wombat1138: (Default)
[personal profile] wombat1138
This Rurouni Kenshin-based doujinshi story was originally published in the volume Battou and later republished in the second Taboo anthology. Eventually I'm hoping to boil this down to a separate streamlined document that's just translations and narrative. Warning: naughtiness ensues, although perhaps not until I actually add descriptive narrative for the naughty sections.

Format key:
= raw romaji: [kanji], hiragana, KATAKANA, ~character thoughts/commentary~, *sound fx*, words-linked-inna-phrase
= raw gloss: [function words], (elided words)
narrative
[snarky notes]
-- "occasional coherent(ish) translations"

Things I still need to figure out: formatting that does a better job of lining things up, ways to indicate the missing part of an elided syllable, Japanese grammar in general :b Suggestions/corrections by others are more than welcome, and indeed will be enclosed with a mirror and three magatama in a small wooden box in front of which little containers of salt, sake, and cypress twigs will be set.

I have left out rather a lot of the sound fx, as they do get redundant after a while. Pagination is indicated by #1(12)# format, where the primary number is relative to the story itself and the parenthesized one is from Battou. Linebreaks (in the prologue) or balloonbreaks (elsewhere) are indicated with whatever | are called (pipes?), except when they're not. Framebreaks are indicated by "+++". "Prepositions" in Japanese are actually postpositions, and tend to refer back to the preceding word/phrase. This messes me up to no end.



#prologue#

This page is all internal monologue by Kaoru over a misty backdrop that shows her from the waist up, looking wistfully naked or perhaps nakedly wistful, eyes closed and hands clasped over her chest.

= [tabun] [atashi] wa totemo [shiawa]se
= probably I [topic] very happy [copula]

[Shiawase(-na) is one of those weird nounlike adjectives, instead of the other category of weird verblike adjectives that I'd almost gotten used to. Sigh. As such, it only needs the -na when directly applied to a(nother) noun; when used as a predicate, it can get by with the copula. Which is often left out as being understood. Re-sigh.]

= demo [ningen] 'tte sugoku
= even-if person [emotional topic] great

['Tte is further elided via "itte" from to-iu ("and (I) say"); there are other variations such as the (theoretically) past-tense 'tteba. It's generally a simple annoyance marker that's equivalent to the rhetorical English phrase "I said", e.g., Kite 'tte! ("Come here, I said!"). The usage of 'tte as an emotional topic marker in place of "wa" is noted in several online sources, but not in my various books. Obviously I need more books.]

= [tani] ga [fuka]i n'de wa
= valley [subject] deep [emphasis]copula [feminine emotional marker]

[The simplest form of this particular emphasis+copula is n'da, from no-da; the slightly more formal variants are no-desu or n'desu. Like the popular translations as "you know" or "y'know", they're meant to place focus on the factual content of the sentence, but sometimes end up as a mere verbal tic instead. De is the gerund of da, implying a sense of continuation. Also, aside from the immediate literal/metaphorical meanings of tani-ga-fukai, it's also a technical term from the game of Go, where it may refer to a narrow no-man's-land between two opposing lines of stones. Then again, it might not :b ]

-- "I should feel so happy about such a wonderful person, but there's still a deep gulf between us."


= konna-ni soba-ni ite mo
= this-close beside being this-much

= motto soba-ni itai shi
= more beside (see note) and

[Ambiguously, itai can be either an adjective that means "painful/hurty" (it's the usual exclamation in place of "Ouch!") or the desiderative form of iru, the simple form of the animate-existence verb for "to be", for which there are waaaay too many of them in Japanese. Dagnabbit. Why can't they all speak King James English, what with all the begetting they're getting into anyway?]

= motto motto | [chika]ku de motto | motto....
= more more | near(by) being more | lots more....

[Chikai is a verblike adjective. Normally the -ku suffix would mean it had turned into an adverb. Except when it goes into one of those weird continuative/conjunctive forms that I don't quite grok yet, but have something to do with the use of multiple adjectives in the same sentence. I suppose that identifies itai as having been a verb, since it wasn't itaku, but I'll keep the wordplay anyway.]

= [fu]re[a]tte itai shi....
= coming-into-contact (re-note) and....

-- "We're already together so often, but I ache to be even closer. Closer and closer, becoming more near... until we touch, and..."

