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Old 2013-01-16, 09:00   Link #97
kuromitsu
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokkan View Post
I agree, I have no idea what singing has to do with PK and it's always extremely annoying when people think fan translations are better than official ones.
It's not just people thinking it's better, it seems most people don't even realize it's not an expression used in canon, let alone an official translation... :/ I tend not to mind this when the translation is actually good and accurate, but here it's not the case.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokkan View Post
However, here's their explanation for their choice of translation:
[etc]
But... that barely makes sense. 呪力 "juryoku" is not a word the author of the novel made up, it's an existing word which means magical/mystical/supernatural power. So "Cantus" is not even a translation per se, they went ahead and gave the power a name. Anyway, even if you want to make the word be the literal sum of its parts, choosing "incantation" as the translation of 呪 and going with "incantation power" for 呪力 doesn't make a lot of sense if you ask me, especially in the context of this story (as is obvious from ep 1 already).

But my main beef with it is that it sticks out like a sore thumb. Even if we assume it's just translation convention, it's still a word that is alien to its context. For one, as you said, "cantus" is also an existing word with a meaning that has nothing to do with psychokinesis/any supernatural power. And really, why would a bunch of Japanese people 1000 years into the future who live a mostly isolated life, and have their own words for pretty much everything in their environment, use a foreign word to refer to their innate power that's pretty much the center of their universe?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle View Post
At least Bakenezumi as queerat makes sense...kinda....given the link between bakemono and strangeness
Yeah, at least that makes sense and fits the naming patterns. But I think it's a bit too "smart" for its own good - it will be awkward when we get to the part where Saki muses about the etymology of "bakenezumi"... (It's kanji etymology so it's problematic anyway, but the more straightforward "monster rat" which is another translation I saw, will work much better in the context.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle View Post
How 呪力 becomes "cantus" I also don't know...would have just translated it as PK or simply "power"
Yeah... or something else but, you know, in English.

Last edited by kuromitsu; 2013-01-16 at 09:38.
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