Update Four | (IMPORTANT TO KNOW) I Tried to Contact Bishoujo’s Author

So, here is the update.

On Friday the twenty-second, I pretty much finished all my translation work for chapter twenty-seven. And by pretty much, I mean like some untranslated lines, a few unsure, a couple of ‘make sure you really review over’, etc. left. All translators have these at the end of the day. However, with the translations, 3 out of the 4 untranslated lines I had were illegible. For people who read Japanese and just come here for the ease of reading, I’ll offer these lines for a better understanding of what I mean;

「ら、らからっへっへいっひゃろりぃ……あぅぅ」

「あ、あろれ、ひひましゃんろまえれ、うもうとひへはんらよ？ れもひゃいみんきゅらのらひひゃっへれ？ らっへひひはひゃんらいひらり――」

「らっへ、らっへ、ひひはひゃんら、ららひくしへふへふんらおん。うえひふって……」

Usually, when I can’t translate a line despite all my research on the internet, I go to my translator friends to get a better understanding. Specifically, I went to Este. I asked and of course gave him the most context I could offer, as well as including the chapter link, but with Kijima-san, the MC in the story, claiming that Satonaka’s speech is something he can’t even understand, and then has to GUESS what it means, I don’t know what I was expecting. He tried his best, but alas, he couldn’t completely help me.

Looking back at it now, I don’t know why it bugged me so much. I mean, it’s not that important if the MC claimed so, too. I bet even a native speaker who read that chapter didn’t even understand what was being spoken. Nevertheless, it bugged me. It bugged me to the point of doing something that I perhaps didn’t prepare myself fully for. I contacted the author in the quest of getting a readable line.

I know what you’re thinking, why do that when I never asked him for permission? And by permission, I mean as a curtsy. It is always nice to ask an author to make sure you acknowledge him in terms of his or her content, even if you don’t think an erotic author should be given that much credit (I do, naturally…despite not doing that action beforehand.)  Although I really did want to ask him to say I enjoy his story to the point of wanting to share it with everyone, but I never had the time or way to do so.

Now, you may be thinking this as an excuse. Ha! I ain’t that shameless to hide behind a flimsy excuse such as that. I legit do have reasons.

One, I was nervous. Okay, not a really sturdy explanation, I know! But you gotta realize, Bishoujo was my first translation. I was pretty bad back then in terms of my quality, and if you want proof, compare my recent chapter to my first one. See a huge difference (I need to fix that soon…)? I didn’t want the author to see that being done to his series, not to mention me just starting and never really contacted an author before…So anyways, I let myself slide in terms of contacting him.

Two, even if I WASN’T nervous, it would be quite hard to talk to him.  You see in syosetu, you have an option of making an ‘x’ account. With this ‘x’ account, you can like, share, or even post novels for the erotic section of male and or women, while also keeping your main account hidden if you wish for such.  However, the drag of this function is that I don’t believe you can message people with their ‘x’ account. I’ve looked through the message Q&A on the site and couldn’t find a way (I might have missed something, but I tried everything, so.) Anyway, since the author of Bishoujo doesn’t have his main account on his ‘x’, I couldn’t message him normally.

With those two points, I didn’t bother and was just continuing on with the author most likely not being aware of my translations. I wasn’t proud, but at that moment I felt I could do nothing. But, then I had my motivation to actually try. It was the slurred lines.

I wrote my message, had Este’s contact that checks his messages he sends to authors see over mine, and then was ready to send it in. My message was simple: I stated who I was, what I did, apologized for how late this notice was, asked permission as a courtesy, asked about the lines, and then stated how much you guys loved the series. 

Now, didn’t I just say I had no way of contacting him? Well, technically I did, but I stated that I couldn’t message him NORMALLY. I did what I now claim as a douche move, and posted it via the comments on an update post that said his new chapter would be late due to a sudden, massive snowstorm. I know, not very smart of me. But I was nervous and I just wanted it over with; I was so jittery that I forgot to add a 無理しないで or Don’t overwork yourself. Well, maybe a more polite way to say that, but that doesn’t really matter!

Anyways, I basically got called out by like four people after I went to bed and woke up. As you assumed, I was said as insensitive…I can understand that. But, people were also saying that I was performing copyright infringement. I got scared for a bit because maybe I missed something pretty big such as a licensing or what not. I asked Joe, since he knows a lot more than me. Basically, he stated that the author should be the only one who can perform a DMCA (A notice for me take down the content that’s being claimed unfair usage, due to it being a problem towards the owner of the content by money loss). 

Now, from the comments I read (I wished I could show you, but didn’t snapshot them) they were claiming I was performing copyright infringement due to the VISUAL NOVEL. I don’t know what sparked this idea, but I highly doubt Seacoxx owns all the rights to the story, not to mention the fact it’s a totally different medium. Plus, I ain’t taking their income even if they did, since the web novel is still out for the public and I’m basically just an English provider. 

Now, what I really was concerned about, and still kinda am right now, is the author filing DMCA, because I know he pretty much has full ground to do so. However, as I was worrying, I realized the update post I commented on was deleted. I guess the author did that in order to stop the comments being filed against me? Otherwise, it was due to not wanting trouble. Either way, that’s gone. I also haven’t gotten a reply from him since (I left my main account on my ‘x’ one so he could message me back privately), so I assume he has either ignored me completely or is planning his next move…

The author seems like a pretty chill and nice dude by his updates and pretty imaginative in terms of his writing. But, I can’t make assumptions when I was appearing like a jerk and also bringing attention away from his time of understanding to my selfish matter.

I simply wanted this to be let know, so if anything does happen in the future, you know why. So do I classify this as bad news or uncertainty news? I mean, it’s a mixture of both…but I guess uncertainty is big dipper here.

TL;DR

Legit anything I say in one sentence will make you ask questions. Just read it all, it is necessary, I swear.