Translationborne 84: Lady Maria and the Living Failures

[@arukimania]

Some additional thoughts/clarifications: 1. Something that comes up a few times in the background of this episode that I think is worth acknowledging is the way the translators have carefully decided when to use Maria’s title and when not to. As we’ve seen, they’re not afraid to deviate from the Japanese in terms of when to use or not use the honorific, but the handful of times they do drop the “Lady” from “Lady Maria” I think are telling. On the balcony key, after opening with a reference to Maria’s full title, the line that describes her wish for Adeline’s using the balcony to find peace only references her name. This helps underline the personal nature of this interaction. That sense of separating the individual from the title can also be seen in more extreme form in some of Simon’s dialog. When he tells the player character to, “Climb the Astral Clocktower, and kill Maria,” the Japanese uses her boss name, “時計塔のマリア” where the official translation uses neither. I really like this touch, because it emphasizes how Simon isn’t just asking the player character to go kill some legend, he’s subtly undermining her power and asserting her personhood by refusing to either call her by her title or acknowledge her as the person in charge of the clocktower. The other place we can see Maria being referred to exclusively by her name in English comes on her set of attire, which we’ve yet to get ahold of in the game but that details some of her history. As such, it only makes sense to refrain from using a title that she hadn’t earned at that point. I thought about including this information both back in Translationborne 78 and in this episode, but ended up prioritizing other information each time. Now that I’m doing these pinned comments, though, I felt I should at least acknowledge my appreciation of the translators’ consideration here. 2. While in hindsight I feel like I made it sound like the Japanese subtitles for Maria’s lines may have been changed even though the English voices weren’t, there’s one aspect of the Japanese that makes me think this may not have been the case. The thing is, the phrasing of the final Japanese line is a little weird. In fact, I very nearly misread it thanks to what language I expected to see, which would be this: JP: …愚かな好奇を、忘れるよう*に*ね EN: …*So that* you will forget your foolish curiosity. Instead, as I put in the episode, it’s phrased: JP: …愚かな好奇を、忘れるよう*な*ね EN: …*One that* will make you forget your foolish curiosity. The use of “な” (na) makes it clear the final line is being used to modify a noun, though the noun it’s modifying is actually found in the preceding line - the horrifying death that Maria says is necessary. Again, though I’m not a native Japanese speaker, I find that reference back to the noun in the previous line to be an unusual bit of phrasing, and it makes me think of some of the arguments I’ve heard for the English-language writing sometimes influencing the way the Japanese is put together. Consider how in English, the final line reads as an extension of what Maria says “an honest death” will do for the player character: Only an honest death will cure you now. Liberate you, from your wild curiosity. Though it’s written out as its own sentence, that last line is clearly meant as a continuation of the first, and it ties back to the effects of “an honest death”. I found this too speculative to actually include in the episode, but thought it was worth exploring the possibility here, since I think if there’s anywhere the English may have an impact on the wording of the Japanese, it would be in the dialog where (as I say in the episode) it seems to have occupied a position of priority.

[@Scotsword]

Excellent work Aruk!

[@RwnEsper]

This series is clearly a labor of love, and I thank you for keeping it going. 🎉

[@arukimania]

Thanks for leaving a comment to show your appreciation!

[@LastProtagonist]

Great episode and your comments about Richard Gatling were poignant as well

[@arukimania]

Glad to hear you enjoyed this one!

[@Mort-lf3gx]

watched this series so much that the word translation doesn't sound real anymore

[@arukimania]

I appreciate your dedication to this series to the point of semantic satiation😄

[@lhomepereta6425]

So if she is never stated as the caretaker in japanese, does it mean that is just an assumption from the translators? It makes sense but for what we know she could have been in charge of the experiments or actually act as a nurse for the patiens or anything else.

[@arukimania]

It's hard to say what was or wasn't "just" an assumption from the translators, since it's likely they had some access to the dev team to ask questions about this. They may well have gotten confirmation before using the word "caretaker". If you were playing the game in Japanese, though, it's safe to say you'd have a bit more room to speculate about the specific relationship between Maria and the patients.