Katinka mentioned that she removes stand-alone ellipses and other similar punctuation from her own translations because they look awkward in Russian. They look sorta odd in English, too, although I think they're becoming a bit more mainstream (in fandom, at least) due to influence from Japanese anime, manga, and video games. I made a decision when I started translating Mirage to keep them in, due to my reluctance to over-interpret a "..." in context. My question to you, dear reader, is: does the "..." (and other stand-alone punctuation such as "?") bother you? Do you think it should be replaced with more traditional English text?
Here's an example (from Volume 9, chapter 1):
"...True." Hazama stepped into the elevator. "Yet, if you should ever choose to betray someone, that virtue would become the ultimate weapon."
"..."
"I'd never want to get on your bad side, if you ever came to work for me."
What this might look like, without using "..."
"...True." Hazama stepped into the elevator. "Yet, if you should ever choose to betray someone, that virtue would become the ultimate weapon."
Naoe was silent.
"I'd never want to get on your bad side, if you ever came to work for me."
Edited: Probably belongs more in the Miscellaneous forum than the Off-Topic forum?
I like it like that, as you said it's quite common in video games and animates so I'm used to it. ^^
Thanks for your response!
I personally like "..." and as a reader, would prefer that over a description that wasn't in the original text. It's more interesting to interpret that "..." on your own, I think.
As a reader, I agree completely. Thanks for your response!
I'm also used to "..." and it reads just fine to me. If I were going to do a "literary" translation of a text with a significant eye to language flow, I think I would translate the "..." into something like "He was silent," because that fits an English idiom better, as Katinka noted. But I don't think that's terribly important in translating a light novel that's not intended to look "literary." When I read "aloud" in my head, "..." just goes in as a silent pause. In short, I think either choice is legit, and I'd be okay with either one.
When I read aloud in my head, "..." becomes "dot dot dot," LOL. Thanks for your response!