I believe it will get fixed in the volume version, but here on the first page, on the first panel there is a typo and it appears twice.
Instead of “Sigurd" シグルス (Shigurusu) it says レグルス (Regurusu) "Regulus”. When I had the stream for this chapter, I was like “Regulus? Who’s that?”
This chapter took some time to finish because of the few days I couldn’t use my laptop, again thank you for those who helped me on Ko-Fi so I could get a cooling pad!
That’s how Gear provides for himself and Youtarou xD
Damn, he gives zero fucks! xD
In Tanaka Box they were apparently paranormal investigators, weren’t they?
We don’t know what Youtarou does, maybe he sells his knitted stuff online xD Also, omg I feel sorry for Gear, like has been run over by cars before? Poor wolf…Hopefully he never got hit by one the famous double decker buses!
Did you like my use of “woe is me?” I wanted to make him sound like a drama queen :)) I thought it fitted much better than the simple “Oh…” in the original text, you gotta know that he’s a wolf living among humans and it’s difficult!
Oh yeah, while I like this comic it came with something that was a little difficult to translate, so I need to explain.
You might have heard the words “boke” and “tsukkomi”. These terms are from “manzai” the traditional style of stand-up comedy in Japanese culture, which usually involves two performers, a straight man (tsukkomi) and a funny man (boke).
In the Japanese text, Mahiru thinks ツッコミ不在 which means “absence of tsukkomi”, thus, I could only conclude that he probably considered both Gear and Youtarou as boke xD Although, you probably think that Youtarou is the serious one because he did reprimand Gear about not using the “I’m a wolf” excuse, I thought: isn’t that something that he might be saying a lot times to Gear?
Or it could be that neither Youtarou or Gear made wrong assumptions when Mahiru said: “Isn’t it…bad?”
Gear seems to have understood that Mahiru was referring to the food being bad, while Youtarou commented that maybe going wouldn’t be good because of how Gear looked.
So, that could be why Mahiru thought: “These two are airheads (boke)” xD
Maybe it’s because I don’t have much interest in manzai so these are the explanation I have for what Mahiru said, that being “absence of tsukkomi”.
So yeah, I hope it helped a little, honestly, deciding how to adapt that word took some time, leaving it literal, but I figured that an explain is necessary, even though I don’t quite grasp the concept that well.
With the introduction of Kei Tsukimitsu, just like with Miyako, when people refer to them or if the two of them refer to one another, I’ll try to make my lines to avoid pronouns, to hopefully stay on the safe side, so like the example here, I had Mikayo say Kei’s name (“Kei was able to retrieve "Sloth”). In Japanese you might know that sometimes pronouns are not used.
As a reminder, Miyako used the informal version of the pronoun “watashi”, （私) and that is “atashi” which is used by younger girls and women to sound cute and Kei used “watashi” which is gender neutral.
So, the word that Sigurd uses here is 侵食 (shinshoku) which I have adapted as “takeover.” The word has the following meanings: erosion, corrosion; invasion, encroachment. My adaption was based on the meaning of the latter word (to enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another), because, as we have seen, Ildio’s demon is taking over him.
The verb “to be popular” that Nicco uses here モテる (moteru) is different than the usual 人気 (ninki) “popular/popularity”, the one that he uses has the connotation of being popular/liked by the opposite sex. In this case, we could also call Nicco a “ladies’ man”, although I considered to just leave “popular”, because he could like guys too! But, since he was complementing Iduna, I left it as “popular with the ladies.”
Regarding his last line, like I mentioned on this page, the intended reading (furigana) is card(s) while the kanji reading is 戦法 (senpou), strategy/tactics. He literally said “I will talk about the card (s) that I have in my hand” and I adapted the line based on the idiom “to play one’s cards right”, which I thought it was fitting.
I hope you that my notes helped you to understand some things better! Thank you for reading :)
While I was translating this chapter and 114, I have read The Case Study of Vanitas (which is awesome by the way, I recommended it!) and there is a character that uses the suffix “kun” like Hyde when he says Wor-kun and in the English localization of Vanitas, that character would say “dear (name)”, to convey endearment and I like that!
I looked over the chapter where Hyde says Wor-kun the first time in the official localization to see how it was adapted and it just says “World”, without the addition of “kun”, although I have seen the honorific “san” in the localization. I noticed that when he talks about Licht, there is no “tan” suffix, most likely because readers in the West wouldn’t know of it. If only “san” was kept, it’s mostly likely because this is much more familiar even with the Western audience.
There is more liberty to a fan translation, so even though Hyde doesn’t speak Japanese here, I still keep the honorific “kun”. Like I mentioned, I like how it was adapted in Vanitas, in the case of Hyde when he refers to Ildio like that, it would have worked in my opinion, if “World” a version that would sound…let’s say childish maybe? Hope that makes sense, like I googled “worldie” but that wouldn’t work.
(UK, slang) Anything particularly excellent of its kind, especially a goal in sports or a beautiful woman.
So yeah xD
I have changed the last line because I misinterpreted…Initially I wrote: “I told him I wanted to stay together” (and also I wasn’t sure if Hyde was just referring to himself or he was implying that he wanted all the siblings to stay together with Saint Germain), but I made a mistake because the form of the verb wasn’t the one that expresses desire, so I apologize.
I was also unsure about the line here, if Hyde was talking about himself or Kuro, because Saint Germain used the word “perfect” with him, though we can assume that he wants all the vampires to be “perfect.” That’s why I wrote the first time “because you (Kuro) are still not perfect”, believing that the siblings staying together, depended on Kuro becoming “perfect” like Saint Germain wants to make him.
Here I tried to keep the word “Sloth”, because Kuro’s line would be literarily translated “I was "lazy”, but given that the word ”怠惰” was written like this, I made his line to reference the name of his sin.
The intended reading here is CCC but it would have looked awkward if I left it “C3? CCC, right?”, too many Cs, thus I didn’t use the abbreviation, however, the way “Conjurer Control Convention” is written here in kanji is a little different from chapter 99 where it was mentioned the first time.
