Help Short & Quick Translation Request Thread [Thread for members with little/no JP/C/K knowledge. OP for

[mikkih]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

Well, I'm reading through a bleach raw at a snails pace because of all the unusual ways of writing japanese they use, so I'll probably find a better raw to learn japanese with. Before I drop it, there is one page that I keep gleaning a basic meaning, but cannot accurately translate it into english.
It's the first "proverb" sheet that many translations seem to think it means "Because we are amorphous, fear us."
Here's the picture:

Spoiler

And my translation:
我等は姿無きが故にそれを畏れ。
(We(About)figure none)therefore it(object) fear
We lack a shape, so fear us.

I keep thinking that perhaps 姿無 means invisible, or no visible shape, which I think would make it turn into:
"We fear what we cannot see", which is almost alike to a western proverb, "We fear what we don't understand."

Anyways, I will be searching for a better manga raw to start with than bleach, but I'd at least like to know what that actually translates into. And please understand that I am attempting to translate the meaning into english, not the words.

This is how I see it.

Without context, there are 2 ways to translate. Normally, humans are main characters, so (2) would be the correct one.

(1) A shapeless/invisible monster is talking -->
Literal TL: We (monsters) do not have shapes/are invisible therefore we fear it. (This ’it’ can be whatever as swords, mirrors, sun light and shadow or just to be amorphous eternally) ---> Because we are amorphous, we fear it. <not us>

(2) A human is talking -->
Literal TL: We (humans) fear it since it does not have a figure./ --> We fear what we can't see. <Just like what you wrote.>

 

[cmertb]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

Wow, this is troublesome, I would've interpreted this line like the original tler did. The thing is, I'm used to seeing this verb form as imperative, so それを畏れ begs to be translated as "fear that". For "we fear it", I'd expect "それを畏れている". Is there a pattern here I need to pay attention to so I don't make this mistake in similar sentences?

 

[mikkih]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

Wow, this is troublesome, I would've interpreted this line like the original tler did. The thing is, I'm used to seeing this verb form as imperative, so それを畏れ begs to be translated as "fear that". For "we fear it", I'd expect "それを畏れている". Is there a pattern here I need to pay attention to so I don't make this mistake in similar sentences?

　畏れ is a noun. 畏れる is something like.... to fear and respect humbly. Do you see 畏れ in an imperative form? 畏れよ (or 畏れろ) would be imperative and the txt does not seem to be a complete sentence to me.

 

[Aarowaim]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

Thank you for clarifying that

And thank you for correcting my mistake in quotation; I should have double-checked my sources.
By the way, I have noticed that a lot of japanese nouns translate into english verbs, it's kind of unusual, but it may be a sign that the japanese see emotions and thoughts more as an object than a way of thinking. The more japanese I learn, the more I see that the japanese have interesting ways of using words to explain things.

I link the ga particle with the wo particle. This is because it's *seems* to be alike to our english idea of subject verb object, where the subject is what is doing the action (the ga particle's word), so a lack of shape was the subject. The object (the wo particle's word) recieves the action, and then fear, being both a verb and a noun (e.g, nothing to fear, but fear itself) would be the verb. That gave me the translation of "About us: no shape, therefore (it) fear."

When I consolidated that into one proper english sentence I got "We (fear what has no shape)", which can be translated into "We fear what we can't see." That's pretty much how I got the translation if you're wondering.
Of course, I'm by no means a professional translator, so I only did that in a way that seemed to work.

Thanks once again for the advice, as it will help me in terms of grammar later on.

 

[mikkih]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

　畏れ is a noun. 畏れる is something like.... to fear and respect humbly. Do you see 畏れ in an imperative form? 畏れよ (or 畏れろ) would be imperative and the txt does not seem to be a complete sentence to me.

By the way, I have noticed that a lot of japanese nouns translate into english verbs

I think my comment was very, very misleading. I didn't even need to toss it in. Sorry to confuse you. The 畏れ in that sentence is actually a verb, ending the way that other phrase/main part of the sentence would follow. Example: 我々は姿なき故にそれを畏れ(Because xxxxx)、それを排除しようとする(we try to eliminate)。 In a colloquial form, the 畏れ becomes 畏れて in this sentence. That's what I meant by "the txt does not seem to be a complete sentence to me."

