[ SECRET POST #3773 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3773 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



__________________________________________________



02. [repeat]


__________________________________________________



03.
[Notorious, Megan and Julia]


__________________________________________________



04.
[David Tennant in Broadchurch]


__________________________________________________



05.
[Paul Hollywood and Noel Fielding, Great British Bake Off]


__________________________________________________



06.
[The Americans]


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________


09.


__________________________________________________


10.










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 22 secrets from Secret Submission Post #540.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Japanese and English are different enough, grammatically speaking, that translations don't work if you try to write them more or less word for word. So the appropriate way to go is generally to write the spirit of the line, and not the direct translation. This is, of course, open to interpretation - so a fansubber's translation won't be the same as the translation for a dub script.

My appreciation of the choice of words in the Japanese dialogue is of the Japanese words; again, there's a cultural lens there, and there are some details that I'm probably not getting. That having been said, how someone speaks can tell a viewer a lot about a character, and it can be easier to convey a greater amount of subtlety in this regard in Japanese than in English.

ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

to write the spirit of the line, and not the direct translation
Ah, that's a bit of a shame. I get it though.

how someone speaks can tell a viewer a lot about a character, and it can be easier to convey a greater amount of subtlety in this regard in Japanese than in English
Oh, for sure. As an example, my understanding of 'sayonara' is it's more a final, absolute farewell rather than 'bye, friend.'

Re: ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, in the one sense it's a shame, but if you try, you basically get word salad. I'm not even kidding.

A couple of examples:
"Daigo maketerannai ne!" -- in the context of a fight, in which the speaker is talking about an ally. The direct word for word translation is "Can't lose [to] Daigo!" The gist of it comes across (he doesn't want his friend to kick more ass than he does), but it's a clumsy way of saying it. The fansubber chose to translate the line as "We can't let Daigo outdo us." I still think this is clunky, but it's closer to the intended meaning. My choice in English would have been "Come on, Daigo can't have all the fun!"

Another line was "Ore wa kore kara da!", also in the context of a fight, spoken to an opponent. Which, as word for word as I can get it, is "I'm from now on!" Absolutely no sense in English; this is not a natural pattern of speech. The fansubber chose "I'm just getting started," which I liked. "Wait 'til I get going" would have worked, too, but neither of these are a word for word.

I mean, this isn't every line; there are some that go fairly well more or less word for word once you put the damn subject back in. But it happens more often than not.

Re: Sayonara - yeah, that's more formal. I'm talking more about how characters tend to conjugate verbs, though, and their choice of pronoun, and whether or not they affix honorifics to others' names and which honorifics they choose, etc. There's plain speech and polite speech and humble speech and formal speech and verbal tics that go with both plain and polite speech that also add a sense of character.

"Sasuga hitotsu getto da ze" is another line - use of the slangy loan word "getto" (get) as opposed to "te ni haireru" (actual Japanese) suggests informality before you get to ending the sentence with "da ze", which suggests that the person speaking is energetic and enthusiastic and also is being as informal as possible, which last also has implications for the characters relationship with the people to whom he's talking (very close). (The sentence, basically, means "Sweet, we can get [another] one!")

Re: ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Not NAYRT, but.. I'm honestly bookmarking this.

You put exactly what I've always tried to explain to people perfectly. Translating Japanese to English is not an exact science, and relies on all sorts of subtleties in word usage, conjugation, tone, and body language. It's not as simple as neko = cat.

Re: ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Late reply but thank you. :D I think language is fascinating, and going from one language to another is almost never simple. (I also have a lot of thoughts on how language reflects and shapes culture, none of which I'm sure are original but that's okay).