In chapter 99 it says 魔術師統制会議 while in this chapter it says 魔術師統制機構, the last two kanji are different which makes you wonder if this is how CCC was called at first and later used the name from chapter 99 or Tanaka-sensei used a synonym.
機構 (kikou) means organization and 会議 (kaigi) means convention, conference, council. Also, I wonder if Tanaka’s intended for “conjurer” 魔術師 (majutsushi) to be the term for the magicians? I use “magicians” because of the references to the tarot cards.
OMG this chapter ;; We are getting closer to finding out some things and I don’t know about you guys, but this strongly suggests that Gear could be sensei. Just want to make a quick note that I didn’t have proper space to write this, but when Tsubaki says ‘vessel’ that was the furigana reading, while the kanji reading was ‘body’. Remember in chapter 81 about vessel, blood and spirit?
Also, I believe this was brought up before, but you know what I was reminded of? The notion of acedia, which was considered the 8th cardinal sin and can be translated as “sloth”. (You can look this up because I can’t explain it that well). But, in a way, Kuro and Tsubaki, with them representing aspects of what is viewed as ‘sloth’ they are apparently like two halves of a whole, and maybe this is why Tsubaki brings up the “Let’s make us complete” part.
I finished this comic from Sleepy Life of Servamp which I actually started on a while back, but I had to leave it aside for some time because the monthly chapters were the ones that took the most time to work on.
And from that day on, Shamrock has been very loyal to him.
TL note: when Tsubaki says “that name” the kanji reading for ‘name’ is ‘memory’. In the previous sentence, he said “memories of your previous life”. but I had to use the singular form ‘memory’ so that it would go with what he said after. Though, I guess maybe ‘memory’ of previous life might work too, but it sounded way better to use the plural word.
-Oh boy, what a chapter! We got a display of uncle Tooru showing off his ability and finally, Tanaka used the “Thor” pun! Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well for him ;;
-So, Tooru, Iori and Touma formed a group of 3 idiots, huh? xD But of course Touma didn’t want to have anything to do with them. Iori must have considered Touma to be quite strong, as he mentions him a lot and wished he was with them. -Gosh, this chapter was challenging because of Tooru’s spell. I had to request help for them, which meant waiting a few days for replies and looking over the versions that people provided, and some of them told me if there were missing words or something, but I told them ‘no’, explaining that the author just has a way with their words and they can be vague. So, this was the best that I could come up with, thus I’m sorry if it sounds strange.
Since they are structured like lyrics, they can be ambiguous or have words omitted, which must be deduced from context. I’m gonna list some alternatives so that you guys can see in what other ways the lines could have been read. “Look at me children of the sun!” (here, it can also be just 'child of the sun’, singular. A certain indicator for plural would have been if it was written as 子供たち (kodomotachi) but it seemed more fitting to be 'children’ as Tooru spoke in a manner as if he was making a declaration in the position of a hero, thus it seemed more appropriate if there were more 'children of the sun’. Take note that that the subject in his first line is “I”(me) and later on, the subject seems to have changed? That’s what I got from the other lines. Anywho, because it started with 俺 (ore), this first-person pronoun, where it mentions 'hero’ in the last part, it’s a description for the first part. Here I got a little creative with this description because translated literally it was just “the back of a heroic man”, a verb seemed like it was missing, but with the way it was structured, I deduced (at least I believe I did), that the implied verb was 'to look’ from the first line, thus forming “Look at me, the hero” to put it simply.
Also, something else helped me to form the sentence, because it mentioned the word 'back’ and the image in the manga also contributed to what I thought of. I think a lot of you have seen in many manga/anime how men mostly would be all cool when they stand facing others with the back. There is this saying 背中で語る (senaka de kataru) which translates as 'talking with one’s back’. Apparently, the back is an indicator for manliness I could say, a lot of times I’ve heard how they say about male characters how broad their backs are. Tooru also was facing us the readers with his back when he said that :) That’s the cool hero pose I guess xD
The part about 'all the world in a fortress’, honestly, I could only think that it was just a poetic way to say “I will shield/protect’” The word 'hold’, it actually has the meaning of 'embrace’, but it would have sounded a bit awkward.
“Clear away the frost and bring the thunder” In Japanese there’s this term 'tsuyuharai’ (露払い) which is used in sumo and translates as 'dew sweeper’ and refers to an attend that accompanies a high-ranked sumo wrestler in a ring-entering ceremony. Tsuyuharai can also be translated as 'herald’.
Now, in the case of the chapter, the sentence in Japanese was 霜を払い (shimo wo harai) which translates as 'to sweep/clear away the frost" This part looked quite similar to the one above, it just use the word 'frost’ instead.
The last bit, since the theme is about thunder/lighting, I thought it would fit just by leaving it at that, in a very literal translated way, but from what I read, the expression in Japanese meant 'to thunder at someone’, as in to scold severely. Imagine that when someone scolds you and they are angry, they tend to shout, so the loudness can be like thunder, that’s what I pictured.
The following line, I only managed to make sense of it after someone helped me out a bit, they told me that’s what they visualized and it seemed alright to me as well. Remember when I said previously that in the beginning, the spell started with “me”, (I), and everything has been said as if Tooru/the hero is addressing to someone, giving commands (”Look!” “don’t kneel” “clear away”etc.).
Now, if he is asking someone to do what he asks, to me at least, it seemed peculiar when Tooru/the hero said この名を白日に晒せ！(kono na wo hakujitsu ni sarase!), which means “expose/reveal/bring to light this name!” then it is followed by 我が 名は雷神！(Wa ga na ha Raijin!) that translates as ‘My name is Raijin! To me, it would have probably sounded better and logical if the last phrase was something like “I will reveal my name (to you all!), but instead, he asks others to reveal ‘this name’. Let me tell, you all, it was tough to make sense of it all. I think this was the most challenging spell yet. I tried my best to explain somethings from when I was working on translating, I hope I gave you guys more insight.
