Sinnesspiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sinnesspiel) wrote2013-10-23 11:46 am
sinnesspiel) wrote2013-10-23 11:46 am
Entry tags:
Shiki Novel Translations 7.1
1
"Hey, why do we light a fire?" Katou Yuusuke asked his grandmother, who was bent over the road beside their house. It was already starting to get dark out. Along the road that followed the mountain stream, he could see yellow lights dotting here and there. They were the lights of flames. His grandmother Yukie was leaning over the road just like the others from the neighborhood, lighting a pile of wood chips on the asphalt on fire. "We do this to welcome our ancestors. That's because today is Obon. They're all in the mountains, so without a sign like this, they might not come back."
"Our an-ses-tors?"
"Grandma's father and mother and their mothers and fathers, people like that."
Yuusuke's eyes widened a little. "Grandma had a father and mother, too?"
Yukie let out a light laugh. "Well, I must have! People don't come from trees, after all."
"From trees?"
"It means if there is a person, they must have certainly had a father and a mother. That's how everyone is born. I'm saying there are fathers and mothers all the way back."
"And those people, where are they?"
"In the mountains. They're allll dead, so they're in their graces in the mountains."
Yuusuke stiffened. "Dead people? They're coming back?"
"Yes. During Obon the lid comes off of Hell. Then they can return home," Yukie said, smiling at her grandson. "Yuu-chan's mother will be coming back, too."
She was a bright, cheerful daughter-in-law. She had a frank manner of speaking, one that could certainly frustrate Yukie, but looking back she could only think she had indeed been a fine wife. She didn't dislike the business nor was she afraid of work. She worked at double Yukie's pace, swift in all she did, and while she did make mistakes for that, it was hard to hold it against her. The girl was the very picture of health; it was unthinkable that she would go first. She was burly, with thick arms. When those arms at some point became smaller, when Yukie had said to her, have you been losing weight, she smiled proudly. It's nothing to be happy about, you're too thin---by the time she had thought that, it was already too late.
Yukie looked on as Yuusuke stared into the welcoming fire. Yuusuke had started primary school. He was smaller than the others but he was a healthy boy.
(Come back, have a look at him for yourself...)
Her son who had only just begun to walk after her at last back then was now already this big.
Yuusuke compared the welcoming fire to those surrounding. Maybe he was looking for his mother in the darkness. Thinking such with compassion, she gave a lonely smile only for Yuusuke to suddenly rush over to the water bucket.
"Grandma, let's put them out!"
"---Yuusuke!" Shocked, wondering what he was saying, she stopped his hands on the bucket.
"Let's put them out! Please!"
"If we put the fire out, your mom won't come back, will she?"
"But!" Yuusuke cried at Yukie when his breath stopped. Over his grandmother's shoulder, as she bent over the small fire, in the darkness, he saw a white shadow.
(If we don't put out the fire....)
It swayed and grew bit by bit. Before he could grip the handle of the bucket, it grew bigger still. It was across the road, coming closer to the open air flames. Yuusuke hid behind his grandmother, clinging to her. The faded handle of the bucket warped in Yuusuke's hand.
--When the dead return, that's a ghost.
Yuusuke was fixated on the shadow that was approaching. Sneaking footsteps approached, until finally that tall figure's feet stepped into the light of the fire.
(Oni are coming down from the mountains.)
Yuusuke shrunk behind his grandmother's back, still unable to take his eyes from the approaching shadow, watching it pass by from behind that back.
White clothing, white pants, a white face atop the slender figure.
"....Good evening." It said, with a smile. Yuusuke saw it as a demonic smile. Clinging to his grandmother's clothing, he took a step backwards but his grandmother showed no signs of fleeing, looking up and then bowing her head.
"Good evening," said Yukie, turning back to face Yuusuke. "Yuusuke, where's your 'good evening'?"
Yuusuke, still looking up at the man, shook his head.
"Now be polite and give a proper greeting," Yukie chided, standing up. She pulled Yuusuke forward, with a light nod to the man.
"It's a good Bon night, isn't it."
It is, the man smiled. Yukie examined the figure. He was in about his mid-forties, probably? He was slender, but still a man whose body line suggested dignity, in a suit that flattered his form. It may have been linen, and it was well tailored. His was an unfamiliar face but she knew who he was right away. He had no necktie but his clothing was color coordinated, adorned in leather shoes of a brown hue that went well with the linen suit. Of the villagers, there were none who would dress like this for walking the village at night. ---At least until now, there hadn't been.
"By chance, are you Kanemasa?" Yukie looked up at the Western mountain. "You are the good people who moved in there, aren't you?"
Yes, the man smiled with a light nod.
"Are you taking a walk?"
"I'd thought I'd seen open air fires about and recalled that it was Obon. I had completely forgotten," the man said, surveying his surroundings. Soon, his gaze returned down to Yukie. "I am Kirishiki Seishirou. It was a pleasure to meet you tonight."
"Oh my, likewise."
"Might this be your grandson?"
Seishirou looked at Yuusuke cowering behind Yukie as if he were leering over him. Yuusuke turned into her arm and tucked into her side as if to run from that gaze.
