"Incomplete Spirit" is an odd translation
Cyrus talks a lot about how the “spirit” is vague and “incomplete.” This has long been confusing to me and to other players, who are unsure of what is meant by "spirit" and how it is "incomplete." I took a look at the Japanese and have some notes to share on the translation!
KOKORO - SPIRIT OR HEART?
The Japanese word in question is “kokoro” (心). This word is variously translated as heart or spirit. The meaning is: “The organ that governs the human intellect and emotional–volitional mental functions, and also its activity. Used as a concept opposed to “body” or “matter,” and, by extension, also applied metaphorically to whatever corresponds to a “mind” in various things.” 'Kokoro' can have sub-parts: “Refers specifically to one aspect of human mental activity-cognition, emotion, or will-taken separately.” If this sounds familiar from the game, you are right! ‘kokoro’ is the sum of emotion (Mesprit), willpower (Azelf), and intellect (Uxie).
When translated to English, this word is often translated as ‘heart’. You can actually see a very similar definition from the Oxford English Dictionary: “Heart: In the most general sense: the mind (including the functions of feeling and volition as well as intellect).” That being said, ‘heart’ often has an emotional connotation to it. We talk of following one’s head versus one’s heart, which suggests that intellect and emotion are separate things.
So if we don’t do “heart”, what do we go with? There is “spirit”, the word the translators decided upon: “The animating intelligence or sentient element or aspect of a person, as the seat of action, reason, and feeling, and as the source of desire; the will.“
We can see there is overlap between “spirit” and “heart”, but the connotations are subtly different. “Heart” does refer to the immaterial aspects of a human, but with a bias towards emotionality. “Spirit”, theoretically, could be more balanced. The phrase “the human spirit”, for example, seems to include this balance between emotion, cognition, and volition. All things considered, it’s not a bad translation for ‘kokoro’ in this context.
But it’s not without tradeoffs. For one, “spirit” is not usually used as an abstract noun in the way that Cyrus uses it where he says “Nothing so vague and incomplete as spirit can remain.” For another, ‘kokoro’ is already often translated as ‘heart’ (basically any time I've seen it in an anime, it is translated as 'heart'), likely since “spirit” can have a religious or metaphysical aspect to it (e.g. “spirituality”).
Perhaps most importantly, Cyrus claims to be against ‘kokoro’ as a whole, but reading into the text and his actions, it’s not clear that this is true. Does he really show an issue with intellect and willpower? He himself is clearly incredibly dedicated and possesses, as a later game puts it, a “steadfast will.” He also clearly values knowledge and its acquisition. He never devalues intellect or willpower. All his contempt is aimed at one aspect of ‘kokoro’ - emotion. (Below quotes from the Japanese, emphasis mine.)
“Even so, I’m astonished by you. You have no real connection to those Pokémon, do you? And yet you came to save them out of nothing more than pity - such a trivial emotion. To be driven here by feelings like compassion or kindness, which arise from the [kokoro] - an imperfect thing - is utterly foolish. Having come here at the mercy of such vague emotions - I will make you regret it.”
“You are strong. And the source of that strength is kindness toward Pokémon, is it? …What a waste. Such things are nothing but illusions. Things that cannot be seen are unstable - things that fade away. Once something dies, it disappears entirely. That is why I killed all emotion within myself.”
“So you’re saying the [kokoro] is important, is that it!? That’s nothing but the idle talk of people who think they’ve lived happy lives! What I’m feeling right now - this anger, this hatred, this outrage… these ugly emotions are the fault of the [kokoro]’s imperfection!”
As if to hammer things home, he has specific beef with Mesprit, the emotion spirit. Mesprit lives by the player’s hometown, making it symbolically associated with the player. When you start Platinum, Cyrus is talking to Mesprit, calling it a “so-called legendary Pokemon” (JPN). In Diamond and Pearl, he is particularly surprised that Mesprit supports you: “And why-? The Pokémon of Lake Verity, Mesprit, appears at your side!?“ There’s this scene before you enter the Distortion World, when Giratina appears and sends Cyrus to the Distortion World. Then Azelf, Uxie, go into Distortion World and Mesprit pauses to look at you before going in. Mesprit is treated as distinct and important in the story compared to the other two Lake Spirits!
Combined with the text, it’s clear to me that while Cyrus may be talking about ‘kokoro’ in general, he is specifically bothered by emotion. And if that’s the case, then translating it as ‘heart’ makes more sense while still being a standard translation for ‘kokoro.’
I don’t think ‘spirit’ is a bad translation - I’m not a translator and I’m just reading dictionary entries. I don’t want to knock anyone’s work. I think there were tradeoffs with ‘spirit’ and ‘heart’ as translations. Personally, I think the ‘heart’ tradeoff would be worth it for clarity while still carrying that meaning of ‘the immaterial aspects of the human being.’ But it’s not perfect, and ‘spirit’ is a defensible translation.
FUKANZEN - INCOMPLETE OR IMPERFECT?
Let’s move to the other word, the one translated as “incomplete.” This word is 'fukanzen' (不完全). ‘Fu’ is a negation, so the word we want to look at is ‘kanzen’ (完全). Let’s look at the definition: “Necessary conditions, elements, etc., are all in place; nothing is lacking or defective. Also, the state of being so.”
It is variously translated as ‘completeness’ or ‘perfection’. ‘Fukanzen’ is thus ‘incomplete’ or ‘imperfect’. The English games chose to go with ‘incomplete.’
This is one where I do think that ‘perfect’ would have been better for the games. If you tell me “spirit is imperfect” or “the heart is imperfect,” I would understand what that means. However, “spirit is incomplete” is odd-sounding to me. When I hear that, the first question I ask myself is “what is it lacking?” Cyrus does not think that spirit is “lacking” anything. He believes it is defective - it does not work at all. His solution is not to add more to spirit, but to take it away entirely. This strongly contrasts with the word “incomplete”, which implies something is missing. If I make a house and I never add a roof, that house is incomplete because it is lacking a roof. (That house is also imperfect.) However, if I add two roofs, then the house is complete but messed up. The house has become imperfect again.
It is unclear to me why they went with “incomplete” rather than “imperfect” in this case. In the manga, Cyrus mentions that the spirit could “be completed” or “become complete”, which is more natural phrasing than “be perfected” (since the spirit could still only approach perfection, never reach it). However, Cyrus in the games never believes that spirit itself can be completed, and he views spirit as inherently corrupt.
As such, on the grounds of idiomaticity and philosophical consistency, I think “imperfect” would have been a better translation.
As an aside, we can test the translations with this neat little section from the promo Galactic recruitment website for BDSP.
If you read the first character of each sentence, you get:
Which can be translated as:
“Towards heartless perfection”
But if we use the other translations, we get:
“Towards spiritless perfection”
“Towards spiritless completion”
“Towards heartless completion”
Which makes the most sense to you? For me, it’s “toward heartless perfection.”
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