For the last part “Lion Reign”, the kanji 雷音礼印 here seem to be ateji, meaning that they are just used to phonetically spell out a word, it doesn’t give a proper meaning, in our case Lion Reign, which sounds in Japanese like ‘raion rein’ Rai ( 雷) on ( 音) rei ( 礼)in ( 印). The first two kanji actually have some relation to the theme of this spell, the first being the kanji for thunder/lighting and the second one being for ‘sound’. Rei ( 礼) means ‘gratitude’ and in ( 印) means ‘seal/stamp’. Yet again, Tanaka sensei and their wordplay!
Last thing, on the last page where Tsubaki says ‘dear’ (or precious) friend, the kanji reading is “Shirota Mahiru”. (Tsubaki knows that Mahi is Kuro’s weakness;;)
And that’s about all I wanted to say. This chapter, while it was short and not had much dialogue, it still took a while because I mulled over the spell.
NOTES: Hoo-wee, it sure took a lot for some phrases which I hope that I understood well enough.
Alright, so the first note is about the names that Lawless lists (now we know that Ophelia was his fifth Eve, and as we have seen, she was the dearest to him, notice how there are ellipses, indicating that he paused before he said her name (poor Hyde ;;) and does the same for Licht.
It’s interesting to note that Hyde apparently had other Eves of Japanese origin (Sayoko being the most evident), but the other names such as “May” could have also been “Mei”(メイ). Written in katakana like this, it could be either spelling. There was also カンナ which could be the Japanese “Kanna”, but it could be Cana/Canna from what I could find.
Thus, Hyde could have had more Eves with Japanese origin (besides Sayoko), which makes us wonder if he travelled in Japan in the past and thus this isn’t his first time in the country, or if he met those Eves in other countries.
Some of the other names there are in reference to the characters from Shakespeare’s plays: Caesar (The Tragedy of Julius Caesar), Horatio(Hamlet),Edmund(King Lear). Edmund was also the name of William Shakespeare’s brother and we also have the name Anne, which could be from Anne Hathaway, William’s wife.
As for the other names such as Liza and Eliza, both are in relation to Elizabeth, which made think of Queen Elizabeth. I’ve written “Milla” based on a character that I like which has the same spelling, but it can also be “Mira”. And before Licht, Hyde’s Eve was an actress, right? So, I guess her name was Iris.
-On page 4, gosh it was a bit difficult to understand what Ildio says there at the end. I kinda felt that when he said ‘that there’s no meaning’, perhaps he didn’t care much about his Eves (maybe he didn’t get attached, in contrast, to Lawless, which we saw to be devastated after Ophelia’s death), because in the end the Eves die before the Servamps.
-Regarding Iori’s spell (its theme is keys and hotels xD), there is a line that could be interpreted differently “King! To you, words are not needed”<-In this line here, instead of the “to”, the word “from” could be another option.
“Friend!To me, you are not needed!”<-Since the speaker was addressing to a ‘friend’, the word was in relation to the word “anata” (you), which was actually the furigana reading for the word ‘heart’, thus the line can be read as “Heart, to me, you are not needed!”
“Tinplatehotel”, again another reading here, the furigana says ‘hotel’ while the kanji reads ‘grave’.
“Sleeping maidens”. Here, I think it might be a possible allusion to the novel “The House of Sleeping Beauties” by Yasunari Kawabata. That line in the spell sounded similar to the novel’s title and it could be a reference, given that the theme is hotels and the novel is about an establishment as well.
“The master key is my axe.” The first thing that came to my mind because it said ‘axe’ and it’s about hotels, I thought of that scene from “The Shining” xD
“Room 606″ I thought I would find something related to an urban legend or something in a novel/movie, but what I’ve found is something that is actually related to a real hotel, which you can read about here
(Tanaka really used a lot of references involving hotels xD For the first lines, I think those were made up by sensei, cause I did not find a reference for them) _______________________________________________________________
200122 MINWOO Official and Jangyoojun Instagram & Juri Twitter Update ~
The first performance of today ended safely~ Fighting until the 29☆ Everybody, good night~♡
We just finished our performance！ Thank you very much to all of you that came！ Thanks to you it was really fun I will work hard until the 29！☆ Everybody good night♡
Very Recently from London edited by Michael Pergolani
PFM in Reading
The English tour of our formation has begun, a tour that will culminate on May 25th at the prestigious Rainbow in London. I was able to listen to PFM live with Patrick for the first time and the experience was exhilarating, because in my opinion, Patrick is one of the most interesting bass players to have appeared on the scene in recent years. The evening ended in glory with the final speech by Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, who joined the Premiata for a quarter of an hour of improvisation. Needless to say, at this point the audience was already as good as cooked and overcooked. So far, the criticisms published in the major British weeklies have been more than positive.
Sounds (18 May): After three years together (only one for the English audience) the group has developed an edgy and elegant style…
Musical express: The melodic part may be their most commercial feature, especially at a time when progressive bands forget the melody often by focusing on cold and clinical music and arrangements. In PFM’s music there is sentiment, heart and enthusiasm….
Only one black spot in this PFM tour in England: I wonder, as well as many others, if Manticore is doing enough for our lineup, and to what extent ELP really have in launching the Premiata as it deserves…
(Here’s another poem that warns against procrastination. It is very similar to “Song of Tomorrows” (《明日歌》) in terms of meaning in the second half. A link to the translation for that poem here.)
Gold Embroidered Garment
By Unknown Poet (Tang dynasty, between 7th to 10th century)
A caution to thee against the gold embroidered garments (1),
And an advice to value thy youthful years.
Cut the flowers whilst they are still blooming,
For when they wither only bare stems shall remain.
—————————-
Notes:
Gold embroidered garments: a metaphor for riches, or an affluent lifestyle.
Gakuen Bungou Stray Dogs - The First Half (Part 1/?)
I decided to do a translation of the au novel that was included as a bonus in the DVD/BD of the anime. The novel is called Gakuen Bungou Stray Dogs (Bungou Stray Dogs School) and is consisted of 2 parts, the first half is included in DVD/BD Vol 2 and the second half is in Vol 8. It is about 80 pages in total. It has also been adapted into a story in the game Bungou Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost so you may find the story familiar.