#1(34)#

Title page: "Soothe Me, by Shinji Yamaguchi" (in English)

Kaoru is standing on the dojo's engawa (porch/veranda thingy), looking much the same as on the previous page except that her eyes are open and she has clothes on (a normal girly kimono, not her kendo gear). She's partially turned away from Kenshin, who is crouched in the courtyard doing laundry and chatting with Yahiko, who is either getting tips on practising with his bamboo sword or goofing off from it. Her internal monologue continues briefly.

= motto anata to...
= more you and...

[Although the Japanese language does have things which are commonly referred to as pronouns, most of them aren't used much. Even in alarmingly intimate situations later on, Kenshin and Kaoru will address each other by name instead of by pronoun. While "anata" can be used in a formal situation with strangers, more often it's reserved for wives addressing their husbands.]

-- "and my love, the more you..."

#2(35)#

= ii you [jou]-chan (tsu)
= good (see note) girl-[cutesy honorific] (see other note)

[In this case, "you" might be the quasi-exclamation-point "yo" with an elongated vowel, or it might be a completely different word that's supposed to have a long O in the first place, a particle which is variously defined in my dictionary as "apparent", "in order to" (after a nonpast verb), or indication of an indirect request between two certain types of verb. However, this sentence no verb.]

[As some may have guessed, "jou-chan" identifies the unseen speaker as Sanosuke, who has unexpectedly appeared to demonstrate poor enunciation. The orphaned "tsu" kana serves as a glottal stop to indicate the abrupt breakoff of a sentence or phrase; in future I'll just indicate it with empty parentheses, or empty square brackets if in katakana (and thus essentially capitalized). MediaBlasters and Viz like to translate "jou-chan" as "Little Missie", which I've never liked. Because I am the boss right now, I shall randomly declare the correct equivalent to be "chicklet".]

-- "Yo, chicklet! How ya--?"

Kaoru (startled): *doki* (heartbeat sound, "ka-THUMP")

+++

Sano:
*KOnn...* (soft knock/cough; "a-HEM"?)
= nan de i- [hiruma] 'kkara BOUtto tsut[ta]tte
= what being ? daytime from doing-nothing standing

-- What's up? You been standin' around spaced out all day?

[The normal quasi-question-mark particle is "ka". Sano is drawing out the vowel on the alternative "i", for which I've retained the original lengthening-indicator dash to avoid confusion with the regular "ii", although I added the extra vowel to elongate the middle of "boutto".]

Kaoru (indignant):
= Sa () [Sanosuke] [nan] demo nai wa yo []
= [name] what anything not [girly emotion] [exclamation point]

[After an interrogative word, "demo" expands the pool to anything/whenever/etc.]

-- "Sa-- Sanosuke, it's nothing like that!" *huff*

+++

Sano (smugly inquisitive):
*FU[]* (evil laugh, "HEH")
= de- se [ku]iMON' no koto demo [kanga]ete 'ta n'daro?
= [wtf][wtof] food/victim 's thing [etc.] thinking (you)-were [emph]must-be?

[I have no clue what "de- se" is. Even more annoyingly, it shows up again later on. Foo upon it. Much, much foo. In this context, "demo" seems to be roughly equivalent to "or something"; most particles have an appalling number of similar-yet-different functions. 'Ta is from "ita", the simple past tense of "iru" (the animate-existence "to be", remember? which is different from the grammatical-equivalence copula).]

-- "(something or other) You musta been thinkin' about some kinda thing to CHEW on, right?"

Kaoru (superdeformed and fangy with rage):
= [chiga]u wa yo!
= different [girly emotion] [exclamation point]

[Technically, the terminal "yo" conveys a form of emphasis along the lines of "in MY opinion" or "*I* think" that's centered on the speaker rather than the semantic content like n'da. It's easier to remember it as an exclamation point. "Chigau" is one of the ten zillion ways of saying "no" without actually saying "no". Sometimes I have to wonder why reference books even bother teaching the negative forms of verbs (and verblike adjectives).]

-- "You are SO wrong!"

in margin beside her:
~ [a]razu shi mo [tou]karazu
-- "Can't be nearby, can't be far" ?

[As written, the original doesn't make sense; although the first kanji is the stem for "hit", it needs another syllable to complete a verb stem. These handwritten margin notes were like to give me hives. The very similar "atarazu to mo toukarazu" is translated elseweb with the meaning above, though I can't tell from that page whether the same kanji were involved. However, my dictionary lists this [tou]karazu as "soon" and the related [tou]ku as "distant"; -zu is a negation suffix (more commonly "nai"); I suspect that -ra- is a phoneme for potentiality, since it's also found in the formal potential form of verbs. "Ataru" and the related "ateru" include in their cluster of meanings "guess correctly" and "strike the target", so the aforementioned translation seems plausible enough, expressing Kaoru's inner conflict over Kenshin.]

