周辺 しゅうへん circumference; outskirts; environs; around; in the area of; in the vicinity of
疑問 ぎもん doubt; question; suspicion; dubiousness
向かう むかう to go towards; to head towards
深い ふかい profound
実際 じっさい reality; actuality; truth; fact; actual conditions
詳しく くわしく in detail; fully; minutely; at length
合わせる あわせる to match (rhythm, speed, etc.)；to join together; to unite; to combine; to add up
巡る めぐる to go around; to make a circle around ； to come around (of a season, anniversary, turn, etc.); to return; to repeat; to circulate (of blood, money, etc.)
感動 かんどう being deeply moved emotionally; excitement; passion; inspiration; deep emotion; strong impression
Because in ancient China they grouped everything like snakes and insects into 虫 without it really meaning "insect" but rather a garbage can term for anything not mammal, bird, or fish. So this has carried on through many other words, such as 爬虫類.
That's why you can write octopus (たこ) as 蛸 with the 虫 radical.
Some more info: https://bestiary.japanesewithanime.com/animals/mushi
Bookstore Japanese = unlocked! 📚✨Learn must-know phrases for real-life conversations.👇 Study FREE today:
https://www.japanesepod101.com/?src=tumblr_infographic_bookstore_052826
(Use note: This is not exactly a "nice" word to use, and it's mostly used by guys, but it is an interesting slang word so I thought I'd add it. What should I use, you ask? 一緒にトイレに行く or いっしょにトイレにいく )
Today's phrase is "頭剃るより心を剃れ（atama soru yori kokoro wo sore）".
【Vocabulary & Grammar】
1．頭（あたま, atama）
It means “head.”
Here it refers to shaving one’s head, often associated with monks or symbolic purification.
2．剃る（そる, soru）
Verb meaning “to shave.”
Used in its dictionary/plain form.
3．より (yori)
A particle meaning “rather than,” “instead of,” “more than.”
Used to compare two actions or states.
4．心（こころ, kokoro）
It means “heart,” “mind,” “spirit,” “inner self.”
It refers to one’s inner attitude or moral character.
5．を (wo)
Direct object marker.
It indicates that 心 is what is being shaved (metaphorically).
6．剃れ（それ, sore）
Imperative form of 剃る.
Strong command: “shave!” or metaphorically “purify!” “cleanse!”
Put together, 「頭剃るより心を剃れ」 means to value inner purification over outward rituals.
It reminds us that true discipline comes not from changing our appearance, but from refining our heart and mindset.
There are people who shave their heads as a sign of remorse.
Visually, it may seem effective, but hair isn’t the only thing that needs to be changed.
When we express regret, we should also aim to grow in our hearts.
i can't believe i didn't watch comprehensible input/listening videos on YouTube for 95% of my Japanese studies. Not sure if they didn't exist back then or if my algorithm just didn't recommend them until recently. But they're such a rich resource.
If you're learning Japanese and want stuff to listen to and shadow with, here are some recs:
This guy ^ has 80 videos of N4 listening practice on Patreon. They're $80 until April 9, and if you're around N4 and can afford it, it looks worth it imo. I just got it for my student to practice.
So many of the videos are travel vlogs or discussions about Japanese culture and language. They help you learn while also preparing you to enjoy a trip or move to Japan.
it's meee I'm your guardian angel hiiiiii 😇 okay🙏 so. in about six months, you're gonna die of starvation. 🥺 and if I don't protect you, I will get: #fired! 🫢 and that is No Good 🙅♀️ hahaaa So. 🙏 I looked into causes of starvation, and it turns out: Your death is totally preventable! 😯 Uh oh! 😆 There's more than enough food to sustain you without interfering with anyone else's survival, but you're not allowed to have it! 🤨 Whaaat? 🤷♀️ Apparently, your death is premeditated by thousands of things called "shareholders." So. 🙏 I've been killing people,
i've mentioned it before on this blog, but the NOA localizers did a lot of addition to the script of fe9 in english (to its benefit!). i looked up this scene on pegasusknight because i was interested in that "bound by courtesy" phrase (and also "brilliant"), but as it turns out...
1 人が気を使って言いにくいことを
2 はっきり言えるのが、
3 おまえのいいところでもあるんだ。
...this is all he says in japanese! (and you can confirm on serenesforest that the above gifs are in fact sequential dialogue in the NOA version.) here's a very to-the-letter translation:
2 the fact that you have no trouble saying
1 difficult things that other people would be careful about,
3 that's one of your good characteristics, too.
as far as actually translating the scene goes, i really like what the localizers did with this! the translation of いいところ (literally "good point") as "brilliant [point]" really enhances the line in english. i also really like that there was no hand-wringing about 気を使って言いにくいこと ("difficult things to say that require care"): condensing all that into the very snappy "things others won't [say]" is a great decision in my opinion. the fe9 localizers really knew where to embellish ("good" > "brilliant") vs. where to condense ("difficult to say" > "won't say").
and speaking of embellishment....how about that wholesale invented second text box?! two whole new lines just to elaborate on the last one! as i've said before elsewhere, the fe9 localizers had a vision and by god, they followed it. making ike more expressive! making ranulf meaner! can game translators get away with stuff like this nowadays??? i hope so!!
p.s. by the way, whoever compiled the scripts on pegasusknight literally named this conversation 口の利き方, "phrasing/tone of voice", because that's how ike describes the topic a few lines prior to these. in english, ike's line means "the way you phrase things", but it's funnier in japanese because what he says (口の利き方の話) can be translated literally (out of context) as "the talk about phrasing". whoever compiled this script must have been like, how can i describe this conversation at a glance? oh, right, the conversation about phrasing!