Below is some of the notes I would like to read before proceeding.
- Please buy the DVD/BD to support the authors if you can.
- I don’t mind if you use bits of it for analysis or credits, but do not repost the whole thing out of Tumblr.
- Feel free to retranslate it if you want, but keep in mind that my translation is not perfect as I am not fluent in neither English nor Japanese.
- I am translating casually at my pace so I can’t promise when the next part will come out. But I will make time for it when I can.
That’s it. Happy reading!
The season of dancing cherry blossoms.
A boy is running along the road to his school.
The boy’s name is Nakajima Atsushi. An ordinary high school student who came to this school with his great ambitions, and with nothing special except for his noticeable white hair.
It is seven in the morning.
He is running down the sloppy way leading to the school, out of breath.
He is going to be late.
It was a bad idea to take a shortcut by a different route than usual just because he overslept a little. To make matter worse, he just started living in this Yokohama this month and it is still a strange land to him. Sometimes, he still forgets the route to school that he just managed to remember one week ago, yet he decided to go straight for a steep bank thinking it would be a shortcut. That was his first mistake. Where is this place? He has no idea.
Atsushi deeply regrets it. At this rate, his brand-new uniform will be stained with mud from the bank. He has to make it in time for homeroom at any cost.
That thought makes Atsushi a little restless. Using the school spire that can be seen from anywhere in the area as a landmark, he continues to run forward blindly. That is the second mistake. He could have just asked someone how to get to the main gate of the school, instead of running a straight line towards such a landmark like a spire. That is because for Atsushi, it is somewhat embarrassing to ask others for directions.
Eventually, Atsushi arrives at the school.
He has arrived but he cannot get in. Because the place he arrives at is the back of the school.
In response to the recent increase in security awareness, the back of the school is now surrounded by a high steel fence. This must be behind the gym, Atsushi takes a guess. It is a long way to the back gate, even farther to the front gate. This is bad, Atsushi finally realizes. The clock on the spire that he can barely see from here tells him that the class is about to start.
There is no choice but to climb up. Atsushi decides.
That is his third mistake.
Atsushi grabs his fingers through the gaps of the black iron fence, and climbs up like a gecko, while making sure not to tear his uniform.
Atsushi has no great strength nor outstanding talent, but he is super strong physically for some reasons. Just like a wild animal, he easily climbs over the fence and lands on the school ground. He makes a weird sound upon landing but fortunately for him, as he looks around, no one seems to have heard it.
It is April now. The rows of cherry trees in the campus are literally singing the spring songs of the world. The flower petals are dancing just like in a movie set. Atsushi runs to the school building.
Then he passes by a huge cherry tree.
It is a magnificent tree. Its overhanging branches are three times the length of those of the other trees. The flower petals tremble in the refreshing morning breeze of spring.
This is where he makes his forth, also his biggest mistake.
He stops there.
Because an unbelievable thing catches his eyes.
From the tree whose outline are highlighted even more by the backlight, something is hanging down.
Or, more precisely, “someone”.
Ah, this is something I should not see. Atsushi thinks reflexively.
The thing which is hanging down from the giant tree by something like a rope, no matter how he looks at it, is not a big bagworm. It is too big for that. It is swaying in the wind and squeaking like a heavy pendulum.
He should have ignored it and walked away but Atsushi reflexively stands still.
And thanks to that, he is able to observe that “someone” more closely.
That is a tall person. Messy hair. From the fluttering uniform, he seems to be a student of this school too. The rope is completely hooked around his neck.
Atsushi’s heart is thumping so hard it hurts. Cold sweats are gathering on his chin.
I have to call the teachers. No, I have to report it first. No, ambulance first!
Atsushi takes out the cellphone that he just learnt to use recently and tries to make a call with his confused brain and his trembling fingers. Wha.. What should I do? Wait a minute, what number is 119?
At that moment, the body starts speaking.
“Woaaaaahhhh…. I slept so well.”
He says so as he swiftly unties the rope and drops himself straight to the ground.
“Gyahhh!!!” Atsushi unconsciously lets out a strange voice in shock.
The tall person tosses away the rope that was tied around his neck, stretches his back, cracks his neck and suddenly strikes a pose by himself. That’s when he notices Atsushi.
“Hey you over there.” The person says, “Yes, you. I’m talking to you.”
Atsushi nervously looks around, praying that the guy is calling to someone rather than himself. However, there is no one but him here.
“You. Put your phone away.”
Atsushi looks at his hand. The phone he was trying to use, is now dialing.
“Huh? Eh? Ah?”
“I told you. Could you please turn it off? I’ve had this a lot. This kind of misunderstanding.”
“M…misunderstanding?”
“What were you trying to do?”
Atsushi is pathetically honest. When he is asked, he answers honestly. “What? … I was trying to call an ambulance…”
“Where is that person who looks like he needs an ambulance here?”
Atsushi finally gets it.
The young man in front of him acts as if nothing has happened. Even though no matter how you look at it, he clearly was putting a rope around the cherry tree to try do… “that”. Even though the red traces of the rough rope are still there on his neck.
What the hell is this? What does this even mean?
“It’s a pain, you know. People like you who made hasty judgements and misread the situation. There are bad days when I was offered flowers and steamed bun under my feet.”
“Eh?“
“I just ate the buns.”
“No, no, not that.” Atsushi waves his hands exaggeratedly. “You said it was a misunderstanding… so that means you were not ha…hanging yourself?”
“I was hanging myself.”
“What?”
“Hanging for health.”
Ahhh… So that’s why…
Atsushi is almost convinced for one second, before he jumps up and says, “There is no such thing!”