"Yuusuke, where are your manners?"
Good evening, a child's voice could just barely be heard to say, while he still refused to budge from Yukie's shadow.
"You'll have to excuse him. The child has a terrible fear of strangers."
Seishirou smiled. "No, that's simply how children are, I suppose."
"Do you have children, Kirishiki-san?"
"I do have a daughter who has turned thirteen. My daughter as well is shy of strangers. ---Yuusuke-kun? A pleasure."
Being stared at by the man, Yuusuke all the more tightly gripped at Yukie's clothing. On that exceedingly white face, and beneath those slender eyebrows, the skin about and beneath his eyes made no motions of a smile, even while the corners of his thin lips rose. It was a bad type of smile, or at least Yuusuke thought so.
(It's because of the open fire.)
They did something as crazy as lighting fires to lead ghosts to the house.
(Even though if it comes down from the mountains, it's obviously an Oni...)
Thank you so much
(Anonymous) 2013-10-24 05:00 am (UTC)(link)no subject
no subject
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Maybe someone will draw fanart of the novel only scenes. That'd be pretty cool!
8D
(Anonymous) 2013-10-27 06:19 am (UTC)(link)no subject
no subject
Ooh! *raises hand* I volunteer as a tribute! Can I like, illustrate the subchapters? I would love to and it'd be like giving back in return for an awesome translation!
no subject
If you want to, go for it! That'd be cool to see!
Hello from school!
I would!! If possible I'd try to illustrate each subchapter - is there any thing in specific from past chapters you'd like to see drawn?
Studying hard?
The manga wasn't finished by the time the anime was and an anime script is usually done at the very least a month in advance of its airing date, so I assume they went to the novel for unfinished portions of the story. The pipeline bit was more novel based than manga based, but I'd have to check the airing/publishing dates of each chapter to presume the manga not being that far along yet was the reason. I know some of the seiyuu read the novel as they talked about it in interviews and on the radio show, but I'd presume some of the production staff did, too.
Seishin being all "...masaka," about the danger, only to grab a broom and go about checking the house in fear of wolves would be very amusing to see...
97% sure my teacher is an anime fan
HOW WRONG I WAS LOL.
It's that kind of rare show where it can make an otherwise epic moment totally monotonous by dragging it the hell out, like exhibit A: towards the end, they're running away form a bunch of titans and nobody knows what to do, so what do they do? THEY MAKE A WHOLE DAMN EPISODE ABOUT NOBODY KNOWING WHAT TO DO. I loved the horrorstruck feeling I got when I watched the tragic end of Eren's home life, but seeing a bunch of innocent people get nastily chomped on gets way old. that sounds horrible but it was so repetitive and they just had the scenes cut to people being killed, to people being confused, to Eren looking intense, THE WHOLE FRICKIN EPISODE. Shingeki no Kyoujin more like shingeki no SNAIL BECAUSE THAT IS THE PACE OF THAT ANIME!! But also I gotta commend it because while it was so boring I could cry, each episode had that little dash of awesome that made me want to tune in next time...and the time after that...and the time after that...until the series ended just like it began, with an action packed episode. So yeah. I didn't mean this to turn into a review of snk, but eh. I'd say it's good, but not as good as the hype makes you believe. Kind of like the new Kill la Kill.
Yeah, if I was a seiyuu I'd read the hell out of the book. I wish they had adapted it directly from the book...I'm really glad the ending was from the novel because I think it would have been a lot weaker if it were based off of the manga. I wonder how the characters would look if they didn't use the mangaka's designs...
Okay!! I'm deliberating between adapting the characters as they appear in the anime into my art style or making them look totally different. I don't think I'll make them look totally different, because it wouldn't be the same (duh). Seishin's clothes are going to be hard to get right. I'm glad you asked me to do that scene because I wanted to also, I have the exact picture in my head. It will be fabulous.
That should be interesting.
I ended up fond enough of the character designs as ridiculous as they are, or maybe it's more that I ended up fond enough of the characters to like even their designs. It seems in the novel he's not in monk robes 24/7 like he is in the anime; I wonder what, exactly, he wears when dressed casually? If the end of the manga is any indication of his sense of style, suddenly I'm understanding why people whisper about him like some kind of weirdo...
She had a Berserk character as an example on this powerpoint
The thing about the series is all the hype that comes with it and everyone who ever watched it ever is obsessed with this one character, Levi, and I'm just like...! HE'S NOT EVEN THAT RELEVANT! Plus his haircut is ugly.
Maybe it's for the best that he wears the same black robes all the time. So *that's* why he decided to go over to the Kirishikis; not because of Sunako, but because of Tatsumi. Finally, he met someone who understands his fashion sense.
Haha, your icon has Seishin looking like he's checking out his fresh mani. His face is like, "Dammit, I chipped my nail polish. AGAIN. I didn't drive all the way to Mizobe for nails that don't even last 48 hours, screw it all."
....An example of WHAT, exactly?
And, wanting to assure Muroi-san she understood him too, that it wasn't just Tatsumi, Sunako's clothing got a lot more ridiculous after hecame to Kanemasa, too.