 

[Aarowaim]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

Ah, I understand now. The author must have excerpted it and possibly forgot to change it into a complete sentence. Either way, I see what you mean now. *goes back to making grammar flashcards based off of the japanese books I have*

 

[cmertb]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

Oh, I just realized where I went wrong. 畏れる is an ichidan verb, and I tried to stick a godan 命令形 on it. That's what you get with no formal education in a language. T_T

 

[natural-log]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

How would you translate "在り、成り、そして在る"? Is "Exist, Become, And To Exist" good enough?
It's a title of a book btw. But, I have yet to know the full context since there's only the first part of the book available AFAIK.
Thx in advance.

 

[mikkih]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

How would you translate "在り、成り、そして在る"? Is "Exist, Become, And To Exist" good enough?
It's a title of a book btw. But, I have yet to know the full context since there's only the first part of the book available AFAIK.
Thx in advance.

The concept of being and becoming of YHWH may be used in the title, and if so, you may want to check out the set phrases or commonly used wordings related to the concept. I hate to distort the real meaning and author's intention, so I will not comment on this with so little knowledge on the subject.

 

[natural-log]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

The concept of being and becoming of YHWH may be used in the title, and if so, you may want to check out the set phrases or commonly used wordings related to the concept. I hate to distort the real meaning and author's intention, so I will not comment on this with so little knowledge on the subject.

Hmmm, being and becoming of YHWH, that certainly is a possibility... Just earlier, I found out that the preview for the middle part just came out, so it might be a while until I fully understand the context. For the time being, I guess the title translation might change as I go on or just leave it be until I get the idea.
Anyway, thank you very much, and I'm sorry for the vague request.

 

[Aarowaim]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

exist could translate into "Be", therefore, it is possible that it is, "be, become, and exist" or "be, become, and live".
>>>>>>>>>>>>> I do not claim to know. (I only know japanese grammar and a few words/kanji and need a dictionary otherwise)
It merely seems to be a good translation from what you posted (with my lack of knowledge on the theme of the story).
My recommendation is similar to mikkih's, read through the book and find out The Meaning of it. Indeed, look for any sayings that may be similar.

Remember, you are not trying to transcribe into english, you are trying to convert JP>Meaning>EN, and if possible, maintaining the brevity/connotation of the title. The hard part is that it's the title that's being translated. The title is often the most meaningful part of a story, as it not only identifies the story, but hints at the theme intended by the author.

If it will help you any, try translating/reading the story once before you try translating the title, then you have a better idea of the intended meaning, and therefore how to translate the title.

*If only we could look up things by meaning, or even better, understand meaning rather than words*

 

[WilliamK]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

http://oi40.tinypic.com/2gydf8x.jpg

Realizing there was missing extra pages, I'd like to request for a translation on the very last two lines and the text on the right of the man (Yarai)'s head.

Edit: And all the text from right to left on this page.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/gf04yw085.jpg/


Any help would be much appreciated and credit will be given!!

 

[Aarowaim]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

The first one looks like: さみーと 調子悪い.　Note that the い is written in katakana for some reason, also, the 子 seems to be malformed(curvy) in the picture. From referring to my dictionaries and looking closely at all the combinations possible, I came up with "This is the look he gives if he's in a bad mood." (悪い can mean bad as in not good, or it can mean hateful or evil, which are still translated to bad in english, but a different meaning of bad).

Don't worry about credit, as I am still a noob at translating. If a more experienced translator offers their insight, I would recommend theirs over mine. I was just putting it into text so it's easier to work with and then offering a possible translation (with my currently mediocre vocabulary/informal grammatical knowledge).

I will try to do the second one (or at least get it into text to make it easier to use).

EDIT: I am a little uncertain of my translation, as it seems that さみー　is a verb conjugation that means "make look". The most confusing part is the long vowel indicator there, as the conjugation's position might be reasonable if the と means "if"(one of the possible meanings of the particle) in this case.

Anyways, I am interested in hearing what it is from a more experienced translator, as it seems to be something I can learn a bit of informal japanese from.


For any experienced translators, I have a fill-in-the-blanks transcription so that it is much easier for you to translate the second page ^,^:

Spoiler

ミ...ミイ(ブ or フ)こら　オジさんと　(two kanji that either have furigana or are three radicals)する(, or っ) て 詒は..?