“If you don’t know, I will tell you. I have been obsessed with suicide ever since I was a kid. Drowning, jumping, electrocuting. I have tried all kinds of suicide methods, that my body ended up developing a tolerance to suicide. Just a slight and little lethal dose won’t be able to kill me anymore. It can’t be helped so I have no choice but to hang on the trees in the campus every day to sleep. It is super convenient because I don’t have to go to and from school. It is also easier to fall asleep. In addition, it has so many benefits, such as stretching your spine, improving blood circulation, removing toxins, and activating the immune system. You should definitely give it a try.”
“I won’t.”
“People say it a lot, you know: If it is for your health, it is okay to die.”
“No one says that!”
Atsushi is confused to no end. This person looks completely fine. But he doesn’t understand anything other than that. He has an idea that the other was telling him that everything was okay because it was not a suicide and also explained the reason to him, but the explanation part just slips right off the surface of his brain, leaving him totally clueless in the end.
At that moment, the first bell rings, indicating that classes are going to start. Atsushi comes back to his sense.
“Nooo! I’m late!”
He jumps up, remembering the situation he is in. “I’m late for class!”
“What? You are getting all worked up about such a thing?”
“Such a thing” is quite a way to put it, Atsushi thinks to himself. Judging from the uniform, this guy must be a student of this school, too. If so, shouldn’t he be just as rushed as Atsushi when the bell rings? As he gives the young man in the uniform that look, the other smiles suggestively.
“It makes sense if you are late for half a day. But this much? There is no need to rush. Okay then, this is not my paying back for causing you troubles, but I will teach you my method to prevent being late.”
“Huh?”
Method to prevent being late? A question mark pops up above Atsushi’s head.
There is no preventive measure for people who are about to be late at this very moment. The first bell just now was to mark two minutes before the start of class. Even if he runs from here, he will not be able to make it in two minutes. This is not something that can be solved with a little preparation or tricks.
“What is your name?”
The young man points at him, so honest Atsushi answers honestly.
“Nakajima… Atsushi.”
“Come with me, Atsushi-kun. My name is Dazai Osamu.”
Dazai Osamu. Atsushi repeats the name in his head.
“You look like a new student, right? Then let’s go, to our school.” The young man named Dazai chuckles as he says that.
“Let me tell you about the many strange and bizarre people of this school, and suicide enthusiast is not even one of them.”
Somehow Atsushi feels as if he has been fooled by a fox.
He will eventually understand.
That “the many strange and bizarre people of this school” is neither a metaphor nor an exaggeration, it is literally what it sounds.
***
A scary thing has happened.
Things went exactly as Dazai said.
Atsushi entered the class a whole 30 minutes late, yet he received no scolding nor punishment. He smoothly went in like the air, and after exchanging a word or two with the teacher, he was assigned to his seat with no problem.
Atsushi looks at the piece of paper in his hand as if he is daydreaming.
A tardy slip.
That is what Dazai gave Atsushi.
The document clearly states that his late arrival is reasonable, with the signature of the teacher giving permission. It has today’s date and Atsushi’s name, too. It is a genuine certificate, no matter how you look at it. As long as Atsushi has this, his late arrival will be treated as fair.
This must be magic.
How in the world could Dazai prepare this kind of document?
The mere sight of someone hanging themselves first thing in the morning is quite enough for a traumatic event that can scar the witness for the rest of his life. But to see the hanging person come out completely fine and cast some kind of magic to turn his late arrival into nothing? No one would believe that. Who in the world is that student Dazai? Is he even real?
In the mean time, the morning class passes by in a flash.
The boy sitting next to Atsushi in class was sleeping the whole time. He is a classmate called Miyazawa Kenji. He was sleeping with an extremely peaceful face and showed no sign of waking up even during recess. He looked so relaxed. Is he okay? Why is no one waking him up? Atsushi felt a little restless but Kenji finally woke up just before noon as his stomach started to growl. And after that he was taking classes so normally and happily. It seems that he didn’t sleep in class because he is a delinquent or a rebel. He just slept because he was sleepy.
How wonderful it would to be if I could live like that, Atsushi thinks.
Just like that, the morning passes and the bell rings for the lunch break. While everyone starts leaving their seats one by one to go for lunch, all of a sudden, the math teacher who has been teaching the class until just now approaches Atsushi and says.
“Nakajima Atsushi. Come to the staff room. I have something to talk to you.”
For someone who sees himself as an ordinary and timid high school student like Atsushi, being summoned to the staff room must be the biggest incident of the century. He may look like this, but he is just a shy boy who has been keeping his head low and walking as quietly as possible just so as not to cause troubles or be noticed by the teachers or the delinquents, even since he attended this school one week ago. Now that he is being called to the staff room by himself and having absolutely no hint why he was being summoned, he cannot keep his calm at all. Atsushi’s temperature drops steadily. His arms and legs are shivering, and the long tuft of hair on his right ears is shaking with fear.
“Excuse me.”
Everyone in the staff room looks at Atsushi as he makes a 90-degree bow and enters the room. That alone is enough to make him break out in cold sweat.
Atsushi tries to stand firm on his shaking legs and walks toward the math teacher that called out to him a while ago.
“What can I do for you, Kunikida-sensei?”
As Atsushi says so, the teacher, who is sipping Japanese tea, glares up at him.
“What can you do for me?”
The math teacher called Kunikida looked at Atsushi with the sharp eyes behind his glasses. That is the gaze of Kunikida-sensei, known as one of the most terrifying looks among the teachers’ in this school. Female students who try to start a normal conversation with him end up crying sometimes. His rectangle glasses do not help with softening the atmosphere at all.
“Nakajima Atsushi, right?” Kunikida-sensei speaks slowly as he sits on his chair. “What is your relationship with Dazai?”
“… Eh?”
The question comes from such an unexpected direction that Atsushi, who was just called to the staff room and met with such scary eyes that he was thinking of crying, can’t get it for a moment.
“I said Dazai. Don’t tell me you have forgotten. Didn’t you get this tardy slip from him today?”
Now he remembers. About the magic tardy slip that has saved him from being late today, and the authorization signature of the teacher in charge. It is no doubt Kunikida-sensei in front of him, whose name is written there. In other words, Dazai has had this Kunikida-sensei write that tardy slip?