[fire emblem support convo translation series] fe9 path of radiance: oscar & kieran (c )
ask and you shall receive!! thanks to @umuulan-na ^ for (more or less) requesting this support convo series! as always, i’m using pegasusknight as my source for the original japanese scripts and fireemblemwiki as my source for proper nouns, images, and other info. ‼️ may contain spoilers ‼️ ネタバレ注意 ‼️
convo translation
1 [オスカー] やあ、ケビン。
2 調子はどうだ？
1 [oscar] hey, kieran.
2 how’s it going?
3 [ケビン] 貴様、オスカー！
4 ふぬけた挨拶をするなっ！
3 [kieran] oscar, you blackguard!
4 don’t give me that cowardly pretense!
7 [kieran] i shall never forget—it was two years after we entered the knighthood…
8 we vied against one another in the martial art of horseback riding!
9 my beloved steed and i fought bravely, superbly,
10 but by just the tip of the beast’s nose
11 did i suffer that loss at your hands…!!
20 [kieran] you! complete! bastard! why
22 did you QUIT the knights
21 without so much as a “by your leave”?!
24 with my beloved steed i DEVOTED myself to training
23 for to win back my wounded HONOR—
25 and then when i finally emerged from my trials,
26 you. were. GONE! poof!
27 i didn’t even notice until six months later!
28 [オスカー] ちょっと待て、ケビン…
29 それは…私のせいなのか？
28 [oscar] now, hold on, kieran—
29 how is that my fault?
vocab, expressions, & grammar
ふ抜ける = to be cowardly
健闘（けんとう） = fighting bravely, strenuous efforts
敗北（はいぼく） = defeat, loss, setback
喫する（きっする） = to suffer (e.g., defeat)
僅差（きんさ） = narrow margin
好敵手（こうてきしゅ） = worthy opponent/rival
定める（さだめる） = to decide, determine; to establish, lay down
雪辱（せつじょく） = vindication of honor, revenge
没頭（ぼっとう） = immersing oneself in, devoting oneself to
(notice how almost all of these are from kieran's dialogue? it really shows you what his tone is like!)
translation notes & questions
not a translation note per se, but how hilarious is this opening?? especially for a c-support! "hey man how's it going?" "I'LL KILL YOU IN REAL LIFE"
5-6 「私の何に...」 - oscar literally asks, "what are you mad at me for today?"
10 「ほんのわずかな差で」 - i embellished here. kieran literally says he lost "by just an iota" or some similarly small margin (lol).
15 「３馬身は離れてるけど」 - oscar doesn't equivocate in the japanese, he just says, "we were separated by three horselengths". i added the equivocating in english because i think it comes off as funnier (and more natural just generally, since most people don't converse in full sentences). also, instead of actually saying "horselengths", i made it a more metaphorical "three horses' worth of distance" type meaning, again so it would sound a little more natural.
16 「あの瞬間から」 - here i'm stealing a beloved tactic of the official NOA fe9 localizers--that is, characters interrupting each other! in japanese, there isn't really the equivalent of an m-dash to show someone being interrupted, so the NOA localizers often interpreted an interruption where one seems plausible. so, to emphasize how kieran is a) interrupting and b) embarrassed, i put this line in all caps and made it a very grand verbal gesture! (kieran is full of those!)
17-18 「貴様と...定められたんだぞ！？」 - i enjoyed myself here haha. kieran literally says, "it was decided that you (you bastard) and i would be rivals forevermore". the word for "rivals" here includes the kanji for loved, as in, the person who's your best match (antagonistically), so i went to the moon and back with that and made it "star-crossed". i also turned "forevermore" into "until we die" for the sake of the next line...
19 「知らなかったよ」 - this is exactly the space where we expect a joke in english, after kieran's grand proclamation. in japanese, there's a huge drop in energy/pace instead (which creates a similar effect!): oscar literally just says, "i had no idea", with the sense of how was i supposed to know? not at all matching kieran's freak. but, to create some humor in the english, i had oscar repeat kieran's last line, which was hyperbole ("until we die!!!!"), as if it were literal ("until we die???????").
20-22 「その貴様...辞めたりした！？」 - these three lines are so awesome. in the japanese, there are exclamation points at clause boundaries (loosely) where you wouldn't expect any punctuation. in other words, kieran has worked himself into such a tizzy he isn't even completing his sentences anymore. you can imagine him grabbing oscar and shaking him or doing some other gesture in time with these disjointed clauses! (separately, there's a bastian line later in the game where the NOA localizers use a similar technique. he says 落ち着きたまえ, using a very strong, old-fashioned type of male verb ending, and the localizers apparently interpreted that as being said mora by mora: o-chi-tsu-ki-ta-ma-e. so they translate it as something like "you. need. to. calm. yourself." which i found extremely funny and effective!)
23 「雪辱」 - this is a very pre-redemption zuko moment. MY HONOR!!!
26 「貴様がいないことに気づいたのは」 - i embellished here using the same technique as in lines 20-22, with the rapid starting and stopping. he really just says, "it wasn't until half a year later that i realized you were gone".
i honestly don't think i got these two's support when i played fe9, so i'm excited to translate the next two convos! i'm always open to other translation requests too!! :)
