Translation Help Thread

[Strange_One]

hrrmm.. possible I guess. He's described as ridiculously optimistic, though in that bit he then confesses what he saw was difficult could only talk about it after rallying himself so it's not really absolute.

P.S. I typed bend into thesaurus. I found genuflect. Oh temptation...

[Strange_One]

No advance on those words? blessed, fortunate or carefree hm?


edit: is Root the sortof fan translated term for Taiji?

[mewarmo990]

I still think 'carefree' fits best. With blessed and fortunate you need to infer a few things to get there.

Root of All Things is not the same as Taiji/Taijitsu/Taichi. At least, it doesn't make sense in real life, maybe Nasu had some proprietary definition.

[Strange_One]

yeah, carefree seems simpler and more flowing to me.

I think I'll keep Taiji rather than find something else then.

A minor note: Nothingness I rather like to keep for her origin. So what synonym to use when Shiki 'paraphrases' in epilogue?

abyss
nil
vacuity
nought
oblivion
zero

[Strange_One]

Currently being mindfucked by the various overlapping lyrics of Sprinter.

I see even gg couldn't be arsed to put every section of the lyrics on.

[Strange_One]

I wonder if anyone will read this, since I appear to be the position of spamming this thread -_-

I'm mulling over the lyrics of Kima ga Hikari ni Kaete Iku. I hear so much about how contextual Japanese is, yet a lot of the translations I see for this song somewhat puzzle me. Should I bring my puzzling over the translations in the Kara no Kyoukai movies to a new thread?

[Kotonoha]

The context thing is probably why translations for lyrics can vary so much, because a lot of the time it's just a bunch of vague "deep" sounding lines and often you can't tell if it's supposed to be in first/second/third person or what.

[mewarmo990]

I wonder if anyone will read this, since I appear to be the position of spamming this thread -_-

I'm mulling over the lyrics of Kima ga Hikari ni Kaete Iku. I hear so much about how contextual Japanese is, yet a lot of the translations I see for this song somewhat puzzle me. Should I bring my puzzling over the translations in the Kara no Kyoukai movies to a new thread?

Any specific questions in particular?

You can keep asking them here. I mean, it is why I created the thread in the first place.

[Lianru]

Umm...not sure if this is in the right place/if it'll help anyone, but...
http://japanese.nciku.com/
It's currently down for whatever reason (and right now it's still in beta so it'll either get removed eventually or get way improved), but I used the Chinese variant a lot for my own translations. It's good for kanji lookups and has a lot of examples.
Also, it's in English.

[Strange_One]

Many thanks to thee

re. the song lines - Indeed - but in this case I would have thought we have a distinct advantage. Yuki wrote the songs as a Kara no Kyoukai fangirl - thus the songs all convey the emotion for their given chapter. (though even then, some lines utterly befuddle me -_- )

(oh wow. BL does text cell things! - example lyrics stolen from Canta per me)

Kurayami wo oshimu you ni Yoake ga hajimaru

As if regretting the darkness Daybreak begins

Any ideas on making "regretting the darkness" sound better?

Kokoro ni wa himitsu ga aru Sore demo furetakute Fure aeba kowarete yuku

You have a secret in your heart Even so, I want to touch it If we touch each other we will break

Given what we know, shouldn't this be about Shiki (Singer's POV) and Kokutou being the one to have at her regardless - thus making her break.

Konna ni akarui sekai he Kimi ga watashi wo tsurete yuku Mabushisa ni mada tachitsubumu Senaka wo sotto dakishimeru

You take me to a world as bright as this I am still cowering from the radiance You gently hug my back

Whole section because... I can't figure out who the last line relates to. I can't (with my totally untrained nihongo skills) pick out who is holding onto who here.

Shinjiru koto no hakanasa wo Kimi ga hikari ni kaete yuku

You turn the fragileness of the things I believe in into light

I know the second line - its repeated after all - but the first, there are also all sorts of wierdass translations involving transcience and whatnot which none seem to make good sense.
Dictionary-fu however gives me stuff like (not exact, this was awhile ago): to believe in, fleeting, words.

Surely this line relates to Kokutou's totally unintended confession on that last sunset at school. The words that gave her hope and tipped her over the edge.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Any ideas on making "regretting the darkness" sound better?

Lamenting the darkness? Repenting for the darkness?

Given what we know, shouldn't this be about Shiki (Singer's POV) and Kokutou being the one to have at her regardless - thus making her break.

Makes sense to me...

Whole section because... I can't figure out who the last line relates to. I can't (with my totally untrained nihongo skills) pick out who is holding onto who here.

And therein comes the Japanese ambiguity that is doubly worse in music: there might not even be a who-is-holding who-is-receiving implicit in the statement, like Koto mentioned earlier.

Even if there is a clear speaker, though, I kind of like that line being ambiguous. One of the themes I kind of enjoy in KnK is that both characters are showing each other different worlds that can frighten them, that Mikiya is shown the supernatural and Shiki is shown the mundane. Anyway, that's just me.

[mewarmo990]

Fate/hollow atarxia question.