Come to think of it, he is pretty sure that Dazai said he was going to get a tardy slip for himself too, which means this Kunikida-sensei has issued the tardy slips for both Dazai and Atsushi.
Tardy slips can be issued only for unavoidable reasons, such as sudden illnesses, events, or family issues. There are no justifiable reasons for Atsushi, who was late because he arrived at the back door and had to climb up the fence, or Dazai, who was just hanging himself on the cherry tree. In other words, this Kunikida-sensei has issued a justifiable tardy slip for Atsushi’s unjustifiable late arrival.
For what?
He doesn’t know.
Atsushi thinks about it, but he can’t understand, so he expresses his gratefulness without thinking much. “Thank you for issuing the tardy slip for me.”
“Thanking me for what?” Kunikida pounds the table. Atsushi jumps up.
“Are you one of his kind, brat? He is a demon who always pulls out my weaknesses from absolutely groundless sources and threatens me for tardy slips. Every time he appears out of nowhere, he shatters my plans and my ideals into pieces before disappearing again. The other day, he appeared right before my payday and somehow found out how much I was paid and even used a mistake I made on the night of the teachers’ year end party to threaten me and…”
Kunida suddenly stops as he notices the looks and whispering from the surrounding.
Then he stays still for a moment as if his battery has run out, before letting out a big cough.
“Anyway.”
“Yes?”
I want to hear a bit more of that story, Atsushi thinks.
“His… Dazai’s personal conduct is an eyesore to me. But he always has his escape route prepared and manages to get away cunningly. On top of it, he has a position in this school, so even teachers cannot expel him as we wish.
“Position?”
“This.”
Kunikida says as he holds out a piece of paper.
That paper, printed in an official layout, shows the activities records as well as incomes and expenditures report of a certain organization.
“Student Council…”
“I am the advisor there.”
Atsushi stares at the name of that Student Council.
What a strange name for a student council. That’s what he thinks.
The paper has the names of the Student Council members written on it. And Dazai is one of them.
“I have been thinking about this for a long time. I need a bell on Dazai’s neck.”
“A bell?”
“A bell that rings when he moves. His methods are deeply-rooted and unbelievably ingenious that there is nothing I can do to punish him. For the time being, I will put you under his wing, brat. Report to me when he tries to do anything.”
Atsushi makes a face showing he is troubled and wants to refuse. Kunikida who sensibly observes that tells him that he will cancel today’s tardy slip if he refuses. Atsushi therefore has no way to retreat.
Still, Atsushi thinks to himself.
A group with that Dazai as a member, and with a name that smells danger on top of that. This student council might not be an ordinary organization at all.
The innate animal instinct sends a chill through his back, making him shiver. It is the right intuition.
Atsushi then takes another glance at the name of the student council written on the paper.
I gather my courage to reach out to my favourite tegaki artist on Twitter to ask if I can translate and make subtitles in English for her videos and she said yes!!!
So this video is the first one I did and also my most favourite Dazai video from her. Her choice of songs and lyrics are so on point I recommend to watch it with captions on
Song: Batsubyou (Anchors Aweigh)
Vocal: Megurine Luka
Vocaloid P: Nanahoshi Kangengakudan
Tegaki video: Enoki
You are free to use my translation for the song, but do NOT reupload the video anywhere without the permission from the artist.
Mars Bar, a Latin poem by Herbert H Huxley (please read this out loud):
Est praedulcis esu Mars-Bar. Nil est cibo tuo, Mars, par. Tune vis beatum larem? Habe promptum Martem-Barem. Captus dono Martis-Baris Helenam liquisset Paris. Dum natabunt ponto scari, Dentur laudes Marti-Bari!
*scarus is a type of fish (the parrotfish)
My (loose) English translation:
Outstandingly sweet is the Mars Bar, To your food, Mars, there is no par. Do you need some holy favour? Offer up the Mar Bars’ flavour. Paris would never have been a felon, if offered a bar in place of Helen. As long as fish swim in the sea, praises to the Mars Bar be!
(I found this poem on the Wikipedia page for The Motor Bus, which is also an incredibly funny poem for anyone who knows anything at all about the Latin language.)
MDZS translation by dragongirlG: ch 100 - wangxian in Guanyin Temple
Happy almost-Valentine’s Day and almost-Lantern Festival 2022! I’m super excited to share my fan translation of MDZS chapter 100, featuring Wei Wuxian’s famous love confession to Lan Wangji. As with chapter 1, I included footnotes with my notes and references, and a preface with my translation goals.
Reblogs and positive feedback are always appreciated!
for91valechan, the most patient Seijou fan around. thanks for all the supportive comments, and sorry it took so long. :)
A certain location in Tokyo, soon before rehearsals begin. Worry Kinoshita, Suga Kenta, Kimura Tatsunari, Asuma Kousuke, and Kohatsu Allen meet for a strategy session. Looking ahead to the curtain rising on Karasuno vs Aoba Jousai (Seijou), an encounter brewing since shoen, they opened up to each other…
“Karasuno rule the skies, and Seijou wield the wind.”
– With “Winners and Losers” coming up, how do you look back on the last show, “Karasuno, Revival”?
Worry: First, shoen was very well-received, and enjoyable for me to create as well. That’s precisely why, after having gone through saien, I wanted to make something completely different for “Karasuno, Revival"… As a result, because we were able to test out a lot of different things and confirm that yes, this production has even greater potential, it conversely made "Winners and Losers” easier to do. From the creator’s perspective, we were able to include a lot of foreshadowing in the last show, so I’m looking forward to calling those things back up – “Now it’s finally time for that one line.”
Suga: I… was a little worried about [Revival]. There was a certain amount of time between the saien finale and rehearsals beginning again… so then for a second I was like “Huh? How did we do that, again?” Personally, I felt that because we were tackling a brand-new production, it would be pointless to do the exact same things that I did before, as Hinata, and that I had to make use of what I’d learned in other settings since then… On the other hand, sometimes that feeling was too strong and I ended up spinning my wheels. I was trying to force polish on unstable foundations, and it made the start a little stressful. But as Karasuno came together and constructed the matches, and everyone around me closed in on their characters, I thought “Right, this is what it was like”, and was able to get it back on instinct. I do remember that.
