sinnesspiel | Shiki Novel Translations 3.13.5

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Shiki Novel Translations 3.13.5

When Motoko opened her eyes and looked towards her bedside clock it was past two in the morning. Frantically she pushed aside the futon and rose up.

She was only wearing her nightclothes. Ever since her daughter Shiori had collapsed, Motoko had been like this, having not changed out of her night clothes, sleeping in the tatami room next door. Shiori was set to sleep in the tatami room. The single sliding foor to the room was still open. By the light there in the tatami room she could see Shiori in the futon that had been laid out.

She had overslept. Even though she'd asked her mother-in-law Tomiko to wake her to switch shifts at two o'clock. Entering into the tatami room, she saw Tomiko sleeping at Shiori's bedside. Motoko sighed for some reason.

"Mother-in-law, we will switch now, so please get up and go to bed."

She lightly shook Tomiko but Tomiko who was lying with the zabuton cusion as a pillow did not respond. Motoko let her be for the time being and looked to Shiori's face.

Shiori's lips were parted as if in a small gasp. Her small face was poorly colored, the color of aged and faded paper. Her long eyelashes were firmly set shut. The sheer innocence of that sleeping face pulled at Motoko's heartstrings. She was so young, so helpless, and yet so very dear.

She reached out to gently pat her small head. It seemed like her fever had gone down. At first relieved, Motoko then noticed something strange. Was not her breathing just a little too quiet?

It couldn't be, she thought. It's my imagination.

To dispel her groundless fear she held out her hand beneath Shiori's nose and waited. She didn't feel an exhale.

An unvoiced shriek caught in her throat. A breath she couldn't expel stopped her up.

With probing fingertips she neared the eyes. Lightly tapping her face, she shook her body.

Motoko turned to Tomiko.

"---Mother-in-law!"

She shook Tomiko, pounted at her chest. Tomiko herself had quite the peaceful breathing in her sleep.

"Mother-in-law! Wake up!"

Motoko's shaking of Tomiko became gradually more violent. She grasped at the nape of her neck and shook with all her might.

"Why are you sleeping?! Why didn't you wake me?!"

Tomiko barely opened her eyes.

"Wake up, will you! How can you sleep so care-freely! I told you I would switch places with you and to wake me!"

"What......"

Tomiko's voice was sleepy. With no signs of recognizing anything as out of the ordinary, she once again closed her eyes sleepily. Motoko's breath stopped. The hand still shaking her did not relinquish any of their force as they slammed Tomiko's head down into the zabuton.

"Wake up! This is no time to be half asleep, you, Shiori is--because of you!"

Still gripping the nape of her neck, Motoko lifted Tomiko's head up and bashed it into the zabuton. Tomiko groaned, her face scrunched, but she didn't resist nor even scream. The only one screaming was Motoko.

"You old crooone, you let Shiori die, didn't you!"

Motoko threw Tomiko aside and gently embraced Shiori's body. She broke down screaming Shiori's name.

Tomiko sat up dumbfounded. She stared dubiously at Motoko and her granddaughter. Tilting her head, she sluggishly scratched at her neck.

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Aaaaand that is when Motoko was broken. Is it bad that I look forward for insane Motoko? :P

Oh, and not to stress you out, but are you still working on the translation of this? I have been enjoying reading Shiki *a lot*, and it would be a shame if you had stopped.

Yeah so true !

I just found this precious work , and I would be so depressed if he stopped .

we support you dude !

Thanks for the feedback! I'll have to try not to depress you and whip something out here, huh? We don't need more sad people, Seishin's got that covered for the fandom.

Hey, thanks for the comment! I will be picking it back up again. I had a nice flow going when I could do it at work, where I had dual screens and spurts of downtime that were ideal for translating, working, then coming back and re-reading the translation to make sure it felt right. I also had someone I could send to pick up and drop off whatever library books or orders/deliveries I wanted for when I was writing up or researching cultural notes. I don't work there anymore, so I really need to set myself up a new workstation, resource connections and get into a good pace again. I should be in a position to do that come December, but I'll try to whip some out sooner.