An expy of Robin Goodfellow from Midsummer Nights Dream
The Kirishiki house is so big because it needs to have a runway inside it to show off the latest trends. With Yoshie as the announcer because she wears normal stuff...as does Dr. Ebuchi (do we see more of him in the novel? The anime featured him long enough for me to fanonically reject his existence)
I read that play but remember nothing beyond it being a 4-person orgy, and there was a goat.
This is why no one must peak inside. You might think it's because if any light gets in, they'll fry, but the truth is that it's a very exclusive fashion show. Ebuchi, Willy Wonka (forgot his real name) and Yoshio are a part of the cosplay division, you see; all of them dress weird, but actually *as* something, rather than just crazy. Though, the two times we see Yoshie out and about in town amongst villagers, she is dressed normally... And to answer your question about Ebuchi in the novels: ...I don't remember. Probably? A lot more side characters do in general.
You're close; the goat is a donkey but they literally call it an ass throughout the play
They don't want the purifying daylight to illuminate their undead souls because the clothes don't look good in natural light, causing all sorts of gross shadows. It's better to have shadows EVERYWHERE. Tatsumi is so addicted to shadows that he has to wear shades at night to add shadows to the shadows...Shadowception.
If she thinks Berserk when she thinks plays with asses, she might be a bara fan, too.
Did you just ruin English for me for the rest of the year? I think you did.
All in a day's work.
I know HG was very popular amongst RPers for a while, but none of my characters interacted with them very much. I assumed it was like the Olympics only with rewards of food instead of medals. Delightfully tasteless. Somehow the idea of it being like Battle Royale makes it much less interesting to me if they're just killing each other for food. I assume, then, it's basically a human dog fight thing for rich people, and I've seen enough "evil rich people play with poor people and it's tragic" stuff to need something a little more interesting out of it.
I'm gonna keep imagining it like food Olypmics. It makes conversations I overhear more interesting.
You did too good of a job; I had to avoid all eye contact today
But the original novel just got a new translation a couple of years back! Soo much better than the old one. If you get a chance to read it...definitely read it!
Wellllll, the first book can be interpreted as being about food actually, but after that it's more like about revolution and rebelling against the government and...it's like Suzanne Collins wrote a fanfiction about Battle Royale which became Hunger Games, and then actually came up with her own original ideas in form of Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I'm reluctant to say that she's a big ol' plagiarist, but...
- In Battle Royale, Noriko gets shot in the leg and almost dies. Her truu luv has to struggle to get her antibiotics. In Hunger Games, Peeta gets stabbed in the leg and almost dies. His truu luv has to struggle to get him antibiotics.
- In both B.R. and H.G., the couple survives at the end (but in Battle Royale they do so by stabbing the big bad to death with a pencil, so it's a lot more awesome)
- In both versions, the couple is aided by someone who already went through Program/Games.
Coincidence? I think not!
That's too bad because I read Collins' other work, Gregor the Overlander, back in the day and I found it pretty original (albeit trippy)
Don't judge her for her bara love!
I have no idea if that's the case or not with HG and I have no intent to ever read/see it, less so now that I know it's another "poor people at the merciless and mindlessly sadistic whims of the rich" story.
It's un"bara"ble to be in her class now!
I think the Hunger Games book itself is pretty good, and the main character is really unique when compared to other YA heroines. But the movie sucked, don't see the movie! It also has that "the media is glamorizing people and turning into objects" aspect which is true I guess, but if I want social justice I shall log on to Tumblr.
Take it like a man. A Bara Man.
I'd be much more likely to read the book(s?); I'm not much of a movie person. Last live-action movie I saw (On TV or theaters) was around Christmas of last year. I'm a really media-blind sad little shut-in, and have a much harder time getting into live action movies or shows or caring about the characters. Yeah, I'm one of those sad, developmentally stunted otaku.
Only the Chosen Ones can be true Baras.
Yeah, Collins also said in an interview that she asked her editor if she should read Battle Royale, but he said no because he doesn't want it to influence her work...
You haven't missed out on a lot; I like going to movies, but the problem is that most movies suck, and the ones that I do want to go to, nobody wants to go with me! Well, just stick to what you like. Some people don't watch/read anime/manga so they don't watch/read it and stick to live action. It can go both ways!
Cue the Rose (Bara) Duels from Utena, only now with Bara Men... and women? Bara women...?
Are combat groups made up exclusively of middle/high school aged characters (not the case in any of the above at all beyond Battle Royale)?
Are there danger zones to shrink down the play area in order to impose a time limit, or rules about having to kill so many people in x time period (not the case in any of the above beyond BR)?
Many of the plot arcs you mentioned seemed to be fairly specific to BR, too (thought he "past winner" aspect comes into play in Mirai Nikki, it's in a completely different way than "mentor to the main couple").
There's a long history of western remakes of Japanese properties, particularly movies, so a little acknowledgement certainly wouldn't hurt her at all. So on the other hand I guess there's no reason for her to lie. That said, I find it fairly dubious that she'd never heard of Battle Royale while doing any form of research her books may have required. Non-otaku do know of it. It was fairly huge.
Even Bara is co-ed these days...
Tenses
(Anonymous) 2016-06-04 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)