~/blog/the-lantern-saga/chapter-01.mdx
Chapter 1 — The Lantern at the Gate
#translation#chapter
The lantern had burned every night for thirty years, and the gatekeeper had never once asked who it was for.
This is the first chapter of my translation of The Lantern Saga. Each chapter is published as its own article under this novel's topic.
Translator's note
The original opens with a wordplay between gate and waiting that simply does not survive a literal rendering. Rather than footnote it to death, I leaned into the imagery of the lantern to carry the same sense of patient vigilance.
Translation is less about words and more about what a sentence is doing — and then finding an English sentence that does the same thing.