Illusion of Gaia Translation Commentary Part 4: South Cape

A lesson in the difficulties of localization across very different cultures

The usual disclaimers:

• I’m an amateur. My advantage over the original translation is that I have no deadline pressure, and I have the modern internet to help me. I’m assuredly wrong about some of my translations.

• Translation is hard. When I point out a mistranslation, it’s not a judgment of the original translator(s). They had a deadline and poor resources.

• Some of my translations are rather liberal. I’ll usually make note if so.

Notation reminder:
JP: Original Japanese
T: My translation
OE: Original English

JP: あたしゃ　モリスが　かわいそうで しかたがないよ。
毎日　あんな　夫婦げんかを みせられてちゃ　子供も たまんないよね。
T: I feel really sorry for poor Morris.
It’s messed up for someone so young to see his parents fighting day in and day out.
OE: I feel sorry for Seth.
I understand why. He hates to see his parents fighting every day.

She literally says something like, “It’s intolerable that even a child has to witness such marital quarrels every day.”

JP: モリスの家の　ドアを 開けたとたん　中から　ツボが 飛んできたっ！
T: As soon as the door to Morris’s house was opened, a pot came flying out!
OE: No sooner was the door to Seth’s house opened than a jar came flying out!

JP: モリスの父： けっ。 あれが　かせいだ金で 酒を飲んで　何が悪いってんだ！
T: Morris’s father: Psh. I busted my hump for that money, so what’s wrong with spending some of it on booze?
OE: Seth’s father: What’s wrong with having a little fun with my hard-earned money!!

Alcohol references are censored, unsurprisingly.

JP: モリスの母： じょうだんじゃないわよっ！ あの男っ！
息子の　モリスがいるから がまんしてるけど そうじゃなかったら　あたしは とっくに　別れてるわよっ！
T: Morris’s mother: That man is unbelievable.
I’m tolerating it for our son’s sake, but if not for him I would have left a long time ago!
OE: Seth’s mother: It’s no joke! That man!
I put up with it for Seth’s sake, but if it weren’t for him, I’d have left long ago!

The OE is more literal. じょうだんじゃない (joudanjanai) does indeed mean “it’s no joke” or “give me a break.” I think those sound a little too light hearted for the situation.

Here are the fisherman’s 3 lines:

JP: けっ。 ちっとも　つれやしねえ．．．
T: Tch. Can’t catch anything here.
OE: Gosh. I can’t pull it up…

JP: 場所を　変えても ちっとも　つれやしねえ．．．
T: Even in a different spot, I can’t catch anything.
OE: Even if I move to another place I can’t pull it up…

JP: 変なツボを　つり上げちまったい。
T: I pulled up this weird pot by accident.
OE: He lifted the strange teapot.

As a kid, these lines confused me. He can’t pull it up? Does he have the pot on the line and he’s dragging it around the pier trying to pull it up? Why would that help?

Turns out, he just has bad luck fishing. And no, the JP does not say teapot, if you were wondering. It says ツボ (tsubo - pot, vase, jar).

JP: ここは　親友　ロブの家 彼は　体の弱い母親と 二人でくらしている。
T: This is my friend Rob’s house. He lives with his mother, who’s in poor health.
OE: This is Lance’s house. He lives here with his frail mother.

JP: ロブの母： あなたのお父さんと　うちの人が バベルの塔で　行方不明になってから もう　1年が　たつんだねえ。
なんだか　つい　昨日のような 気がするよ．．．
T: Rob’s mother: It’s been 1 year since your father and my husband went missing at the Tower of Babel, hasn’t it?
It feels like it was only yesterday…
OE: Lance’s mother: Your father has been lost at the Tower of Babel for a year now…
It seems like only yesterday…

JP: 知り合いの　天文学者が 変なことを　いうんだよ。 この地球に向かって 近づいてる星が　あるとかってね。
T: An astronomer I know told me something strange. There’s a star coming towards this earth, or something like that?
OE: My astronomer friend said something very strange: a star is approaching the Earth.

This is the first mention of the comet, the game’s… primary antagonist, I guess? Anyway, a difficulty here is that 星 (hoshi) can mean star, planet, or any heavenly body. But “there’s a heavenly body coming towards earth” sounds weird to me. Star will have to do.

JP: 海風でなびく　あんたのかみの毛を 見ていると　うらやましいよ。 あたしなんざ このスカーフの下は．．．
T: I’m jealous of how the sea breeze blows your hair around. But mine is under this scarf.
OE: I envy you when I see the sea breeze blowing your hair like that…
Not like mine, under this scarf…

The OE is accurate but I find this line curious. Why doesn’t she take the scarf off? I realized that every adult woman in town except Tim’s grandma is wearing one of these. They all have the same sprite. So I’m going to guess it’s some draconic local law and move on.