This line has a Japanese pun using ruby text that doesn't really work out in English. To all fans, not just Japanese speakers - how do you want me to handle this?

Context: Illya is talking about how she learned to swim on her own.

Original:

「そうよ。わたしは[ruby text=\"ロー \"]人[ruby text=レライ]魚だもの。泳ぎぐらい、水の方が教えてくれるわ」[lr]

Literal:

That's right. I am a mermaid (ruby text: Lorelei she means puppet/homunculus), after all. The water itself teaches me things like swimming.

The pun here is that "puppet" and "mermaid (fish person)" are both pronounced similarly (ningyo, ningyou) in Japanese. Never mind that it says Lorelei in the ruby, she's obviously referring to her artificial origins.

Lorelei from the classic German folk poem Die Lorelei was a siren that lured sailors to their death.

Right now, I will use "mermaid" with "puppet" in the ruby. The alternative would be Lorelei. Thoughts?

edit: Now that I've thought about it, it's just Lorelei.

[Lianru]

Hmm...mermaid and puppet don't really make any distinct connections so it sounds kind of awkward if you use the two phrases... maybe if there were another word for puppet...
Well, it's probably the best solution anyways, so I think it's fine.

[mewarmo990]

Actually, my mistake. Now that I remembered what Die Lorelei (Illya sings it in the first game) is about it changes the translation a bit. Lorelei was a siren that would lure sailors to their death by crashing on the rocks. It's more related to the "mermaid" than "puppet", and there might not be a pun in the first place.

So I will change it to Lorelei. But chances are, most people won't get the reference.

[「黑風影」]

A need a little help on FHA translation.
There was a scene where Shirou was trying to hide his thoughts from Tohsaka's questioning.
Tohsaka response to that was 「首の後ろが怪しいと思うわ」
Which literally translate to => the back of your neck seems suspicious.
I was wondering if it just a japanese way of saying you are suspicious/fishy or you are hiding something, not actually refering to the neck.

Also, the following conversation after Shirou's denial or outburst.
Tohsaka says

「別にー。いまのは個人的な意見だから、衛宮くんはこれっぽっちも気にしないでいいわよー？あと、裏枠として 背中を押さえておくわ」

I have an idea on how to translate the first part but the あと、裏枠として背中を押さえておくわ part really confused me. Maybe I should leave them blank in the meanwhile.

[Lianru]

Yeah, if you don't know them you probably should leave them, lest it be all wrong and make people correct it.
Although, at least it would be better than Google Translate (No at all, and I do not wish from the heart).
For the neck thing, it's probably just a saying, but you should look at the context and take it from there.

I actually have a question too. In this scene with Sakura's diary, she uses 今日の兄 which translates to "today's brother". I know it's grammatically incorrect in English, and was going to translate it as "today's Nii-san" or something but there's still a difference between 兄 and 兄さん, so I wasn't sure what to do.
Although, that's just an arbitrary question, and has nothing to do with the scenes I'm actually translating, so don't answer it if you don't feel like it.

[ranmafan]

I have an idea on how to translate the first part but the あと、裏枠として背中を押さえておくわ part really confused me. Maybe I should leave them blank in the meanwhile.

I would highly recommend translating the beginning of the scene first...

I'm not sure about 裏枠, but it seems she's saying that Shirou, as a Master, ought to find out what Saber's 逆鱗 is. Thus, as his teacher/adviser/"person behind the curtain", she wants to push him in the right direction. Something to that effect.

Also, 逆鱗: this is one case where a J-J dictionary is much more useful (though Tohsaka explains it, too).

[ranmafan]

I actually have a question too. In this scene with Sakura's diary, she uses 今日の兄 which translates to "today's brother". I know it's grammatically incorrect in English, and was going to translate it as "today's Nii-san" or something but there's still a difference between 兄 and 兄さん, so I wasn't sure what to do.

Hehe, I think it's actually rather important here, seeing as she gets progressively more annoyed and less respectful

I might even say something like "Today, this older brother of mine..."

[Kotonoha]

Hehe, I think it's actually rather important here, seeing as she gets progressively more annoyed and less respectful

I might even say something like "Today, this older brother of mine..."

I think it's more like she's going kind of nuts and getting more fixated on Shinji (and Zouken to a lesser extent), and "today's events" is turning into "today's brother" because she's not even caring about the day's events anymore.

Not that I had anything to do with that scene or anything ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[mewarmo990]

I actually have an idea for that diary scene that would keep the style consistent in the "Today..." intro.

Start it with "Dear Diary," for the initial entries because that's how a lot of people normally begin their diary entries.

Then when she starts getting pissed off to the point that the intro changes, change it to "Dear Brother" and "Dear Grandfather". You might also try the following entries in second person. It would sound even more pointed and ominous.

e.g.:

　今日の兄。[lr]　
わたしのハンバーグを食べる。許せない。[lr]

Dear Brother,

You ate my steak. Unforgivable.

　今日の兄。[lr]
　帰宅時間が二分遅れる。次はないと思う。

Dear Brother,

You came home two minutes late today. I'm sure it won't happen again.

Honestly, it's a stylistic choice and I won't force you either way, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.