Lost In Translating... Or Not

I'm not quoting the movie title here, okay? Heck, I haven't even watched that movie (Lost In Translation) so I have no idea about the story of that film. What I'm talking about here are my stories. Yes, I've started translating two of them in English (finally!).

As some of you might have read on my previous posts, you'll know that I write--a lot. I started with personal journals and a few feature articles when I was in elementary. I was in Grade 6 at the time, if I remember it right. Or maybe even in Grade 5? When I reached first year high school (I'm talking about the previous Philippine educational system, so it's equivalent to first year middle school if you'll follow the educational system in other countries), I started writing poems and short skits (scripts usually used in role-plays). It continued until I reached third year (still equivalent to 3rd year middle school). By the second semester of that school year, I started writing prose. And I mean fiction--romance fiction.

So you can see here that even before, I was really a hopeless romantic. Only to end up getting rejected and being friend-zoned. Urgh! That was when I imagined myself actually having my works getting published. By the time I reached fourth year (now this was similar to first year senior high school), I actually managed to finished writing a ten-chapter novella. Filipino novella. It was a serious achievement for me.

It was also around the same time that I discovered fanfictions. At first, I was just reading them--most of what I read were anime fanfictions. As I entered college in 2009, that was when I began writing my own fanfictions based on some of my favorite anime like Gakuen Alice, Ghost Hunt, Kirarin Revolution, Kyo Kara Maoh, Prince of Tennis, and Detective Conan. It was really cool since I was able to practice my writing skills--specifically English writing skills. Trust me, I needed that at the time. But that doesn't mean I forgot writing using my mother language, which was Filipino. I continued writing in both languages (English for fanfictions and Filipino for my other manuscripts) even now.

I was a graduating student in Information Technology at the time (year 2014) I thought of one "insane" idea. The course I took up was too far from what I want to do, right? I know, but monetary situations and the lack of other schools offering a Journalism or Mass Communication course aside from the Big Three Universities (Saint Louis University, University of Baguio, and University of the Cordilleras) here in Baguio, Philippines made me decide to just give in to what my father wanted me to take. Anyway, the "insane" idea I was talking about was to write a English novel.

For one thing, I consider that insane because my English wasn't exactly something you would call a polished one. I still make mistakes in terms of tenses and grammars. But I really want to do that. And I want to do it beyond writing English fanfictions. Come to think of it, I've never written a Filipino fanfiction until now.

I have plans. I already made them as I continued to get stressed over my Thesis and passing my subjects so that I would be able to graduate that time. And slowly (I mean, turtle-like/sloth-like slow), I was starting to realize that dream. Right now, they're just short stories or even prologue of a planned novella. But I will make it happen. I just... need to step it up, I guess. Increase my pace, if I have to.

O... kay...

I just realized that the words I typed above was a little far from the post title, huh? I'm sorry for that. I got carried away. But it's still related so...

I've been talking in my other social media posts that I've been planning to translate some of my Filipino-language stories in English. But translating is seriously not an easy job. Now I know what the other translators meant that it's not something you would call easy, especially if it's not your mother language and you don't have a wide vocabulary of that language you were trying to translate. I know that fact, even before. But I want to try. For real.

So here I am. I finally started translating two of my ongoing stories posted on my Wattpad account. But I did this as a sort of fanfiction and making it an almost entirely a different version.

What are those two stories I was talking about, you might ask? Here they are:

"A Love Worth An Eternity" featuring the visual inspirations I used in this English version of the story.

I decided to translate this one in English because this is one of the stories I wrote ever since that has a certain spot in my heart. It has the same title as the original Filipino version. It's a bit hard thinking of a replacement or alternative title, that's why. But I decided to change the name of the characters, for some reason. Even the names of some of the settings were changed. I made them Japanese. My reason for me to do this was because I wanted it to be in line or tie it (at the very least) with one of the English novella I've been planning to write. I think I mentioned it before in one of my Instagram posts, during the #daretoshareIGchallenge. Aside from the fact that I've been reading fanfictions about two Kyuranger characters Stinger and Hami. I admit I have a (slight) crush on Stinger's actor Kishi Yosuke, whom I greeted before on his birthday. You could read the post about that here on my blog if you want or just plain curious. Let's say I was inspired by those fanfictions I've read. Don't ask how or why because I won't be able to explain it properly despite the fact that I don't ship this pair before.

Anyway, I'm not sure if you're aware but I can't really write well without visual inspirations for my characters, even when I started writing prose in high school. That's because the visuals I would use at the time were people I would see in school. Most of them were my classmates.  It got worse and I relied on visual inspirations just for me to fuel my writing when Wattpad started to boom here in the Philippines, if you know what I mean. And I'm still applying it until now.

So don't be surprised if you see that most of the book covers I used in my Wattpad stories have visual inspirations on them. This English version of ALWAE was no exception. The visual inspirations I used here were different from the Filipino version.

Here's the list and the name changes I made to the English version:

• Jo Kwangmin from Boyfriend as Allen Anthony Olivarez || Kishi Yosuke as Mitsuta Setsuji
• Na Hae Ryung from BESTie as Relaina Elysse Avellana || Okubo Sakurako as Sakuishi Chiharu
• Jo Youngmin from Boyfriend as Jerique Alexander Olivarez || Kizu Takumi as Mitsuta Gaishi
• Esther Supreeleela as Elina Rianne Allande || Tateishi Haruka as Minehara Mayuu
• Au Jun Korn Khunatipapisiri as Oliver Santiago || Nakao Masaki as Niwa Seiki
• Bifern Anchasa Mongkhonsamai as Vivian Esguerra || Yanagi Miki as Hazuka Mikako

Even some of the names of the places were changed:

• Oceanside Rose University (Filipino version) || Uminaribara University (English version)
• Town of Altiera (Filipino version) || Yakuramoto Town (English version)

I'll talk about the other differences later on. Let's go to another discussion, which was the second story I'm going to translate in English.

One of the cover pictures I made for the original Filipino version of "The Last Sky Of The Earth" trilogy

Noticed the caption? Particularly the word "trilogy"? Yes, this was really planned to be written in three books, even in the Filipino version. Honestly speaking, this was the first story that I've been planning to translate in English since last year. But as always, something would hold me up and prevent me from doing it. There wasn't much of a change done in this story as I translate it in English. So that means, it would retain much of the original story. Maybe the change I'll only make would be the arrangement of the names.

The names of the characters in the Filipino version are mostly Japanese, with their names written in the Western style (given name first, then surname). But in the English translation, I decided to do the East Asian style (surname first, then given name).

This is another of the stories I wrote that has a special place in my heart because this was the first story I wrote that has an action genre. Let's just say I got inspired (again) from watching Super Sentai. In particular, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (2009) and Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (2013). You'd be able to discern that just by looking at the picture above, right? The names of the characters were mostly derived from a crossover fanfiction I wrote for Prince of Tennis and Detective Conan way back 2009.

Further explanation above that will be done later on.

So there you go! I hope I gave justice to my post title by writing this long blog post. Man, I've never written a blog post this long in a long while. Seriously speaking. By the way, I hope if you have time, you can read these stories on my Wattpad account. You can go there by clicking the titles above. Okay?

Till next time!