TLDR; Thanks for the support. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still truckin' along.
Nobody: "So why is it taking so long?"
I'd just like to thank everyone for their support so far, everyone has been really chill and not asking me why it's taking so long. So, I'd like to give some insight into just why it is taking so long.
As the OP now states, I'm doing this out of an interest in translation and not just to translate. This means I spend a lot of time analyzing the text and thinking about what I'm translating words to and why. With that in mind, there are a few guidelines I use in my approach to translation. These are guidelines I've gathered for myself from reading: Clifford E. Lander's book, Literary Translation: A Practical Guide, and Lauren G. Leighton's book, The Art of Translation, itself a translation of Kornei Chukovsky's A High Art.
First, I have to analyze the words to discern the author's style. The last thing I want to do is misrepresent their work by putting it into my own words. I have to think about how they would have written it. So, I have to not only consider the literal definition of a word but also how it gets used. For instance, I thought it was weird that the author was using Chinpo and Penisu but then I realized Chinpo can also be used to refer to the balls, so I have to go back and reexamine some stuff with that in mind. In another instance, there was a part where the author was seemingly saying the same thing twice. This was the first time in over 10 scenes they had done something like that, so it turned out to be a very problematic thing for me to approach. It was actually quite the crisis, but I eventually came to a conclusion.
Second, I have to consider the cultural translations. A translation might make sense and be accurate, but where a Japanese reader would consider something lascivious the American reader may not. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with Japanese culture to put that concept to much use.
There are other details I consider, but with just those two I can find myself thinking about a single phrase for some time. In addition to all that, I get horny af writing this so I can't just work on it any old time.
