Ep 13 of my Utena fansub is out! (end of the first arc)
Since this is a summary episode that’s essentially a clip show, there isn’t too much for me to comment on translation-wise. I did notice while I was copying lines from older episodes though, none (or almost none) of the recorded lines in this episode are recycled from older episodes. They say the same words, but they’re all alternate takes. I wonder why it was done like this… surely it would have been easier to just recycle the exact clips. Sometimes they don’t even say the same words! On my first watch, I remember being surprised that I didn’t feel bored watching this clip episode, and I think that might be part of the reason - none of the audio is exactly the same as the actual episodes.
ついに彼女は七番目の試練、自分という名の決闘にも勝ち抜いたわけだ。
It seems she has passed the seventh trial, the Duel by the name of Self.
I find the phrasing of the Japanese in this line a little bit strange - the grammar という is often used to say that something is called a particular name, but when translating to English it sometimes makes sense to ignore this particular grammar and just say “the X of Y” or something similar instead of “the X called Y”, which can sound a bit verbose at times. In this case though, the verbosity is warranted, because Akio is literally saying that the duel is titled “Self”, with the word 名.
The shadow girls are having fun with proverbs here. They’re intentionally getting the proverbs all mixed up and wrong.
One of the original proverbs they’re referencing is 勝てば官軍、負ければ賊軍 — literally “if you win, you’re the loyalist army, if you lose, you’re the rebel army”. Or as we say in English “history is written by the victors”. They substitute 賊軍 (”zokugun” lit. rebel army) for ダボハゼ (”dabohaze” lit. goby, the species of fish, which is also an insult like “worthless”) for a gag and to indicate that they’re not remembering the proverbs correctly.
The other proverb they’re mixing up is 立てば芍薬、座れば牡丹、歩く姿は百合の花 — “When she stands she’s like the shakuyaku (Chinese peony), when she sits she’s like the botan (tree peony), when she walks she is as the lily”. If you can read Japanese, you can see that these two proverbs have a similar structure and ring to them which makes it plausible yet funny that the girls have crossed a war proverb with a poetic line about beauty.
So, when translating this, how are you meant to do it? Well, one option is you could translate everything literally.
If you win, you are loyal. If you lose, you are a goby. And if you walk, you are as the lily!
The victor writes the record, the loser is a flop, and when she walks she is as the lily!
But I don’t like this approach. The actual meaning of the proverbs isn’t the main point of this line. The point is that it’s funny that they’re mixing up two very different lines, and that the references to proverbs are meant to induce a particular feeling, rather than a particular meaning. In order for it to land, the audience needs to be at least passingly familiar with the references, and they definitely won’t be familiar with a foreign proverb translated into English.
I decided to use Shakespeare, since the girls often reference theatre tropes and are themselves “on stage” within the narrative. I took two lines from Romeo and Juliet:
These violent delights have fishy ends. And a rose by any other name would smell as sweet!
This fulfils my requirements, and it even keeps the flower references in the second half (and I got to make it a ROSE instead of a lily!!). I spent an hour on this bloody line so you better appreciate it! T_T
Thanks as always to @dontbe-lasanya for their editing!
Follow the blog if you'd like to stay updated with new releases! See below for all episodes released so far.
izzy806
prguitarman
ellievsbear
baratheonpilled
snowghoul
2087
theartofmadeline
