I could take the cheap route and list words for objects that simply don't exist in English speaking countries (i.e. food, furniture, clothing), but I will make it more challenging for myself, and do concepts rather than objects. First things that come to mind:
切なさ
тоска
仲間
осязать
散る
пляс
同期
осоловев ший
木漏れ日
косноязы чие
元気
осадок (as in ложечки нашлись, но осадок остался)
置く (when following another verb)
торчать

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Heartrending sickness

Hiraeth

Brother(s) (Add "Sister(s)" if you want to be PC about it)

Somesthesis

To desolate

Balter

Synchronous

"Perfection" is the only thing I can find, but that only happened after I removed the space.

"Sheaf", "sunburst", "crepuscular rays", "dappled sunlight", "Tyndall Effect", unless you're looking for a more metaphorical way of saying it.

"Tongue- tie", "confused articulation'', and/or "inarticulate speech", the only thing I can find is that it is a medical condition and it has some relation to Russian literature.


Isn't that usually presented as a greeting the equivalent of "(Are you) well?"

"Residue", "filth", "deposit", although "tainted" seems like a more appropriate way to put it if I'm understanding the phrase correctly.

The indication of an action present before another action?

"Getting high"?

If I'm understanding things correctly, these are the closest equivalents that I can find. If I missed the mark completely, please point it out because I'd like to know as well.

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Well, you wanted examples, and I gave them to you, but I didn't expect you to try to translate them without any context. In translation, context is key. Without context, you might as well simply look them up in the dictionary and dump their whole definition here.

If you really want to go through this, start with this one. Here's the usage of 同期 and 散る in context that I maintain is impossible to translate both 100% accurately and naturally. This is a verse from a Japanese song that contains these:

貴様と俺とは同 期の桜
同じ兵学校の庭 に咲く
咲いた花なら散 るのは覚悟
見事散りましょ 国のため

There is actually a translation of this on the internet -- it's in the description to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnFS7tTrjT8 However, it completely eliminates the meaning of 同期 and its handling of 散る doesn't paint the right image at all. Can you do any better? Think about the image of 桜が散る, what it looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgZ7I_1WX8Q

Here's a very similar usage of 散る: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL9zZFuaHIc

薔薇は薔薇は気 高く咲いて、薔 薇は薔薇は美し く散る。

On animelyrics.com, the translation for this line is "The rose, the rose blooms nobly. The rose, the rose perishes beautifully." The problem with it is that anyone can perish, but 散る is what flowers do, not just anyone.

Edit: also, I don't know why the forum software here inserts random spaces in non-Latin text. Both in this post and the previous one.

Last edited by cmertb at 7:59 am, May 11 2018

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I don't kneo, but let's see what's there with my inexperience in the language.
The "official" translation for that first couplet is:
You and I are two cherry blossoms.
We bloom in the shadow of a pile of sand bags.
Since we are flowers, we are doomed to fall.
Let us fall magnificently for the country.
Running the couplet through Bing translator, this is the result:
The cherry blossoms in sync with you and Me
Bloom in the same military school garden
Ready to scatter if blooming flowers
For the country let's get dissipated brilliantly
Running the couplet through Google translator, this is the result:
You and I are cherry blossoms of the same period
Bloom in the garden of the same soldier school
If you are a flower blooming, you are prepared to scatter
For a country to be splendidly splendid
[u]Now, here is a translation of the French translation[/u] of the song's couplet:
You and me, my comrade.
Are the flowers of a cherry tree
Springing from the same tree
of the Cadet School
We will fall into the field of honor
As the flowers fall
But we will die with passion
For the Glory of Japan

Best alteration I can think of is change the entire thing to:
You and I are cherry blossoms of the same class
We bloom in the same garden of the military school
As you are a blooming flower, be prepared to wilt
And be scattered in the benefit of the country



In the context of that sentence, replacing "perishes" with "wilts" or "withers" would solve the problem.

Last edited by Transdude1996 at 11:12 am, May 11 2018

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Well, it's a good attempt for someone who doesn't know the language, but the accuracy simply isn't there.

This is the catch here, "wilt" is used for flowers dying in English, while 散る is used in Japanese, but the images they portray are the exact opposites of each other. 散る, as the video illustrates, is to scatter petals to the wind, it is a moment of unparalleled beauty, and metaphorically it signifies a glorious and noble death. A hero blooms like a flower, and dies as beautifully in a burst of exquisite color. You can see this symbolism in the Rose of Versailles opening several times, where rose petals are being scattered. Wilting, on the other hand, is a slow, possibly agonizing, process of fading away. There isn't anything even remotely resembling glory in it. Honestly, portraying kamikaze pilots or Lady Oscar as simply wilting away would be a terrible injustice to these two stories.

