Yamaguchirow omake (Setsuen)

[wombat1138]

Omake break again. There are three of them scattered through "Setsuen" but they're all indirectly linked, appropriately enough.

Some of the lines may be direct quotes from the original manga. I haven't gone back to check. For the format key, check one of the longer translations.

#6#

Kenshin:
= [Tomoe]-no [iinazuke] mo kono [te] de....
= Tomoe's fiance also these hands [P]
-- "And with my own hands, I'd killed Tomoe's fiance, too..."

+++

Kaoru:
= [Kiyosato]-san... dakke
["dakke" seems to a conversational noise that indicates an uncertain memory; not sure of the etymology]
-- "Do you mean... Kiyosato-san?"

+++

She glances at him with a small "?!" while he doesn't say anything.

+++

Him:
= moshikashite
[Variant of "moshi-ka-shitara", a phrase which Kodansha lists as "perhaps" but seems to break down along logical lines more like "if that were to be said"]
-- "I guess so."

Her:
= [namae] [wa]reta to ka?
-- "You forgot his name?"

Him:
= (un)
-- "(...yeah.)"


#15#

Kaoru:
= konna-[koto] shite'te mo | [Tomoe]-san ya [Kiyosato]-san [yoroko]banai-wa yo!
= this-sort-of-thing continuing-to-do | [name] and [name] not-making-happy[T] [mM]
[Interpolating a bit from the wider plot context of Jinchuu]
-- "Your quest for revenge | isn't what Tomoe and Kiyosato would want!"

+++

Enishi:
= urusai
= annoying/noisy/nagging
-- "Oh, shut up."

= (--[Tomoe]-- | --[nee]-san)
-- "(--Tomoe-- | --my sister)"

+++

= (--[nee]-san)
-- "(--my sister)"

+++

Suddenly, he looks up from his reverie.
= (to) dare? | ([Kiyosato] 'tte)
= and who | [name] [quote]
[Flipping the syntax.]
-- "And Kiyosato, you said? | who's that?"

Her:
= o[mae] mo ka
["omae" is a somewhat impolite pronoun.]
-- "You too? What a jerk."


#48#

There's a vague image of Kiyosato floating next to Kaoru in the first panel, but not afterward.

Her:
= [me] datta no de atta [koto] no-nai [Kiyosato]-san-no [koto]-wo [omo]i-mita...
- "omoi" <- "[omo]u" (think up); by analogy with similar construction like "[omo]i-[da]su" (recall from memory; dasu = bring/send out) and "[omo]i-tsuku" (remember something about a person; "tsuku" = attach), "omoi-mita" is the past tense of "omoi-miru": see in thought, mentally envision?
[Does the start of the sentence break up into "...datta-no de-atta" (with two different past forms of the copula? that doesn't make sense) or "datta no-de atta" (but then what does "atta" belong to?)
[There's a linebreak after the first "de", so "de-atta" seems even more unlikely.]
[The single word "[me]datta" could be the past tense of the verb "medatsu" (stand out, be conspicuous); my dictionary writes it with two kanji as [meda]tsu, but hey. Hmm... "medatta-no" could be "the fact of having appeared"?

Corrected(?) transcript:
= [me]datta-no de atta koto no-nai [Kiyosato]-san-no [koto]-wo [omo]imita...
= past-appearance from was[iX] stuff [fM]-not[iX] Kiyosato's stuff[O] envisioned
[Bleh. Resorting to guesswork and reshuffling.
-- "Did something just appear? No, it can't be. I was thinking about Kiyosato..."

+++

Little diagram over her head:
= [Kiyosato]-san--(fuufu)--Tomoe-san--(fuufu)--Kenshin
- "fuufu": married couple

Her:
= to, iu te to wa!!
[Bloody particles. Guessing.]
-- "So... so that's almost like saying..."

+++

Another diagram linking her name with Kiyosato's:
= [fuufu] mo [douzen]!!
- "douzen": natural similarity?
-- "I'm married to Kiyosato too!!"

[I think her speech balloons in this panel just have incoherent squiggles.]

+++

Somewhere else in the house, Wu Heishin looks around.
= BOSU kono [kikoe]-wa? (sakki kara)
- "BOSU": loanword from "voice" or "boss"; I don't know if Wu calls Enishi "bosu" in the original series, though.
= [?] this strange-voice[T] (just-now from)
-- "Boss? What was that weird scream? (just now...)"

Enishi:
= [ki] ni suru na
= spirit in do [P]
- "ki ni suru": idiom for "worry"
- "suru na": brusque prohibition, "don't do that or else!"
-- "Just forget about it."

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I honestly don't understand what is bad in good translation with all copyrights saved. Russian anime fandom is not so big and people prefer making fansubs, not fanfics. Apart from Stasy's thanslations, we almost don't have any RK fanfiction at all. I fell in love with RK thanks to one of them and it worked with not only me. So it's a good thing, right?
With permission or not (for instance, we tried asking Linay, author of Broken Pieces, about three times, but didn't recieve any answer), all translations on Stasy's site have copyrights and links on the original (if we managed to find it). Besides, it's good works without language violation ^_^ though I probably can't prove it to you. ;)
Radda.

[wombat1138.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't understand what is bad in good translation with all copyrights saved.

Especially since, according to US law, fanfic/doujinshi are illegal copyright violations in the first place, so they *can't* be copyrighted at all, and selling them for profit is extremely legally questionable.

Japanese companies don't seem to worry about doujinshi. However, many Japanese fans object to having their artwork cut and pasted into other people's (usually American fans') webpages without identifying the original artists... but if these were individual fan artists (not doujinka) who were simply posting them online to start with, there was no possibility of making money from their art in the first place, and the other websites' copies probably aren't making any money from them either.

I do think that the key step is keeping the identifications for the original author/artist. If something is based on RK, then Nobuhiro Watsuki deserves some form of credit for creating the characters, artwork, and setting. If something is based on a Yamaguchirow doujinshi, Shinji Yamaguchi deserves credit for creating the artwork/story for that. If something uses lines of dialogue from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", then Joss Whedon deserves credit for creating the characters/setting and writing those words (unless he wasn't the specific scriptwriter on the episode they came from, but still). It may not always be legally actionable, but it's just good manners.

What I find really, really interesting is that I *think* there's been a recent trend for some fan artists to first post their fan-art online, and then get a contract to re-use the same art in licensed products, such as Amoka (http://amoka.net/)'s artwork for "A Song of Ice and Fire" (his portfolio shows many, many pictures he's made for the ASOAIF-based collectible card game) and yet still keep the original artwork online. (Well, sometimes revised somewhat if the early art is just too embarrassing, but....)

It doesn't work exactly the same way for written fic-- Cassie Claire got a professional publisher's contract based on her work in fandom, but she has to write entirely new material instead of just reprinting her fanfic in an anthology. Or at least so I've heard; I haven't followed her case very closely, though it may not look that way from recent remarks... some of the things I've heard about her, such as the accusations of plagiarism and the attempts to sell t-shirts, seem rather distasteful, but I do not actually care that much either way, since it has nothing to do with me. *self-centered*