Talk:Suzumiya Haruhi:Volume8 Editor in Chief★Straight Ahead!

Hishimochi-in-the-sky

Hishimochi 菱餅 (diamond-shaped rice cake)

Hishimochi is made of three layers of rice cakes, each of which is colored in green, white and pink respectively from bottom to top.[1] The cake is believed to represent a nature scenery of early spring when green grass starts to grow under white snow while pink blossoms of peach trees come into bloom. [2]

Tsuruya-san says 絵に描いた菱餅, which literally translates to "a drawn portrait of a hishimochi." As Kyon suspected, this is a mild mangling of the saying 絵に描いた餅, or "a drawn portrait of a mochi." It means "perfunctory, nominal, something that is of no practical use: a 'castle in the air.'" There's an interesting read about it (at least for me (^ω^;)) here.

"Pie in the sky" is another common translation of this saying; I chose to use this one since it also refers to a food item. (^ω^;) I think another approach would've been to phrase it as "a boysenberry pie in the sky" or something like that.

Mistranslated/broken english

"I am making serious reformation my slogan. If I formally approve such an unserious brigade, my reputation would crash to the earth. I will not accept it." Please correct this sentence/message?