Hi dude,

I really appreciate your work . You did really help me a lot . I am addicted to this anime since it was aired and! I have suffer long term "shiki" craving . I read the manga and watched the anime whenever I could , And then I found you translation of the novel and to be honest , I screamed out of happiness and jumped on my bed like an idiot ! Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooo much .Not only that , I also consider this my primary source of improving my English ! .
will definitely share this with other shiki's lovers .. ♥♥

peace :*

Glad you're enjoying it!

Hi there! I just came across your blog. It's amazing, all the good work you've done for us! Your translations are just wonderful. Thank you so much for this. Also, I'm impressed. Japanese is not an easy language to learn, so wow. Hands down for your work.

Thanks for the comment! Glad it's been a good translation so far!

You're baaaack *does a little dance*

I can't wait for the futur translations, good luck!

Hi! Thanks for your work, it's really exciting! Hope you will carry on *just waiting for yours new chapters dont notice plz*
And, is this part 3.14.5 actually or 3.13.5 after all??
Thanks again, you are brilliant *o*

Ach! It's 13.5, not 14. Thanks for the catch, fixed! And thanks for the feedback and your patience!

Hello! It too me about 2-2,5 months to read the whole thing and I can't be gratefull enough.
I see that this chapter is from January - do you plan on finishing "Shiki"? Even if you say it will take 2 years to finish it - it's okay! :)
Can I ask how much of the book is left? I haven't read the manga or watched the anime yet (so please no spoilers under this comment) and I wanted to first read the novel and then watch the anime so I can imagine everything myself.
Thank you again :)

I do plan on finishing Shiki. Really. I may pick it up again come December. We're just shy of halfway through the second and final book, which is a lot longer than the first. I'd say we're about 3/5ths through?

I'd be interested in any thoughts you have on the novel; every other reader's come from another medium, so hearing someone's take on the novel and its adaptations when you view them would be cool.

Thank you for responding :)
I really like the novel. I admit that the first few chapters were hard to read when all these new characters were introduced so I began to made a list with very brief description and it saved me from a lot of confusion! And I think the pacing was slow at first but it helped me understand the society of Sotoba because it is different from the city people (and I live in a city so the realities of small towns are unknown to me).
I love chapters with Seishin. And his thoughts and his writings. I think I kind of understand him about his suicide attempt/not so suicide attempt - cut your wrist just to feel how it is? Man, I thought about it too but well I would never do it. So I'm glad he did so i don't have to ;)
And Toshio is a very interesting character and his dynamics with Seishin are very special.
I cried a lot when Natsuno died. Idk I was just so incredibly sad...

The difficult thing in reading only is the lack of descriptions of anybody. The reality of Japan years ago is not something I know so I never know if my visions of the characters are correct or not - I don't know how those people looked like, what they wore etc... But it's also fun to imagine them in like 20 different ways ;)

I want to watch anime mainly for its music because I found out about Shiki while listening to one of the tracks of the anime. I get chills every time I listen to it (and sometimes I listened to it while reading which is like magical experience).

Wow, it's a long respons from my side XD Anyway, thank you for translating Shiki. If not you I would never have the chance to read the novel! <3 I appreciate so much your work and I read every word like its sacred :D

Hello! It's really nice to finally hear from you (we've all been super busy, I can tell) and sure it feels good to type comments on this DW again. I've missed this.

Can't wait for more chapters to come! And for discussing stuffs with everyone, too. I've been away, but Shiki remains very close to my heart and I'm sure I'll not get over it, ever, especially our resident doctor and monk. I still love trying to piece Seishin and Toshio individually together and as a unit and how they mean to each other's individual arcs and whatnot. New thoughts and (probably) cemented theories I can't wait to share.