JP: ここには　友人のエリックが 住んでいる。
この家は　サウスケープで 一番　おおきい。 お金持ちの家に　生まれた人を ぼくは　うらやましく思う．．．
T: Here’s where my friend Erik lives.
This is the biggest house in South Cape. I admit I feel a little jealous of people born into rich families.
OE: My friend Erik lives here.
This is the biggest house in South Cape. Will envied people born to rich families…

This game uses text color to indicate the speaker. Tim’s text is yellow, Rob’s is green, Erik’s is orange, Lily’s is blue, etc. Quite importantly, most NPCs and any narration text boxes are supposed to use white text. You sometimes have to rely on the text color to know who’s speaking.

This text is all in yellow, and Tim uses a first person pronoun, so he’s the one talking. The OE regularly changes these first person inner monologues into third person.

JP: エリックの父： みんな　この　大きな家を うらやましがる．．．
だが　なんのことは　ないのだよ。 うちは　みんなより　ちょっと早く この町へ　ひっこしてきただけ なのさ。
T: Erik’s father: Everyone acts jealous of this big house.
But it’s not a big deal. We simply moved to this town a little earlier than everyone else.
OE: Erik’s father: Everyone is jealous of this big house… It’s nothing. We moved to this town before anyone else.

JP: 世の中　ちょっとしたことで お金持ちにも貧ぼうにもなるのね。 あーあ　何か　いい話が ころがってないかなぁ。
T: The most trifling stuff in the world can determine whether you’re rich or poor. Ahhh, I wish money grew on trees.
OE: It’s the little things in life that make you rich or poor.
Well, heard any good stories?

This is my favorite mistranslation in South Cape. I’ll explain how it happened in detail.

First, little versus trifling. ちょっと (chotto) means little. But ちょっとした (chottoshita) means trivial or petty. It’s the little things is an English phrase which usually means something like, the little things are what’s really important or things that seem little are actually a big deal. But that’s not what she means. If anything, she’s saying the opposite.

The second sentence makes three mistakes. First, いい話 (ii hanashi) would, in most instances, mean good story. But it can also mean good prospects. The verb ころがる (korogaru) has a ton of meanings. To roll, to fall over, to lie down, to be scattered around, to change, to come easily. None of these are have anything to do with hearing. But if you assume that いい話 means good story, what do you do with this verb? Good stories rolling? Maybe it means something about running into good stories?

Finally, it ends with かな (kana), which at sentence end can mean I wonder. But when paired with a negative it means I wish.

She’s a servant lamenting that she’s poor while other people are rich, for stupid reasons. With that context, in the second sentence she must be saying I wish good prospects came easily. Or as you’d say in English, I wish money grew on trees.

It took me quite a while to figure this sentence out.

JP: エリックの母： 別に　せなかに　火がついている わけじゃないんだよ (笑) これは　おきゅうっていうのさ。
大きな家だと　そうじをするだけで かたがこって　しょうがないよ．．．
T: Erik’s mother: No, my back’s not on fire. Hahaha. This is called “moxibustion”.
Cleaning such a big house is bound to give you stiff shoulders.
OE: Erik’s mother: Don’t worry, I’m not on fire. It’s just a treatment for my sore body.
Cleaning this big house all day makes my brain ache.

No idea how they got brain. かたがこる (katagakoru) means to have stiff shoulders or to feel tense.

For the game on the roof, I’ll give a literal translation, then discuss how I’d actually localize it:

JP: だるまさんが．．．
ころんだっ！
T: The Daruma doll…
Fell down!
OE: 1..2..3..4..5..
6..7..8..9..10!

JP: しかし　不思議よね。 この遊びって　なんで　だるまさんが ころんだって　言うのかしら．．．
T: Isn’t it weird? Why do they call it “Daruma doll fell down”?
OE: It’s strange. This game is like “Red Light, Green Light”….

JP: あたしたちって　いつから この遊び　やってるんだろう．．．
T: I wonder how long we’ve been playing this game?
OE: How long have we been playing this?

In English, we’d call the game the girls are playing Red Light, Green Light. The OE got that correct. And the third girl’s translation is fine. But I think the other two translations are a missed opportunity.

Daruma Fell Down or Daruma Doll Fell Down is a game with rules almost identical to Red Light, Green Light. A Daruma is a doll based on Bodhidharma, a 5th/6th century Indian Buddhist monk.