Kimura: I… thought about what was coming next a lot.
– “Foreshadowing.”
Kimura: Right. I’d watch [Nekoma] thinking, I want to steal Kozume’s plays to fight back against Oikawa in the next match, and I thought a lot about how I’d take my next positions. “If I say this line this way now, that could narrow the development next time. So then how should I…”
Worry: I see. Deep as usual, Tatsunari.
– Seijou was represented by two players.
Asuma: It was pretty rough… that fence.
Kohatsu: Totally.
Suga: Uh, no! You just carried it a little! It was not that big a deal.
Worry/Kimura/Asuma/Kohatsu: (laughter)
– You were a sympathetic presence for the audience, explaining what happened in the match.
Kohatsu: We didn’t have a match of our own, so all through rehearsals I was paying attention, objectively, to “What does it mean to create a match from step one?” Like, watching Nekoma and Date Kougyou each band together, I wondered, “What color is Seijou?” There weren’t exactly a lot of opportunities for us to sit back and look around and think through our issues deliberately, so I feel like I absorbed a lot by osmosis.
Asuma: Allen-kun came in for the rerun, but in “Karasuno, Revival” we were really able to carve out a lot of “ah-un no kokyuu” time and improve our communication. Allen-kun took the lead in a lot of task, so our sense of trust was also excellent. I think that period will be very helpful for “Winners and Losers”. And my personal challenge was to see the whole play from the audience’s perspective… That will still apply, but I’ve become more aware of the condition of everyone on stage. “They’re having a really good time,” “They seem tired today,” “Oops, their real feelings are coming out.” (laughs)
Kohatsu: (laughs) Yeah, we’d also ad lib conversations like “He just wiped out!” and “I wonder if he’s okay” off mic on the other side of the fence.
Asuma: Yeah, yeah.
– And now you’ve arrived at “Winners and Losers”. The bloodbath between Karasuno and Seijou!
Asuma: This time I’ll be part of the match from the beginning, which is unknown territory… I wonder how we can face up to Karasuno, now that they’ve done three productions together and have a stronger sense of unity than we do.
Kohatsu: It’ll be fine. You’re the only one in Seijou who’s been in every production so far, after all. You’ve spent as much time in Haikyuu stage as Karasuno have.
Asuma: Oh, right.
Suga: So weak~ Hey!
Worry/Kimura: (laughter)
– Tell us about the directorial themes of this production.
Worry: There’s quite a few… One is “wind”. If pushed I’d say that up til now the big focus has been on the “character”, like the establishment of Karasuno as a team, or what the Hinata-Kageyama combo see and how they evolve together. Like, last time there was “the losers’ stories.” But this time I want to make volleyball a little more… I want to depict that special sense of being on-court. That tingling feeling you get on-court, things like that that are portrayed in the manga. You might say “space” rather than “people”. And then, what if a tremendous wind blew through the court. The moment you cross that line, you don’t know where the wind will blow next, and the storm’s already there. Isn’t it interesting to think of them as fighting amidst such a tempestous wind? That’s where I want to have the audience “enter” the court more than they ever have before, and the actors to embody the feeling of being in the middle of something special.
– “Wind.” Show something invisible to the eye.
Worry: That’s right. I think that’s the real thrill of theater. I want to compose it as flight, Karasuno ruling the skies versus Seijou wielding the wind.
Suga: Wind, huh. Seijou are so cool.
– Plot-wise, the focus is on the three setters. There’s that memorable line, “A setter is like a conductor.”
Worry: Mmhm. I discussed that with Wada-kun, who does the music, about how the image this time should be an orchestra. Position the three sets as first movement, second movement, third movement, and in principle always have music playing… We decided on a creative style where it seems as if the music is coming from the players themselves. Everyone will have to think of the music as they play their parts much more than they have thus far. In more concrete terms, the three setters will literally be conductors… Have you been doing your homework?
Asuma: I’ve been watching the videos you told us about. Ozawa Seiji-san and so on.
Kimura: Conductors… Then I want a baton.
Worry: Oh, that could work.
“On stage, we want them to know how serious we are.”
– We’re holding this discussion shortly before rehearsals begin, but what do you think the highlights will be this time?
Suga: Hinata’s highlight will be far and away the wide broad (moving attack), I think, but as a Haikyuu fan, it has to be Sugawara’s storyline. Sugawara’s “Not ‘win for me’ but ’we’re going to win.’” That’s a really great scene, so I wonder how (Ino) Hiroki and Worry-san are going to portray it… I can’t help being excited for it.
Worry: Ah, that part. When Sugawara comes out all at once the story changes, so I think in that moment, he’s the one who first sends a wind blowing through the court. It’s an important point.
Kimura: I’m already like, “Will we have enough rehearsal time?” Because we have to do this and that and this too… I feel like the staff. (laughs) All I can think is that if we don’t draw up a proper rehearsal schedule we’ll run out of time.
Worry/Suga/Asuma/Kohatsu: (huge laugh)
Kimura: I mean, you can’t just create the outline of the match. Matching the acting of emotion with the performance… You have to put together what’s inside, too. For Kageyama, I stay conscious of the fact that everyone’s always watching him, and go down to the finest details.
– It’s not just the match in the present, there’s an abundance of flashback scenes as well.
Worry: The plan is to go back and forth a bunch, so of course that’s one of the highlights. You’ll see parts of Seijou that haven’t been shown yet, and there’s a bit of an interesting plan for it.
Kohatsu: That’s right~ I was surprised when I read the script. (laughs)
Asuma: I remembered all over again that I need to value those connections.
Kohatsu: Seijou have to put a lot of pressure on Karasuno. Like when Watari makes a toss and Nishinoya’s like, no way!, and the jump serve’s still insane!, and stuff… right.
Asuma: Right. We want to express all the members of Seijou, so I want to think about our presentation as far as how and where we draw attention.