All in all, best of lucks regarding RL stuffs (because we'll all need that)!! Hoping to hear again from you soon!

Like one of the previous commenters, I'm a huge fan of Shiki. It's been several years since I watched the anime and read the manga, but it still remains my favourite. When I found out you're translating the novel to English, it simply made my day! I've read 'Salem's Lot' (which apparently inspired Fuyumi Ono to write this novel - there certainly are many similarities) but it still left me wanting for more Shiki content, so I'm really grateful you're spending your free time translating the novel for us. I'm currently studying Japanese so hopefully one day I'll be able to read the original version, but until then I'll remain undebted to you. :)

Finally caught up after a year? I haven't had much time to read leisurely, I hope you end up finishing! You've done an amazing time so far and I know how time consuming it is. Even if you take years to finish I'll be fine with it I just hope that this work isn't abandoned!

Barring any other major projects in December I may pick back up. I'll likely be involved in a big research project next Spring, but I'll try to pop some out in December, then finish it off this summer. That's the goal, anyway.

I'm actually glad you're still on I was fearing it was completely abandoned thank you so much for your hard work, I'll be looking forward to the rest :)

I've just finished reading your translation of Shiki, volumes 1 - 3. As a huge fan of the manga/TV series I just wanted to say thanks - it's been a fascinating read. I'm amazed by how much later adaptation condensed, cherry picked, and revised the original novel. Beyond entertainment value, it gives real insight into the creative process Fuyumi Ono, Ryu Fujisaki, and others went through.

Glad you're enjoying it! I'm especially glad if it's helped you appreciate the anime and manga more. It's interesting to see that the anime staff definitely didn't JUST go from the manga; there are things that are novel only, the setting matches novel-only set descriptions that honestly aren't necessarily plot relevant, even the voice casting matches the few voices described (Hayami having a "yawny" voice).

The novel's my favorite take on it, possibly just due to the investment I have in it at this point, but the anime's fantastic and what got me willing to bunker down with the book. The book's improved my enjyoment of the anime too.

I have just started reading your translation work recently. I always use my phone to read so this time I have to use my computer to type this comment. Thank you so much for your great work. I worked as an amateur translator around 10 years ago to translate English to Vietnamese (my native language), so I found out your translation and cultural notes are amazing. I take my hat off to your linguistic knowledge. Even though Japanese seems to have more connection to Vietnamese than to English (in term of honorable suffix and culture), I still have a hard time to understand Shiki in Vietnamese. I am not translating it to Vietnamese right now because I can't get enough motivation to squeeze my time for it. Hope that my comment can motivate you (: Happy December!

Hello Sinnesspiel!
I have very much enjoyed your translations of Shiki. They are of high quality and add greatly to the context of the anime and manga adaptations.
I hope you will find the time and motivation to continue your translations on this most respectable of works.

Hello! I just wanted to thank you for all of the Shiki chapter translations! I immensely enjoyed reading everything so far! The effort you've put into this project is amazing!
I hope that one day you can come back to this project once again :)

Thank you very much for all your hardwork and translations!!!

I know you're taking a break in translation by now but I was curious-- is Natsuno's death in the novel the end of him, or is it like the anime/manga? I've been going through all of the mediums, and the differences are very interesting.

I’ve finally read through everything translated so far!
Thank you for your translation! I’ve really enjoyed reading the novel! As a fan of the anime (it’s one of the best I’ve ever watched), it was definitely very good to read the original and learn to understand the characters even better!
I’ve also read through most of the comments, it was definitely very good to read those in-depth analyses.
I’ve got one question though: is there any chance you’ll translate more of the novels? I need to read more! The Shiki novels are just too good! The quality of your translations is too!

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Shiki Novel Translations 3.13.5

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I just want to thank you

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Thank you!!

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Excellent Work!

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Thank you so much

Shiki novel translations

Thank you

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Thank you for the translation!