せえ～ん(ふ or ぶ)　ウン(character seems to be speaking in a musical voice that extends certain words for emphasis)　*びー*(stuck out tongue noise)

ええええ　なんでそんな　ウ(ン or ソ)つ-くん です(possibly malformed う)ー!? (extended desu)

うっ　さい　わねー

私だ(っ or、)て (possibly 序)(extremely malformed ち or ぢ) (っ or、)たん(possibly だ)(possibly, but unlikely is 石)(probably ら)!

スカーフの(illegible kanji) だ(っ or、)て　私の　だし!

じゃあ(possibly 仏)石(kanji I can't discern)と チス したのは... *んう*

*ぶっちゅー*

Notes: anything enclosed in * is a sound effect. anything enclosed in () is a character. The comment about how she is speaking is not a character.

transcription without comments/brackets:

ミ...ミイ_こら　オジさんと　_ _する_ て 詒は..?

せえ～ん_　ウン　*びー*

ええええ　なんでそんな　ウ(ン or ソ)つ-くん ですうー!?

うっ　さい　わねー

私だ_て _ _ _たん_ _ _!

スカーフの_ だ_て　私の　だし!

じゃあ_石_と チス したのは... *んう*

*ぶっちゅー*
Note: _ = a character I am uncertain enough of to not replace with a specific character

EDIT2: In response to next post. Thanks for clarifying that. I do recall getting the word cold at some point in my search, but I didn't pay any attention to it. As I thought, I learnt a little bit about informal japanese ^.^

 

[cmertb]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

Eh, I don't want to deal with the ton of chicken scrawl in the 2nd one right now, but the first one is "I feel bad when it's cold", or "The cold makes me feel bad".
さみー slurred pronunciation of 寒い
と conditional statement
調子悪ィ slurred informal pronunciation of 調子が悪い = to feel sick, indisposed, in bad shape, etc

 

[mikkih]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

調子悪ィ slurred informal pronunciation of 調子が悪い

調子が悪い：ちょうしがわるい
調子悪ィ：ちょうしわりぃ <--- colloquial

 

[lynxian]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

I've been trying my best to figure these out on my own, but I'm completely stumped. Help would be greatly appreciated.

いつも煮つまった顔してるからリフレッシュさせてみようと思ったけど / こうも極端に出るとはね
For the first part, I have "Since you always have such a hard-boiled expression, I thought I would force you through a refresher" but the second part makes no sense to me. I'm assuming there's an implied noun/verb that I'm not picking up on as a non-native speaker? 煮つまった also gave me trouble - is it different from 煮詰まった?

いや 普段もやさしいといえばやさしいよ?!
I thought it might be something like the phrase "usually kindness speaks for itself" but I'm not sure.

 

[mikkih]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

いつも煮つまった顔してるからリフレッシュさせてみようと思ったけど / こうも極端に出るとはね
This is NOT a translation, but this is how the story seems to flow.
He always looks getting so close to a conclusion or something, so I decided to help him out and tried to refresh his mind, but I was not expecting that he would turn around and do things like that.

With this in mind, hope you can translate the txt.

* 煮詰まった＝煮つまった
煮詰まる（につまる：to get close to a goal/ conclusion/ final results e.t.c.). The phrase is sometimes misused for 行き詰まる（ゆきづまる: to come to a deadlock).

いや 普段もやさしいといえばやさしいよ?!
In a way, he is usually nice as well.
Well, I guess you could say .....

 

[natural-log]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

A quick question?

The context:
Pandemonium is like a government building, and the one who says these lines is Alice, Shinki's daughter.
Alice was accompanying her friend at some restaurant and then she turned her attention towards the
Pandemonium and said these lines.

よく見えるでしょう

――パンデモニウム

あそこで…
神綺様はこの広大な魔界を統治しているのよ
常に令を下して
常に報告を受けて
魔界の維持と発展のために力を注ぎ続ける

私はその傍にいるの
ずっと
…ずっとね

I translated "私はその傍にいるの" as "And I am there by that side"
Am I doing it right?

 

[Kasu]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

I'd rather go with "his side" instead of "that side". It seems she's referring to Shinki.

 

[saladesu]

Re: Short & Quick Translation Request Thread

I agree with Kasu. By その, I believe Alice is referring to "that Shinki" whom she had been describing prior to that sentence. But it would sound unnatural to lay it out so explicitly by translating word-for-word, so "his side" is good enough.

私はその傍にいるの => 私はその神綺様の傍にいるの