Aug 31, 2017 10:49
6 yrs ago
Japanese term
Italy
色と数だけ
Non-PRO
Japanese to English
Art/Literary
Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
Dear ProZ members,
I have a doubt about this sentence taken from a cartoon. A warrior planted some seeds in his opponents, and as the flowers bloom they steal his emotions. The warrior says:
咲き乱れた花の色と数だけ根付いた相手の感情を奪う
The flowers bloom in various colors, and there are more flowers of each color.
My problem is 色と数だけ. Is that と just connecting 色 and 数 ("the colors and numbers of the flowers")? Or is と数だけ to be considered together ("the number of the colors of the flowers")?
How would you translate it?
1) They steal the emotions of the one they took root in, in a quantity equal to the colors of the flowers (three different colors, three emotions stolen).
2) They steal the emotions of the one they took root in, in a quantity equal to the colors and numbers of the flowers (maybe "three different colors, three emotions stolen", and then "a lot of white flowers, a lot of that particular emotion stolen").
Thank you very much!
I have a doubt about this sentence taken from a cartoon. A warrior planted some seeds in his opponents, and as the flowers bloom they steal his emotions. The warrior says:
咲き乱れた花の色と数だけ根付いた相手の感情を奪う
The flowers bloom in various colors, and there are more flowers of each color.
My problem is 色と数だけ. Is that と just connecting 色 and 数 ("the colors and numbers of the flowers")? Or is と数だけ to be considered together ("the number of the colors of the flowers")?
How would you translate it?
1) They steal the emotions of the one they took root in, in a quantity equal to the colors of the flowers (three different colors, three emotions stolen).
2) They steal the emotions of the one they took root in, in a quantity equal to the colors and numbers of the flowers (maybe "three different colors, three emotions stolen", and then "a lot of white flowers, a lot of that particular emotion stolen").
Thank you very much!
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 | as many emotions as the flowers that come in a wide variety of colours |
Port City
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Proposed translations
2 hrs
Selected
as many emotions as the flowers that come in a wide variety of colours
Literally, 2) but I don't think it is worth the efforts to translate it so literally. I think what the warrior wanted to say is something like:
I will steal as many emotions as the flowers that come in a wide variety of colours.
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Note added at 2 hrs (2017-08-31 13:34:01 GMT)
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Translators need to grab the meaning correctly, but when it comes to translating a comic, which people read for entertainment, I think accuracy can give way to readability. At least it shouldn't sound like an excerpt from a math book ...
I will steal as many emotions as the flowers that come in a wide variety of colours.
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Note added at 2 hrs (2017-08-31 13:34:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Translators need to grab the meaning correctly, but when it comes to translating a comic, which people read for entertainment, I think accuracy can give way to readability. At least it shouldn't sound like an excerpt from a math book ...
Note from asker:
| Thanks for your answer! Of course I'll try to find a structure that fits the character and the context, now I'm only trying to get the correct meaning of the sentence. Seeing the development of the scene, I think the author wants to be quite accurate when describing the effect of the flowers. 奪う certainly refers to the flowers, and not to the speaker. I'll add some other detail that could be useful. - At a certain point, the person whose emotions are being stealed reacts angrily, but after some time our character says that "you just lost anger", and his anger actually disappears at all in a single moment (not gradually). - In the end, our man reacts and a lot of white flowers bloom. The speaker comments that "the petals have no colour, so they're not emotions. His will seems to have materialized here!". Do you think this changes something? Also, to understand: is my number 1 attempt grammatically impossibile? Meaning: can 色と数だけ be interpreted in only one way? Thank you for your patience! |
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you very much for your patience! This sentence puzzled me a bit."
Discussion
I think it's the speaker that steals the emotions by using the flowers. Flowers do the stealing but they are just a medium used by the speaker. So, I would say it's the speaker that 奪う. (Well, I can't say it's wrong to interpretate it as the flowers as the subject, though.)
The additional information doesn't make much difference in my understanding of the term in question.
Your option 1. doesn't seem correct because it would be 花の色の数. But the second option isn't problem-free, either, because the total number of flowers of any colour is the number of flowers. (Well, that's one reason why I said the term doesn't need to be translated literally because it doesn't seem logical enough to justify literal translation ...)