Obviously this won’t work for western audiences. For the first girl, it’s simple enough to change “daruma fell down” to “red light, green light”. (OE chooses counting, which doesn’t fit with what she’s doing. The text changes depending on which way she’s facing.)

It’s not clear why the second girl is questioning the name of the game—because they live in an American town where nobody would know about daruma dolls, or just because the origin of the game’s name is obscure to most children.

There’s nothing strange about the name Red Light, Green Light though. The kids go when green, stop when red, very straightforward. But there’s a serendipitous situation here. This game takes place in a world before cars and electricity! Despite the name making perfect sense to us, it wouldn’t necessarily make sense to characters in this world.

So I’d put a joke in here. I’d translate the second girl’s text as: “This game is so weird. What do lights have to do with starting and stopping?” It’s a little risky—children might not get the joke. But I think it’s the best option available.

If you jump off the roof, you’ll surprise the woman below:

JP: きゃあああっ！
なんてこと　するんだろうねっ！ この子はっ！ まったくもう．．．
T: AAAAH!
What the heck are you doing? This kid! Good grief!
OE: Oh, no!
What are you doing! This child! Honestly…

JP: セールスマン： おじさんは　みんなの家をまわって まものと　戦うための　武器を 売っているんだよ。
最近は　ぶっそうな世の中だからね。 でも　子供の君に　武器を 売るわけには　いかないもんなぁ。
T: Salesman: I’m visiting everyone’s house to sell them weapons, so they can fight monsters.
I know the world is dangerous nowadays. But I still can’t justify selling a weapon to a child like you.
OE: Salesman: I travel around to people’s houses selling weapons used to fight demons.
We may live in troubled times, but I won’t sell a weapon to a child.

JP: 最近　変な　商人が　多くて 困っちゃう。
まものが　あらわれるようになって みんな　困ってるっていうのに それを　商売にするんだからね．．
T: Recently a lot of suspicious merchants have come around and it’s making me nervous.
I think they’re taking advantage of people who are troubled by the recent appearance of monsters.
OE: I’m worried. There’s been a lot of strange merchants lately doing business…

JP: うーん　いいにおいだ。 家には　カマドがないから　こうして ツボで　料理をするのさ。
T: Mmm, that’s a good smell. My house doesn’t have a stove, so I do my cooking in a pot.
OE: Mmm, nice smell. There’s no stove, so I’m cooking in this pot.

JP: ここは　ぼくの家だ 祖母のローラが　パイを焼いて いるのか　いいにおいが ただよっている。
T: This is my house. The nice smell of one of grandma Laura’s pies is wafting by.
OE: This is my house. The pie that Grandma Lola is making smells really great.

Yeah, her name is almost certainly supposed to be Laura, not Lola. But if I were doing a retranslation hack I’d probably just keep it as Lola for what people are already used to.

This nice smell is kind of curious. We’ll see why in later entries, when the game makes jokes about her terrible cooking.

JP: ローラ： おや　テム。　おかえり。 夕食まで　時間があるから 外で　遊んでおいで。
T: Laura: Oh, Tim! Welcome home. You should play outside until dinner is ready.
OE: Lola: Welcome home, Will. Dinner isn’t ready yet. Go outside and play for a while.

JP: ビル： おお　おかえり。　こんな時間に 帰ってくるところをみると また　残されたんじゃな。
わっはっは。　結構。結構。 男の子は　勉強ができんでも 活発なほうが　たのもしい もんじゃて。
T: Bill: Ohh, welcome home. Seeing you come home this late means you were kept behind again, right?
Wahaha. Splendid, splendid. Studying is important, but boys will be boys.
OE: Bill: Coming home at this hour probably means you had to stay after school again.
Ha ha. Excellent! Even if a boy can’t study, he should show a little initiative.

He literally says something like, “Even if a boy is able to study, he’s reliable to be vigorous.” I think. It’s a weird sentiment and Bill has a bit of an accent.

JP: こらこら。　近ごろ　町の外には 化物が　うろついているんだぜ。
教会の　神父さまから　注意を 受けてないのかい？ むやみに　町の外へでちゃ ダメだってこと。
T: Hey, hey! Monsters have been prowling outside the town recently.
Haven’t you heard the priest’s warnings? It would be reckless to go out.
OE: Hold it! Many demons are prowling around outside the town.
Didn’t your teacher warn you not to leave town without your parents?

And with that, we’ve spoken to everyone in South Cape. Whew! The next scene is the seaside cave with Tim’s friends.