[Then again, the apparent typo could also be a heinous pun; if based on a different stem (aru, the inanimate-existence "to be"), "arazu" could mean "it can't be", "that's impossible", or suchlike.]

+++

She storms off.
*dashi dashi* (footsteps; not quite as vehement as "stomp stomp")
= BAKA[]
-- "Idiot!" (huff)

[The two kanji which constitute "baka" normally mean "horse" and "deer". No one knows why.]

Sano (w/ sweatdrop):
= BAKA?
-- "Idiot?"

+++

Kenshin stands up with his bucket o' laundry and belatedly greets (notices?) him. Yahiko has strategically vanished.
= O- [Sano]

[Probably an interrupted "Oro", a verbal tic adapted by Watsuki Nobuhiro from a catchphrase of one of his favorite comedians.]

Sano:
= aa | na- n ka [jou]-chan KARIKARI shite nneE ano [hi] 'tte YATSU ka- ?
= yeah | whaaat ? chicklet crunchy doing [agreement shill] that day [annoyance] person(crude) ?

[By itself, karikari is onomatopoeic, but in conjunction with the (irregular) verb "suru" which follows, it forms an idiom for being bad-tempered. The phrase "ano hi" has a certain anachronistic resonance; although personally I suspect an elaborate personal joke by someone, supposedly a brand of sanitary pads was marketed in post-WWII Japan with the name "Anne no hi" (Anne's day) and a brief quote from the diary of Anne Frank about looking forward to her menarche, therefore inspiring the general euphemism "Anne no hi" for menstruation.]

-- "Yeah" | "What th--? The chicklet is being GRUMPY... say... is it that time of the month? WENCH."

+++

Kenshin looks absurdly pensive.
*mu()* ("grimace")
= sou ieba mou sorosoro de-gozatta kara
= that if-say also soon (was; see note) from

[Kenshin's other trademark verbal tic is the use of some odd forms. He refers to himself as "sessha", literally "lowly person"; instead of the simple copula da (thought to derive from de-aru -- tell me you haven't forgotten the animate-existence verb again), he uses de-gozaru (dunno the etymology); he refers to most women of his acquaintance with the honorific -dono, which was generally reserved for the great feudal lords. Generally it makes more sense to translate -sama as Lord/Lady; although "Mistress" doesn't properly convey the rank, it does give a sense of the archaicism.]

["Sou ieba" is literally "if (someone) says that", but idiomatically more like a tangential topic pivot; instead of using the preceding statement as a necessary basis for what follows, it announces a change of direction.]

-- "Now that you mention it... it seems a bit soon since the last time."

Sano looks discreetly appalled at this revelation.
~da() DANNA~ ("H-- husband!")
= mo... moshimoshi- ()?

[While "moshimoshi" is now the standard phone greeting in Japan, it originated as a folkloric shibboleth; supposedly shapeshifter foxes were unable to pronounce the phrase correctly.]

-- "S-- say what?" (gasp)


+++

Kenshin abruptly changes the subject.
*nipa* (blinding grin)
= shite [kyou] wa [nande] [you] de-gozaru
= doing today [topic] what task [copula]

-- "What are you planning to do today?"

Sano (still w/ sweatdrop):
~ temeE no [hen] wa- [mi] mo do(u)-mo nattoku ikane-
~ [you(semi-rude] 's weird [topic] body nothing very/somehow give-full-consent not-go

["Mi" is not the usual word for "body" and seems to be reserved for stock idioms such as "mi mo kokoro mo uchikomu", to devote one's body and soul to something. However, I *think* that in this case, instead of the "X mo Y mo" (both X and Y) formation, the phrase is actually "mi mo doumo" written with a vowel-lengthening dash.]

[When used with a negative verb, "mo" flips its usual meaning from "too/also" to match it.]

~~ "There's no way even a weird freak like you would somehow give me permission"

= o- OU maa [tai]shita [you] ja ne- n'de ga
= big [interjection] great/serious task is[informal] [agreement-shill]- not-being [subject/emphasis]

["Ja" is contracted from "de wa".]

-- "Uh, no major plans, y'know? Nothin' serious at all."
You may post here only if wombat1138 has given you access; posting by non-Access List accounts has been disabled.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
No Subject Icon Selected
More info about formatting

Profile

wombat1138: (Default)
wombat1138

March 2013

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
1718 1920212223
24 252627282930
31      

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 28th, 2025 10:56 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios