The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread.

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

As far as I know, older games such as on the Super Famicom couldn’t have furigana because the resolution was too low for the characters to be readable. Even if the FFVI *did* have furigana, since you know so little Japanese it wouldn’t make much difference, you’d still have no clue what anyone was saying. I’m not saying *don’t* try to play games in Japanese, just that if you do, you’re going to have a tough time of it because even the entirety of TextFugu covers very little. I guess it helps if you’ve played the games before though.

https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=final+fantasy+6&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ul_kUpvfK7Cv7AbnkoCwCw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=643#q=%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%82%B8%E3%83%BC6&tbm=isch
All the battle and menu screens for FFVI seem to be kana-only, whereas the dialogue boxes use kanji too.

[rohMember]

Hello
got good with translating but got stuck in something that does not really make sense. what i did not understand is 燕. here is the full text (split in lines as it appears in the game).
鉄、　火薬、　燕気機関
人々は機械の力を使い、　世界を
よみがえらせた

thanks in advance

[JoelMember]

It might be a proper noun. The Tsubameki Organisation. What game is this, exactly?

[rohMember]

final fantasy 6

[rohMember]

ah, i actually found it
it was
蒸気機関　(steam engine)
the resolution was not good so it was hard to figure it out (and look for its meaning)

[JoelMember]

In the context of “Iron, gunpowder, X – using the power of machines, people have revitalised the world”, one could possibly argue that X = “the steam engine” kinda makes sense. =P

But yeah, I hear what you say about resolution. Even on the DS it’s occasionally quite tricky to make out some of the more complex kanji. I’ve also got a copy of Shounen Jump at home, and some of the furigana is so tiny compared to the print resolution that it’s literally just blobs. I’m looking at it, going “… can even native Japanese people read this stuff?”.

[rohMember]

hi again
I got stuck again in a narration in the game. it is actually directly after the previous one. I could translate most of the words but I could not arrange them into something that makes sense (or may be translated them into something far from their meaning)

今またここに伝説となった
「魔法」の力を復活させ
その強大な武力によって
世界を支配しようとする者がいる

there are things that i could not find the meaning of (like させ)
i prefer a ‘literal’ translation. i think this helps me understanding how the language logic goes.

thank you

[JoelMember]

Keeping in mind that Japanese sentence structure tends to be back-to-front to English speakers, here’s my literal-ish translation:

Here and now they became legend.
Reviving with the power of “magic”
that mighty force which they used
to attempt to control the world.

Pretty sure させ = させる = causative form of する

Less literal:

Here and now they became legend, those people who attempted to control the world using that mighty force which they revived with the power of “magic”.

Or something like that.

[rohMember]

hello again.
this time it is just one scentence. one guy said some legendary thing about a city. the other said:
また、がせじゃねえのか？
this should mean: “also, it is nonsense isn’t it?”. is my translation right?
Why would someone say also before nonsense. it should be がせよ　(this is nonsense よ), shouldn’t it?

thanks in advance

[JoelMember]

また primarily means “again”. I’d say it’s something like “You talkin’ nonsense again?”

[rohMember]

hello. thank you for your replies. I got another thing again…
one guy is speaking about a scary girl who is working with them. it looks like the other is telling the first it is ok and we can work as we like. but there is a scentence in the middle which i could not translate properly.

大丈夫。　頭のかざりの力で思考は止まっているはずだ。
俺達の命令で思い通りに動く

the scentence after 大丈夫 is the one i could not understand

thank you in advance

[JoelMember]

“I expect your thoughts are being stopped by the power of the decoration of your head”? Dunno.

I think, but am not at all sure, that “頭のかざり” is some manner of head ornament or decoration of some variety. Think he’s saying her hat is stopping her thoughts from getting out, but without any knowledge of either of the characters involved in this exchange, I couldn’t really hazard a guess.

Also, is there any furigana? Only the meaning of 止まっている changes a fair bit depending on whether it’s read as とまる or とどまる.

One last thing, before I cast any more translations into the silent void, are my posts helping you at all? Are you getting any understanding here? =P

[rohMember]

yes yes surely they do, otherwise you wouldn’t see me here. so thank you a million. i do not reply sometimes because i do not want to flood this thread with too many thank you.

I actually searched for the english translation in the game. and it did say something like that. i avoid the english translated game because sometimes they make up new english conversations with different meanings rather than translating japanese conversations to english equivalent.
the english translation did say the “crown” on her head stops her thoughts and make her follow orders.

now just a little question. i know 止まる (とまる） which is to stop. would you explain what っている is?

thank you.

[JoelMember]

て-form + いる = progressive verb. In this case, 止まっている = “is stopping”.

And yeah. Sometimes they invent new dialogue wholesale in English translations. They call it “localisation”.

[MisterM2402 [Michael]Member]

Joel, you’re on fire :P
You’re going to have translated the whole of FF6 before long.

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