The "OMG WHAT DOES THIS MEAN" Translation Help Thread.

[Jun Kayama]

Sometimes there's something in text that is so far out of the realm of personal experience for a Translator it takes forever to reconcile. I experienced this firsthand not too long ago; there was an exceedingly obscure otaku term which took me about 30 minutes to track down (to intense vexation) before I realized it was written with nonstandard kanji.

So in the interest of reducing dependency on painkillers and antacids for DMG Tanslators, native Japanese speakers or otherwise, I'm starting this thread. It doesn't have to be restricted to Translators, but I'd like to suggest these ground rules observed for courtesy's sake, and hopefully this will serve to help Translators stay away from alcohol.

(1) The whole sentence or bubble, to provide enough context to translate.
(2) An explanation of the scene if possible, to provide further context.
(3) The original Japanese text. Romaji is loaded with too many homonyms.

EDIT: Sometimes, manga artists like to throw up captions or asides in handwriting which looks like a squirrel exploded on the panel. There is nothing wrong with linking a screenshot and asking others for readings.

[dragon_butterfly]

I've my brain crushed on this one:
顔はやめろよ顔は
Since my seme said this after my uke slapped him, I hazarded a guess, "I'll take my face to where it is wanted."
Anyone?

[zhelenstilo]

I've my brain crushed on this one:
顔はやめろよ顔は
Since my seme said this after my uke slapped him, I hazarded a guess, "I'll take my face to where it is wanted."
Anyone?

It sounds like a "don't hit my face" type comment to me. Does your seme do some sort of work where his appearance matters? Or is he vain?

[HiroPon]

I agree with zhelenstilo. I would go with "Hey, not the face".

[Jun Kayama]

The eternal soul of another Translator has been saved.

[dragon_butterfly]

Jun, yes, I was saved indeed by your thread!
Thank you so much, zhelenstilo and HiroPon!
My seme is a host so it all makes sense now.

[coatimundi]

Thanks so much Jun for starting up this thread! And especially for suggesting the bit about asking others to look at hard-to-read handwriting--that is going to save my life.
I couldn't even tell you how long I stared at a simple three-word sentence the other day...Xp

[Arakis]

Here's one for my fellow translators. I think this is a typo, because this kanji combination doesn't actually seem to exist:

律気

I don't see it in any of my resources, print or online. Chances are, it's supposed to be 律儀. Or maybe 健気. Those two seem the most likely given the context and likely kanji/phonetic typos. A bit of online searching suggested it means the former of those two. But I wanted to see if anyone else had ever encountered it before making a final decision.

It didn't seem worth posting the entire sentence here, since the point is simply determining whether it even exists.

[Teishou]

Arakis, have you seen this by any chance?

May answer your question.

[elweeks]

Gotta love Japanese--I'm confused as heck!

Scene BG: Character A is the editor, B is the author, and the editor has been told the author can't do his job because he's obsessed with the editor (more or less) A plans on resigning as B's editor.

This is what B says to A: お前以外の担当が就くくらいなら執筆などしない。
Here's what I want to write: "I won't work with anyone but you"(I won't write at all if someone else becomes my editor)

But because くらい is in there, I also want to read it as --"Just because someone else becomes my editor won't make me write".

Anybody?

(Thanks in advance )