I’m translating a 1938 Catalan novella whose narrator pours out seven-line sentences stitched with semicolons, and I’m torn between keeping that tidal breath and trimming for English rhythm. Where do you draw the line — do you let the current run and trust the reader, or drop a few full stops, and on what cues?
I keep the swell if the clauses have clear “hinges”; if the syntax smears, I cut at the first gear shift and let the rest breathe. Read it aloud once and mark where your voice naturally lands — swap a couple semicolons for em dashes as stepping stones — and only drop a period where you’d truly pause. Are your longest runs driven by tense shifts or parenthetical asides?