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 Delta in the Darkness, aka 黒猫の三角 (Black Cat's Triangle) is a mystery tale written by Hiroshi Mori, bestselling Japanese author of modern "fair play" murder mysteries. He gives all his novels English names in addition to Japanese ones, so that's why it has two titles. I started this thread a while ago, but wasn't really able to follow through because of irl stuff. I've freed up though, and I'm ready to dedicate myself to consistently updating it again. I've been working on it for the past couple months, and have just about 19,500 words so far (around 1/5 of the novel). I'm really excited to actually finish it this time. I actually haven't even read the entire novel on my own, because I kept getting distracted by my temptation to translate the really good writing. I also tend to enjoy translating things simultaneously with reading them (I do this with several manga currently), so this is nothing different for me. As for why I love the novel so much (so far): Mori's sense of storytelling is so precise and comes across as perfectly calculated, which is ideal for a mystery novel. The phrasing of every sentence gives me the impression that every word might be vitally important to the mystery. For example, whenever something is merely a supposition that the POV character shouldn't know for certain, the description always makes sure to indicate that. Like, even if the conclusion the character drew is extremely basic (and turns out to be true), the narrative will make it perfectly clear that X is merely *likely* because of Y and Z. And on top of that it's consistently entertaining, whether through hilarious character banter, or complex social dynamics playing out in the background. Or merely the frequent eccentricities that pop up every so often. On that note actually, I'm really tempted to say that the Dangan Ronpa series was probably inspired by Mori's style, at least in part. Because one of the staples of the DR franchise is the use of in-your-face weird poo poo to distract you and make it unclear what details will actually be important for the case. And that's very much also happening in Mori's writing. And anyway, it's just really engaging in a similar sense, to me. It'll be really fun to try solving this beast along with you. Also the pacing is extremely well done. And that's coming from me, the person who has to spend like twice as long on each sentence to translate it, lol. This is why Mori's so perfect for me to translate. All of his sentences already make me want to ponder them for 30 extra seconds anyway. Mystery is a genre where it can be hard to include all the necessary details while not being totally sleep-inducing to read. But Mori strikes a near-perfect balance with when he chooses to go all-out with exposition and when he decides to save it for later. Plus, sometimes the exposition is inherently engaging anyway because it's exposition about something bizarre, or about the minute specifics of the crime scene. Anyway, here's the pdf of everything I have so far, which is halfway through chapter 2. And then for updates I'll post the text in thread. And if people want I can post updated pdfs too. P.S. For anyone wondering what's going on with my earlier Decagon House translation thread: The ending is coming. I just have way more motivation for this one, to be completely honest. I just... like Mori's writing so much more. I basically never even have to force myself to work on this. I'm excited to. But yeah, I have a duty to bring Decagon House to a close, so I'll accept my responsibility and do so in a timely manner.
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Apr 27, 2020 23:09
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 19:12 |
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