use this to make a Haleyspeak translation.

[Admiral_Kelly]

Or Burlew, you know, could simply allow a French Translation under x conditions.

Yes, I am aware of Burlew's over protectiveness* about his stick figure comic. Please do not go about quoting me pointing out how much he will not allow this.

*in my opinion as this is not to be taken as an insult.

[Lissou]

Or Burlew, you know, could simply allow a French Translation under x conditions.

Yes, I am aware of Burlew's over protectiveness* about his stick figure comic. Please do not go about quoting me pointing out how much he will not allow this.

*in my opinion as this is not to be taken as an insult.

Although it would be ideal, I'm not sure it would be that simple. For one thing, there are many languages and people who want to translate oots in them, which would multiplicate the other issues.
The other issues being 1) How can he know it's a good translation? It seems to be the reason why the older translations were taken off the website. If the Giant doesn't speak any other language fluently, then he can't judge any other translations. Doing so would take a lot of time and energy.
2) that trademark thingie apparently means any translation would have to be on his website only, not elsewhere, which is also more work for him. Or maybe it's just that he wants to have control over them, which I can't blame him for, as I'm like that too.

I understand that the Giant is already busy with the original version of oots, and I believe talks about official translations probably need to wait until the series is over, or the side projects completed at least. It's frustrating, but probably for the best in the end.

I just hope that translations will be allowed at some point. It would be a shame otherwise.

I hope you don't mind my quoting you, but I wanted to express my own opinion, too.

[Lissou]

Updated up to 13.
#12 was tricky, because "up" and "down" are significantly shorter than "supérieur" and "inférieur", and although I found a way to make things fit in the balloons most of the time, I had to trade the "up/down/up/down" argument for a "non/si/non/si" one. It makes more sens to say "does not/does too" than to shout "superior/inferior" anyway, but it's a change I wasn't that happy I had to make. I guess an official translation might have been allowed to make the balloons bigger to fit the whole text, but I didn't want to do that for a patch.

(For the record, it ends up sounding this way: Roy: "we're going down a level" Haley "no way", Roy "Yes we are" Haley "no" Roy "YES", at which point V interrupts.)

[Massy]

As I said in the translations thread, compliments for you work.
In the second last panel of #13, the font of Haley's second sentence is (almost?) as large as the first. Was that intentional? Because it reads better when the side comment "Heu, ça veux rien dire, ça" has a smaller font, like in the original, imo.

[Lissou]

As I said in the translations thread, compliments for you work.
In the second last panel of #13, the font of Haley's second sentence is (almost?) as large as the first. Was that intentional? Because it reads better when the side comment "Heu, ça veux rien dire, ça" has a smaller font, like in the original, imo.

It's smaller, but I guess the difference isn't big enough. I was afraid it would get too hard to read, but I'll change that if it changes the effect. Thanks for the comment.

[Nibelung]

As i told you on MSN, dont worry about font size by now. Your nightmare will be on 72 and ahead. From this one, Rich start to use Comic Sans 10 and seize the baloons by the text lenght. IIRC, he use comic sans 12 in this first strips, and 11 is still readable.

[Lissou]

As i told you on MSN, dont worry about font size by now. Your nightmare will be on 72 and ahead. From this one, Rich start to use Comic Sans 10 and seize the baloons by the text lenght. IIRC, he use comic sans 12 in this first strips, and 11 is still readable.

Yeah, I know. One thing I remember from various advices and lessons on translating comics is that French translations of US comics (by which I mean, official translations, printed, sold and everything) always have the text several font size smaller than their US originals, just so the text will fit. (Harry potter 5 had 766 pages in English? It had 975 in French).

I guess I'll find a way, though. I'll take every single opportunity to make sentences shorter, just like for subtitles :smalltongue:

I finished patches up to 16, btw.

[Massy]

Huh, is it really that bad? I heard about Finnish being long: one US comic artist said he always adds room for an extra line in the bubbles for the Finnish translation (the "Finnishing touch") but I've never heard it's as big a problem with French.

