you said that the “because I love you” fan translation was completely wrong but the OFFICIAL 15 English translation is out and says “that’s what makes me love you” 🤨 so that means the officials are wrong/don’t translate well too?
Considering your ask, you might be pretty confused. What is really important is to consider the whole passage of the translation and its context, not just the “because I love you”. I will quote my original post:
"[…] I am so fed up with the damn “It must be because I love you” thing still going around??? And that is not the only problem: the whole part is actually wrong.”
“It must be because I love you” does not really make sense”.
The “whole part” that you really need to pay attention to is actually what comes before the “because I love you”, not what comes after. The “It must be because I love you” is grammatically wrong (you can go back to Kani’s blog for additional grammar explanations), and the context in which it is said leads to a misunderstanding.
It might be easier to understand if you put the three translations next to each other, so here you go:
I got it, I’ll answer. / Fine, you win. / Got it, I’m going to answer.
=> I would say that YP is the less closer one to the original Japanese sentence, but since the meaning stay the same (=Dazai is going to answer), then it is fine.
If I answer, though, will you stay away from me? / But would you mind keeping your distance? / I’m going to answer so could you please don’t come near me?
=> In this one, YP decided to get rid of a part of the sentence (=Dazai saying once again that he is going to answer), but the meaning stays the same in the three translation.
I can’t think when I’m walking with you. / I don’t want anyone to think I know you. / I don’t want it to look as if we’re walking together.
=> While the “because I love you” fan TL and I kept the « walking with you/together » that could be found in the original sentence, YP went for something a bit different with « know ». But while YP’s and my translation have the same meaning (=Dazai does not want people to see them together), the “because I love you” fan TL got « I can’t think when… » (= Dazai cannot think when he is with Chuuya.).
We all agreed on Chuuya’s first sentence!
I also can’t think when I’m around you. / I feel the same way. / Because I also don’t want it to look like that.
=> In every translation, Chuuya agrees with Dazai! But, while in the “because I love you” fan TL’s Chuuya agrees that he also cannot think around Dazai, in YP’s and my translation Chuuya agrees that he also do not want to be seen with Dazai.
Fufu, looks like we’ll get along. / Hee-hee. Look at us getting along so well. / Tee-hee, we’re getting along ~
=> A few variations, but the meaning stays the same in the three translations!
It must be because I love you. / That’s what makes me love you! / I’m very fond of that about you!
=> Considering your ask, you might be wondering if it is the word « love » in itself that is wrong. It is not! YP could have translated “That’s what makes like you very much!” or “That’s what makes me very fond of you”, and I could have say « I love that about you ». People need to get that there is not only one option to translate « 大好き » (I will put some examples of the use of 大好き at the end of this blog, and if you want to know more about how to say “I love you” in Japanese, here you go).
==> So as I already said, for me the “because I love you” fan TL’s sentence is grammatically wrong, and with Dazai’s 3rd sentence + Chuuya’s 2nd sentence which are mistranslated, you are so misled to think that they can’t think straight around each other and bam, here we have a love confession from Dazai?!
===> If you can see, there is something that YP’s translation and my translation have in common: the « that » and « ! ». The “that” is such an important word! The « ! » comes from the よ particle which is being used for emphasis (so you could even go “!!!”).
« I love you » is a whole // « that » is a part. Dazai does not make a love confession here, he just says that he likes it when his dog/toy agrees with him.
Again, I agree with Tsubaki’s translation because the main focus here is 「そんな」 (son-na), which means ‘such’/‘that side’. When you use 「そんな」, you’re just referring to particular traits of that person/object, but not a whole entity. Thus Dazai is not blatantly saying ‘I love you’ if we investigate into the wording and context, but just like the way of how Chuuya AGREES with him
You may argue ‘but hey isn’t 君が大好き means I love/like you in Japanese?? I see it everywhere!!’ Yes you’re right.
Yet still, we have to focus on the whole sentence. The full line of Dazai is 「うふふ、気が合うねえ。そんな君が大好きだよ!」 so [そんな君が大好きだよ] is a complete full sentence, just to let you know that I didn’t play the words such to justify myself. Cool, let’s continue.
We can’t neglect 「そんな」 in this sentence and simply pick out 「君が大好きだよ」 just to justify Dazai ‘confessed’ to Chuuya, no, because it’s 「そんな君」 aka ‘that side of you’ as a whole is the subject of the sentence, so we can never directly interpret Dazai said ‘I like you’ as 「君」 ‘you’ is not the full version of the subject. Thus, we need to take care of the whole subject: ‘that side of you’ 「そんな君」.
Can you see the differences between the three different whole translations in this case? I think that the context is very different, but that some people will not want to see the difference because there is one common word: « love », and they are so insistent on making skk canon (even though the person who did the “because I love you” fan TL explained that it was sarcasm in the end). Using « love » does not make the translation wrong, so my answer to your question is: YP did translate quite well here*, since they at least kept the sentences’ meaning.