The problem with 同期 interpreted as "same class" (which is one of its meanings) is that when the story in later verses switches from 同じ兵学校 to 同じ航空隊, "class" stops working -- it becomes "same rank". 同期 has more nuances than that. For example, here's normal workplace usage of this term: https://kissasian.es/Drama/Hanzawa-Naoki/Episode-1?id=9881 (watch the dialogue at 0:25:34). How many times Ueto Aya repeats 直樹と同期の近 藤さん. The translator did an admirable job in this context, and I would use "peer" as well here, but specifically when 同期 surpasses either workplace or school, as in 同期の桜, things start being difficult. Even the term "peer" itself, as used in the workplace, doesn't specifically imply what it implies in Japanese -- that they were hired in the same batch of new recruits, as is typical with large Japanese corporations. In English, it merely implies that they're at the same level in the corporate hierarchy. In order to take this into account, the translator changed the translation of the term to more of an explanation the first time it was mentioned, but it also slightly compromised the repetitiveness that is key to this dialogue. This is also an unavoidable loss of accuracy for the sake of natural wording and comprehensibility.

Anyway, I'm off to the airport now. We can resume the investigation of the other examples I listed when I return in a week.

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Yeah, I'm definitely aware. I was just saying... for myself, I prefer something that straddles the line.

I've accepted certain things, though... such as honorifics... since they give you a bit more insight into the context of a line and whatnot, and they typically don't confuse English-readers who are unfamiliar with them since it can be seen as just a part of a person's name.

Some translators take things too far in that direction, though... not translating certain terminology and instead leaving a needless translator's note.
Or when translators typeset the Japanese SFX literally (For example: translating 「ひ～」as "hiiiii" instead of "heee!" or "eeee!"). English speakers will just pronounce "hiiii" like the word "hi" (a.k.a. "hello"). The only people who will read that properly are likely the ones who are able to read the hiragana and katakana in the first place, so what's the point?!
That's just a few examples of some lame crap done specifically for otaku. This kind of thing only serves to further alienate scanlation (and perhaps even manga) from having mass appeal in the west... since the average reader wouldn't understand parts of it and would likely just shy away from it after giving it a try.

If you ask me, Scanlation is at it's best when it's promoting the work for an English-speaking audience... but it seems like some scanlators just want to make an English-language version for people who can speak Japanese... which makes no sense at all to me.

At some point, if translators are so in love with the Japanese language, why not just keep everything in Romaji instead of English? Right?

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Jammin' Scans

::End of Transmission::

Oh you tempt me so

But actually, this is the exact issue. Translators are in fact in love with Japanese, and since there is no external quality control in scanlation, this is what you get. To a fan translator, this translation style is both easier and prettier.

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Manga already is mainstream and has "mass appeal" in the West. Attack on Titan is selling more comics than Star Wars, Kim Kardashian is sending out posts about DARLING in the FRANXX, Netflix is making a live-action adaptation of Sword Art Online (Even though their Death Note movie is regarded as a complete joke), J.J. Abrams has announced that he'll be making a live-action adaptation of Your Note, and let's not forget about how Western animation studios have been copying the Japanese art style for over a decade with shows like Teen Titans, Code Lyoko, Avatar, and Wakfu. I don't know how much more you can do to be regarded as having "mass appeal".

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I´ll easily agree that some manga/anime, DBZ clearing standing out since the early 00s, have total mass appeal outside of Japan, but not the art-form as a whole. Titan for example isn´t quite outselling the main Star Wars comic, as you need to count 6 issues (1 TPB) as a whole to reach a fair comparison to 1 volume of Titans. The current issues now sell 55k: http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2018/2018-03.ht ml
Multiply that number by 6 and you have about the same figure Titan currently sells. Getting all 6 issues also costs more that buying 1 volume of a mass market manga and so on. The once astronomic Star Wars reboot number have been on a steady decline for at least a year too. That´s how that... less than ideal article got it´s numbers. The author doesn´t even know the definition of independent comic, which The Walking Dead is due to all Image books being independently owned. Lol.

Asian properties have been optioned for US productions for decades too, so lets maybe wait till these start steadily making money. We got a rare watchable one with Death Note 2017, yet the deafening silence about a sequel doesn´t speak for it´s success. At least it´s not GitS 2017, as that debacle was one of the biggest box-office bombs in film history. All that perceived brand recognition and a decade+ in development hell, yet no one showed up.
That many of the anime copy cats you threw shade on had more success than the real deal, even Disney´s The Lion King applies, shows that the imitations had an easier time reaching domestic audiences. The same can be said about the Hollywood films of let´s say Jackie Chan. His legacy in the US will be the homegrown Rush Hour and not Police Story 1 .

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Chinese food vs Chinese food sold in American restaurants
mainstream is the worst

And, then official companies pull this crap: Crunchyroll changed a lot of the music and re-edited the fight scenes in their release of To Be Heroine. IT IS VERY MUCH ENCOURAGED THAT YOU WATCH THE CHINESE RELEASE IF INTERESTED IN WATCHING THIS SERIES!!!

Also, to the group that is translating Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo Dorei Majutsu, you have absolutely no reason to be involved with scanlations, and should outright quit if you're going to be unprofessional and pull stuff like this.

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That is very easy to fix. Just take their translations and re-ts them over uncensored raws. Release.

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