Talk:Spice & Wolf:Volume1 Chapter 01
The pages posted here are a draft. I'm still learning Japanese and don't have much experience translating, would greatly appreciate it if more skilled people could review my work. In particular, there are many questions I have, both about the text as well as about Japanese in general, I'm hoping they could be answered here as well. Please feel free to discuss any part of the translation by inserting comments immediately below the relevant line, or at the bottom of each section. All comments, from broad stylistic suggestions down to nitpicks are welcome. I don't know whether such a discussion is manageable within the space of one wiki page, let's try this for a few days and see how it goes. Pages will be moved to the main article once they get sufficient review.
Regarding notation used below:
{ } Curly braces indicate furigana for the kanji (possibly more than one) just before it. The start and end are not explicitly indicated so as not to disrupt the text, but generally this should be clear.
(?) Indicates that I'm unsure about the previous sentence. (Okay, I'm unsure about _all_ sentences, given my level of skill, but the ones marked as such I have greater uncertainty about.)
(!) Indicates I'm completely lost.
[ ] Indicates comments/questions I have about the text.
(1) Bracketed numbers indicate comments moved to footnotes due to their length
-/-/- Indicates piecemeal translation. Should be regarded as a placeholder and used as reference for a proper translation.
lit literal
alt alternatively
Thanks. AlephNull 09:21, 9 February 2008 (PST)
Prologue, Page 13
この村では、見事に実った麦穂が風に揺られることお狼が走るという。
In this village, they say that when the resplendently ripened ears of wheat are swaying in the wind, the wolves are running. (1)
風に揺られる様子が、麦畑｛むぎほ｝の中お狼｛オオカミ｝が走ているように見えるからだ。
From their appearance, swaying in the wind, you can make out what seems like wolves running in the wheat fields.
また、風が強すぎて麦穂が倒れることお狼踏まれたといい、不作の時わおお神に食われたという。
Also, they say that when the wind is too strong and the wheat stalks fall over, the wolves have trampled them. When the harvest is poor, it is said that the wolves have eaten it.
上手｛うま｝い表現だが、迷惑なものもあるのが玉に瑕｛きず｝だな、と思った。
All appears well on the exterior, but trouble lurks like a flaw in a gem, so it is thought. (?)
しかし、今となってはちょっとした洒落｛しゃれ｝た言い方になっているだけで、昔のように親しみと恐れおこめてその言葉お使う者わほんとんどいない。
Such things are spoken lightly and casually nowadays, whilst fewer and fewer people say them with the affection and fear of old. (?)(2)
ゆらゆらと揺られる麦穂の間から見える秋の空は何百年も変わらないのに、その下の様子はじつに様変わりおしていた。
Looking up from amidst the gently swaying ears of wheat, while the autumn sky hasn't changed in hundreds of years, the world below has in fact changed completely.
来る年も来る年も、麦お育ててきたこの村の者達も、せいぜい長生きして七十年なのだ。
The people of this village who tend the wheat, passing year after passing year, live for no more than seventy years.
むしろ何百年も変わらないほうが悪いのかもしれない。
If I had to say, then I should say that so many centuries of stasis is bad. (?)(3)
ただ、だからもう昔の約束お律儀｛りちぎ｝に守る必要はないのかもしれないと思った。
Or just, they think it's no longer necessary to honor the agreement of old, perhaps. (?)(4)
何よりも、自分はもうここではひつようとされていないともった。
Ultimately, I feel I'm not needed here anymore.(?)(5)
東にそびえる山のせいで、村の空お流れる雲わたいてい北へと向かっていく。
Because of the mountains rising up in the east, the clouds in the village sky generally drift towards the north.
その雲の流れる先、北の胡郷のことお思い出してため息おつく。
Where they are headed lies the northern country, the memories of which evoke a sigh. [ Too strong? Alt: ", and a sigh escapes as I remember it." ]
視線お空から麦穂戻せば、鼻先で揺れる自慢｛じまん｝の尻尾｛しっぽ｝が目に入った。
Would I return my gaze from the sky to the wheat, I should see my proud tail wagging before my nose. (?)(7)
することもないので尻尾の毛づくろいに取り掛かる。
With nothing else to do, I set about grooming it.
(1) Literally, I think it should be "In this village, the beautifully ripened ears of wheat swaying in the wind _are_ said to be the wolves running.", not merely that there is some correlation between the wheat swaying and the wolves running. But this sounds odd. Same deal with the first half of the third sentence. Best I could come up with was to insert "when", but the text here makes no reference to time, unlike the second half of the third sentence (時). Also, should I go with "it is said", instead of "they say"?
(2) I'm not sure whether Horo here is merely stating an adage she believes in, or whether she thinks that there's actually trouble lurking in this village, maybe the text is deliberately vague ? I suspect the と思った is literal here.
(3) What exactly does むしろ mean? How about "Perchance so many centuries of stasis is bad."?
(4) What does the ただ mean here exactly? There are furigana beside 律儀; could they mean some kind of emphasis? Do authors use furigana for emphasis? Is such emphasis similar to italics in English prose?
(5) What exactly does 何よりも and とされていない mean here?
(7) Should this be "Returning my gaze from the sky to the wheat, I see my proud tail wagging before my nose." instead? Does a ーば suffix always mean a conditional statement? There are also furigana next to 自慢 and 尻尾, even though they are both fairly common compounds. Could this be emphasis as well, representing how Horo regards her tail with special pride? Would italics work here, i.e. proud tail?
