So it seems...that I heard some stuff off xah (I know her in real life xD)
It seems that she's been revising the translations for Gu Fang (novel). She's going to change a lot, basically get rid of the "-wang" suffix and "wang-" prefix (so no more "wangye" and "Jing Anwang"). She's changing all of that to "Duke".
It seems like she's following the English peerage system in terms of nobility or something complicated like that. But she's also adapting it to the "Gu Fang" way of things...
I'm just gonna post this out of her current translation notes (there's a huge list
).
- Spoiler:
Nobility Ranks
King (part of the “Royal House”, lives in the “Royal Residence”)
Prince. It seems that usually only the inheritor of the throne will be called the Prince in this novel. (part of the “Royal House”, lives in the “Royal Residence”)
Duke: Similar in rank to Prince, may or may not have royal blood connections. In other words, dukes may be princes or people from recognised families. Being called a “duke” seems to give more military advantage. This is replacing the “wang” prefix and suffix, e.g Jing Anwang = Duke of Jing-An; Wangye = Duke. He lives in a “…Ducal Residence”. People of similar lineage (i.e his sons and daughters) can be grouped as “House of…” (The Chinese for this is the same, but it doesn’t make sense in English if only one is used)
The wife of the duke (formerly “wangfei”) will be the duchess.
The duke’s son(s) will be given his father’s subsidiary titles, e.g “marquess” or “earl” etc.
Scholar: Not really nobility. Usually a commoner/peasant who has gotten the King’s respect due to high placing in national exam. Supposedly all men, but in fiction and probably history, there have been women who cross dress to study and earn these titles. Top scholars tend to be awarded an “official” rank and often became governors of small provinces or military commanders. Sort of like the “count” role in the peerage system.
Official: All of the above, except women (e.g duchess) and the King.
Well...she only actually started re-doing the previous chapters & translating the next chapters this month
so somehow I really doubt she'll finish it according to her schedule
Talk about disorganised people.
She told me not to tell you guys at first, but I finally convinced her...but she's too embarrassed to tell you guys herself.
She said that this version will be better than the one before, saying something like, "Now that I look back, my previous translation was terrible. Bits were cut off, bits were added, bits were totally different to the original. At best it was only 60% was true to the novel." (that's partially why she's so embarrassed... T_T)
Anyway, final news is that you'll probably see her some time on Facebook soon as she wants to release the first volume for New Year's and the second for Valentine's. She's gonna recruit for like, two proofreaders + one quality checker and maybe one formatter. Hopefully she doesn't go MIA on us this time.
(she did also say something like she's gonna put out her FB account for everyone to see eventually, so everyone can go convince her personally if she slacks off again)
I think CMB and KTnBN are the only manga she plans to continue...and she's going to move that to another blog. It'll be mostly translations + the occasional scanlation, but that will have to wait until after she finishes vol01 of the gufang, sorry everyone!
I'll try to answer any questions (but mind you, she only let me read the first three chapters) so I don't know future spoilers. I'll pass on any encouragement, feedback or critique and hopefully she'll take them to heart. :p