– In this show, Oikawa seems almost like a completely different person from the Oikawa we knew before.
Asuma: That’s right. The side he hasn’t shown yet starts to appear more and more.
Worry: I think Oikawa’s a monster. So if Kousuke can get ahold of that interestingness… If he isn’t shallow and truly interprets the material, it will be a great experience for him as an actor. Conversely, if he can’t figure it out, his existence as an actor might be in jeopardy.
Suga/Kimura/Kohatsu: Ooooh.
Worry: That’s how interesting a character Oikawa is. Especially this time. Kousuke, I want you to fully understand the appeal of theater here.
Asuma: …Yessir.
– Has team spirit increased?
Kohatsu: Karasuno have been doing this since shoen so of course they’ve gotten better and better at volleyball. When Seijou all gathered, Worry-san told us, “It’s not just the match, you can’t lose there either. Make sure each one of you does what you can behind the scenes, and in the meantime get ready to do whatever may come.”
Suga: Karasuno is… still the type who can’t really hold proper meetings. (laughs) There’s a surprising number of guys who will end up brooding over it if someone says something to them.
Kimura: For sure.
Suga: But! I think we have to get over that this time. Just in gathering together all the things different people have thought up, Karasuno will fix itself here as Karasuno. We should also probe our passion and momentum all the way through, like we always have so far. it’s just, it would be amazing if that could be even greater and more expansive [than before]. For that reason, I think it’s necessary we make time for deliberate discussion and consideration.
Worry: When things seem all over the place, Kenta as zachou will always say one word, like “This one,” and everyone will jerk around to the same direction. I think that contributed to their sense of unity… Well, but if you feel like that now, Kenta… Is the message there “Stop counting on me”?
– “If someone says something to you, don’t be afraid to feel the pressure.”
Worry: Yeah. I think that’s a very good thing.
– So, if you were to say what you feel has improved over the previous productions?
Suga: How much we want to be circus performers. (laughs) Each time, there’s different things asked of us… In our physical expression. We’re really learning that you have to use your body perform. And getting that conveyed to actors of our generation – the increasing number of people who tell us, “Haikyuu’s amazing. I’ve been hearing about it. I’ve been watching it,” makes me thankful. I’m glad. And I want to get far enough until adults who say this and that about 2.5D shows will instead just say, “Yeah, I know Haikyuu stage”. I will. Absolutely!
Kimura: First and foremost, I can’t believe that the next show will be our fourth, if you include saien. In a short span of time we’ve really fought tooth and nail. Like Kenta said, Worry-san’s told us “I want you to work on this” about plenty of problems, and it’s important to clear those one by one, and it’s not just that, I think it’s our job to present Worry-san with infinite possibilities. I want him to think, “Damn, you guys can do anything!” and “Wow, Kimura Tatsunari’s good.” Of course the audience will be watching, since this is a play, but for me this comes first. I’m convinced that if you earn the director’s trust a good play will naturally follow.
Asuma: My theatrical debut was Haikyuu stage shoen, so I’ve always felt like this is truly everything I know. At first I didn’t know how to count a rhythm, I was starting from, like, where’s first position? Which is stage left and which is stage right?? …Now I’ve gotten more experience and it’s finally time for a full match. I want to play a match soon!
Kohatsu: Yeah, I want to play a match~ I’ve always been watching. The more I watch, the more the feeling “I want to play a match soon!” gets stronger and stronger.
Suga: That frustration is part of why I’m looking forward to our fight with Seijou. I can’t wait. Because when you say just that one word, “watching”, it’s like there’s a corresponding explosive power, or like, a heat and passion you’ve been saving up that will come out. I won’t accept anything less. I want us to know each other’s true commitment on stage.
– It’s no surprise that you’re already on fire.
Kimura: We can’t calm down. (laughs)
Kohatsu: The Seijou members are all looking forward to going up against Karasuno as one. In this fight between two separate schools we want to show the audience a single sense of unity, and for them to understand the color of Seijou with Oikawa at our heart. Obviously the passion of the work itself, plus the things all of Seijou hold, and the things we want. We want to show everything, so that they understand us.
Asuma: Our most important job is to strengthen the teamwork that says “This is the type of team Seijou is.” Then there’s the setter showdown between Oikawa and Kageyama… Tobio-chan. I want the audience to enjoy the drama at the heart of the story. On the staging side, there will be a lot of new portrayals of volleyball itself, and as a former volleyball player, I want to do my best to convey the attraction of volleyball as a sport.
Kimura: I’m going to play Kageyama the setter, rawer than anyone, shining brighter than anyone. I’m sure many things will come up between now and opening night, but together we’ll overcome them and finish something great by the time we show it to the audience… I expect. I’m excited to see how we look in a month. And I believe that throughout the run we’ll keep growing, in the most enjoyable way.
Suga: “Winners and Losers” features a match that’s a major part of the original manga, a storyline where as a team Karasuno becomes truly complete. So that no one forgets that we create this production together, we want to use in full everything we’ve done so far as the Haikyuu Theater Troupe, and create a play that everyone reading the pamphlet now will enjoy… We did, right? Yes, we did! This is the story of the people entrusted with the ball, the setters. I personally am excited for the changes that might also change how we look on stage, and I’m glad that I’ll be able to see them from up closest of all. Of course, I also want everyone in the audience to enter the court with us, and be able to experience that feeling.
Worry: A new stage of development. The production spectacles will further increase. And I know the actors won’t lose to that… These people understand that theater is dependent on their physical selves, so as the spectacle increases so does their fervor. They’ll show us that in this play. Although we create in fine detail, the heated drama occurs right there right then. And… by all means, don’t forget what’s waiting ahead, the vivid final scene so evocative of high school. We’re going to bring back that feeling of that time, “I want to go back to high school,” or “I want to play volleyball,” or even conversely to bring back to life negative emotions like “Club was so hard on me” – and for those who didn’t have those experiences, a feeling so true-to-life they almost hallucinate that they did.
ALT