Well, I can see your problems a bit more clearly now, espcially after looking at the difference between #71 and #72. :smalleek:

[Lissou]

Huh, is it really that bad? I heard about Finnish being long: one US comic artist said he always adds room for an extra line in the bubbles for the Finnish translation (the "Finnishing touch") but I've never heard it's as big a problem with French.

Well, I can see your problems a bit more clearly now, espcially after looking at the difference between #71 and #72. :smalleek:

It really depends, and it's sometimes possible to end up with a shorter sentence in French than in English, but it's rare. For instance, "please" > "S'il te plaît" or "S'il vous plaît", or "the time machine" > "la machine à voyager dans le temps"
Of course, as it's DnD, translating DnD terms can be hard, too. When Durkon says just "Heal" in a balloon, and the French is "Guérison suprême", you know you're going to run into some trouble.

If found some ways to reduce sentences where I could, though. For instance, I translated the Twelve Gods as "Les Douze", which happens to sound better than "Les Douze Dieux" (Literally, "les Douze" means "the Twelve Ones")
But yeah, I'll probably have to "omit" some details that are in the original version, just like they do with subtitles (when the drawing/scene are enough context)

Example: instead of saying "give me the uge sword you're holding", you could translate "give it to me" without a loss of meaning, as long as the image is clear.

[Nibelung]

Basically, almost all latin-based languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc...) gets bigger sentences when translated from english. In portuguese, thats about 50%. I cant tell much about the others.

When you do just scripts, size isn't an issue. You can write as much as you can because, well, its just text. When you try to fit it on baloons like Lissou's patches and lots of mistakers who edit giant's images on past (like me (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40744)), the history changes.

[EDIT]
Damn Opera cache that dont show me Lissou posting.

[Lissou]

Update: 17 through 19 added.

17: althought the "The Order of the Stick was here" was rather easy once I found the proper font, it raised the question of the "logo".
I translate everything for the patches, including the strip number and "by Rich Burlew" stuff at the top. So, when it switched to the logo-type "The Order of the Stick", I'll have to switch to something else.
But "of the" is written with "of" over "the" in English. "of the" being "du" in French, that makes it tricky.
My husband suggesting writting the d over the u. I'll try that.

19: I changed the "playa" joke. I'll try to explain it to you here:
The word I used for "playa" is "coureur". That means "runner", as well as "playa". The full phrase is "coureur de jupons" (someone who hunts down skirts), but "coureur" is used commonly now.
Elan says "I couldn't guess he wasn't a playa"
Belkar, who's looking over his shoulder, answer "Looks like he IS one"
By which he means, looks like he IS a runner. As in, he runs fast.

I had to change it because the "don't say that ever again" would have made little sense. I like the way I changed it though. It's not like I should expect to be able to keep all the jokes without adapting them, anyways...

20: Ok, now the purists might hate what I did, but...
guano is "fientes de chauves-souris". It didn't fit in the balloon. "fientes" by itself means "sh*t", and I think V saying "I like the smell of sh*t in the morning" wouldn't quite cut it, would it now?
So, I used a common translation tool, by switching the joke to something that keeps the joke while having a different meaning.
By which I mean, I looked at fireball, and used the other ingredient. So, intead of guano, V's saying he likes the smell of sulfur in the morning.

I know it's different, but this way it fits the balloon, AND keeps the same structure as the Apocalypse Now quote. "Fientes de chauve-souris" is a feminine plural, while sulfur and napalm are both masculine singular.

Nothing special to say about the others that didn't come up in the transcripts already.

[Haleyintraining]

Je pas parle francais. :smallwink:

(Do you get the joke? :smalleek:)

[Lissou]

Je pas parle francais. :smallwink:

(Do you get the joke? :smalleek:)

It would be "je ne parle pas français" or "je parle pas français" if you want to omit the "ne" like many people do orally.

And yeah, I get the joke of you saying you don't speak French, in French. Although as you're not saying it properly, I guess there is a third level to it. :smalltongue:

[Haleyintraining]

Precisely.