Talk:Suzumiya Haruhi:Volume1 Prologue

Resolved Issues

The previous discussion regarding a disputed lack of literal translation has been moved to the forum. Please click on the following link to view it: Not literal enough?

Open Translation Issues

Differences with the stratos translation

This is an experiment where I go through and note discrepancies between stratos' translation and the current wiki translation. This section is intended to be edited as things get resolved, and as new discrepancies are found. Depending on how many people edit this, we can either append signatures so that the last editor is the last signature seen, or we can just leave only the last N editors, if it gets too unwieldy.

I believe the best way is to mark a section fixed, along with your signature, and later if there seem to be no objections to the changes, that section can be removed.

Note that I'm not necessarily making a judgment, just noting what I see as different, though I do, of course, give my opinions in the comments. I don't expect most of these changes to be applied, but I feel that we should still note any subtle translation differences in a side note like this, just as a service to readers.

It is interesting to note that many of these discrepancies I note are the same ones pointed out by Cardcaptor on this same talk page. (Or at least it USED to be on this same page. Follow this link for the text.) This gives me an extra bit of confidence in stratos' interpretations.

Also, it may seem like I'm picking on the current translation, but that's because this is the one I'm editing. There are English mistakes in the stratos translation as well, but that's not the point of this exercise. And I can't really say anything as to mistakes in translation.

format:

This line is the current translation.

The following indented line is stratos' translation.

(Any following line in parentheses is a comment on the difference between the two.)

differences:

Although I had never seen my mom kiss Santa Claus

without having to see Mommy kissing Santa Claus.

(this exactly mirrors the famous lyrics to that song.)

imprisoned in a bowl-like fortress.

imprisoned within a giant, transparent pea shell.

used my ... trusty laser gun to fight against villains from the future trying to change history

Repel a laser-wielding time traveler trying to change history

against evil mutants.

against evil espers

didn't make my pencil move a single millimeter

didn't even move it a micron.

I couldn't help but get depressed at how normal the laws of physics were.

One has to admire how well the laws of physics were written.

because I finally convinced myself it was impossible.

They can't possibly exist... though I kind of wish they did.

I even reached a point where I only had a sense of nostalgia for those things.

So I suppose my ability to hold convictions while accepting reality is a sign that I've matured.

(no real parallels, except nostalgia hints at maturity, e.g. time having passed)

--The naming game 22:42, 19 August 2006 (PDT)