To sum-up, YP’s translation keeps the original meaning/context which is:
- They both agree on not wanting to be seen together
- Dazai says that they are getting along since they both agree on not wanting to be seen together
- Dazai loves the part of Chuuya (=そんな君) which is agreeing with him
I guess it should be even more easier to understand how insufferable Dazai is being and how done Chuuya is in this part by watching the 15 stage play if you can!
On that note, here is a translation of a part of an interview between Ue-chan (playing Chuuya) and Rui-kun (playing Dazai) on the 15 stage play which can help understanding their relationship:
植田:[...] あと、僕は太宰 治を相棒と思わないことにしています。
植田:たぶん、客観的に見たらどう見ても相棒に感じると思いますが、中原中也本人が太宰 治を相棒だという感覚を持ってしまうとバランスが変わってしまうの思うので、僕は相棒だと思わないことを大事にしています。
――それは今回の舞台からですか? それとも最初から思っていたことなのでしょうか?
植田:『文ステ』が立ち上がった最初の頃から思っていました。
田淵:僕も相棒というより、太宰にとって中也はおもちゃに近いような感じがします。でも、中也には負の感情だとしても感情が動かされている部分があって、だからこそ作中でああいう態度や素ぶりを見せるのかな、と。
もしかしたら好きなのかもしれないですし嫌いかもしれない。同じ土台に立てるような遊び相手でもあるのかな、といろいろな面を感じます。
Ueda : [...] Also, I (*boku is used, not ore, so “I” is used as Ueda, not Chuuya) am choosing not to think of Dazai Osamu as my partner.
Ueda : Because I [never/not even once] had the intention to become [his] partner (laughs).
Ueda : It is likely that, if you would look at it objectively, by all appearances I think it feels like they are partners but, if Nakahara Chuuya himself was thinking of Dazai Osamu as a partner the balance would change so, not considering him as a partner is important for me.
―― Since this stage? Or was it something you were thinking since the beginning?
Ueda : I have been thinking like this since around the beginning of “Bunsute”.
Tabuchi : More than a partner, I also feel that for Dazai, Chuuya is more something like a toy. Though, for Chuuya even if it is the feeling of defeat, there is a part that will make him move. I wonder if that is why within the play, he shows those kinds of attitudes and manners.
Maybe he likes it, maybe he hates it. I wonder if he could be a playmate standing on the same ground, those are different kinds of aspects I can feel.
Some examples of how to use 大好き(だ)daisuki (da) :
大好き(だ):love 0 <0が>, like 0 very much <0が>, be very fond of 0 <0が>
(FR : aimer beaucoup qqn•qqch; adorer qqn•qqch; raffoler de qqn•qqch)
• 私は日本文学が大好きだ。(Watashi wa nihon bungaku ga daisuki da): I love Japanese Literature. ; I like Japanese Literature ‘very much [a lot]’. ; I am very fond of Japanese Literature.
• 太宰さんのことが大好きだ。(Dazai-san no koto ga daisuki da): I like Dazai-san very much. ; I’m very fond of Dazai-san.
・太宰さんはカニ料理が大好きだ。(Dazai-san wa kani ryōri ga daisuki da): Dazai-san loves crab dishes. ; Dazai-san has a strong liking for crab dishes.
・私の大好きな食べ物はカレーライスだ。(Watashi no daisuki na tabemono wa karē raisu da): My favorite food is curry rice.
*Does “that means the officials are wrong/don’t translate well too?”:
If I were to go farther than this one excerpt from the Fifteen novel, I would say that to be honest, I do not know because I only have the 1st BSD volume from YP, otherwise I only have the volumes in Japanese (novels, manga etc.). But I did saw people complaining about YP’s translation a while ago about those different panels:
If I remember well, I thought that the fan TL was actually better than the official TL for this one. (vol.20, p.134)
This one (vol.16, p.12) is still pretty fresh in my mind: people complaining about their “iconic wtf!” being lost in the official TL. Well... as you may know... in Japanese there is not really a way to say “wtf” anyway... And I remember trying to find a way to TL this exchange and being stuck even though the Japanese is really easy to understand. Because to be honest, YP’s TL is actually closer to the original meaning than the fan TL.
Dosu-kun’s 何です?= What? / What is it?
Dazoo’s 何が?= What is (what)? -> So I actually think that “What what?” is closer than “wtf”.
And finally, this one (vol.15, p.118-119)! I get it that everyone liked the fan TL, but I think it was a bit... exaggerated? But still in the spirit, so I would say that YP, even though I do not remember what they wrote, did not translate that badly..? But yeah... Chuuya is not saying that he is picking the ADA up for daycare (if I remember well, this is how the fan TL goes), it is more like translating a “vibe” instead of the actual meaning of the words? So it is not 100% wrong, and not 100% right! I just think people tends to see Chuuya in a particular way and wants to make him speak... in a certain way or something..?