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Catafriggm
03-16-2008, 02:30 PM
I'm trying to practice my ability to understand Japanese by attempting to translate some things I'm interested in for various reasons. The easiest of these is the track list from Mai-HiME OST 1. Most of them I was able to make something of; there are only a couple I'm not even able to make a guess about. However, there are quite a few that it would be good if somebody with serious Japanese knowledge could verify are correct (and in some cases I'm not sure which of several translations is the most accurate). It's possible some of these rely on context in the series, and it's been several years since I watched it. Here's the list of names in Japanese, as well as my word-for-word translations of major words (it's heavily documented because I was going to use it as an example of Japanese for something):

1. 媛 [HiME] 星 [star]
2. 今日 [today] の 始まり [beginning]
3. 夏 [summer]、空 [sky]、海風 [sea breeze]
4. 波乱 [Fuuka] 学園 [academy] 生活 [life/living]
5. 忍び [ninja/stealth] よる [caused by] 影 [shadow]
6. 闇 [darkness] の 舞踏 [dancing]
7. 愕天王 [??] 見参 [meeting]!
8. 優しさ [tenderness/kindness/gracefulness] の 寓話 [fable]
9. まか [??] 不思議 [wonder/miracle/mystery]
10. お腹減った [I'm hungry??]!
11. また [again] 会おう [meet - probable] ね ["right?"/"!"]
12. 夕映え [sunset glow] の 空 [sky]
13. 闇夜 [dark night] へ の 序曲 [prelude]
14. デユラン [Duran] 召還 [recall/summons]
15. 迦具土 [Kagutsuchi] 降臨 [descent]
16. It's Only the Fairy Tale
17. 午後 [afternoon] の 日差し [sunlight]
18. 小さ [smallness] な 幸福 [happiness]
19. 恋 [love/passion] を した [make/be in - past] から [because/after??]...
20. 謎 [puzzle] が 謎 を 呼ぶ [invoke/summon]
21. 夜 [evening] の 底 [bottom] に 沈む [sink/feel depressed]
22. 鴇色 [pink] の 舞 [dance/Mai??]
23. 目覚め [waking]
24. 媛 [HiME] 星 [star] の 静けさ [silence/calm/serenity]

Here's my list of translations so far; I've tried to translate them into English that sounds natural (like it was written by an English speaker), rather than translating more literally.

1. HiME Star
2. This Morning
3. Summer, Sky, Sea Breeze
4. Fuuka Academy Life
5. Ninja's Shadow??
6. Dancing Darkness/Dark Dance?
7. ??
8. Story of Kindness
9. ??
10. I'm Hungry! ??
11. We'll Meet Again, Right?/Let's Meet Again! ?
12. Sunset Sky
13. Prelude to the Dark Night/Beginning of the Dark Night?
14. Duran's Summons/Summoning Duran?
15. Kagutsuchi's Descent
16. It's Only the Fairy Tale
17. Afternoon Sun
18. A Small Happiness?
19. Because We Fell in Love/Because I Fell in Love?
20. Puzzle After Puzzle??
21. Sinking to the Bottom of Night?
22. ??
23. Awakening?
24. Calm of the HiME Star?

Both 7 and 9 each have one word that I haven't been able to figure out what it means. 22 really sounds like it's an idiom or something, so I haven't even written down the literal translation; it reminds me of the Spanish phrase "put on/wear red", meaning to blush.

tetekmakhang
03-18-2008, 11:11 AM
hey good job. you've done a lot of work and research on your part, and this makes it easier for the people trying to help you out. although i am a person who as you put it is "somebody with serious Japanese knowledge", unfortunately i've never heard of this anime before so it can be difficult at times to translate without knowing the context. but i'll try my best :-)

1. ok
2. "this morning" isnt wrong, but why interpret it that far when "the beginning of today" would have already sufficed
3,4 ok
5. perhaps if you had known the full kanji was 忍び寄る, then you wouldn't have made that mistake. 忍び寄る means "to creep up to" or "to draw near unnoticed"
therefore something along the lines of "the shadow that drew near" should be ok
6. dance of darkness
7. i think 愕天王 (pronounced ガクテンオー) is the name of a king or god (i don't know which coz i've never watched the anime before). 見参 is something said by someone when they suddenly appear to draw attention to themselves.
kinda difficult to translate but i guess something along the lines of "Gakutenou has appeared!" should be okay.
8. 寓話 can also be translated as allegory according to dictionaries. i don't know the context so i'll let you decide.
so basically fable/allegory/story of kindness.
9. まか (kanji: 摩訶) is a word that is used a lot in buddhism according to a japanese website. it basically means "very".
therefore まか不思議 can be translated as "very mysterious"
10. ok
11. let's meet again
12. ok
13. Prelude to the Dark Night
14. cant tell without the context. could be either
15-18 ok
19. again, without context i cant tell, it could be either...but im 60% certain it's "because i fell in love"
20. 謎 (pronounced なぞ) can mean mystery/enigma/riddle/puzzle. in this situation i think mystery seems the most suitable.
therefore "mystery calling another mystery"
21. dont forget your definite articles. "sinking to the bottom of THE night"
22. it's not an idiom or else it would have said so in the google search. although 鴇色 (トキイロ)does mean pink, it refers to the pink hue of the wings of a japanese crested ibis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_Ibis
anyway, id translate it as "a/the pink coloured dance"
23,24 ok