Forum - View topicTranslating Japanese colloquialisms to English ones
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
unhealthyman
 Posts: 306 |
|
||
|
I noticed in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, around episode 5 or 6, I think it was Kyon, who made a pun on 'Let sleeping dogs lie' with 'Let sleeping Gods lie,' and this led me to think - is there an equivalent common phrase to this in Japanese? Did the fansubber put this pun in? Or did the English phrase 'Let sleeping dogs lie' become naturalised in Japanese and then used in the Japanese? I just started wondering on the origins of this phrase (I'm pretty certain its a western/English phrase to begin with,) in a Japanese anime... Also, that pun is based on God and Dog being very similar words in English, which I assume is not the case in Japanese... Could this have been an unintentional pun?
I know I remember other similar things where, what I thought was a fairly English specific phrase comes up in anime, although this one is the only one that comes to mind atm. Obviously, I speak no Japanese, so I cannot compare the original to the subs nor do I have any knowledge of common Japanese phrases. So anyone with more knowledge of the Japanese language could help me out 
|
|||
|
|||
marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
|
||
|
I don't know about this particular situation, but I know in a lot of cases subbers (both fansubbers and official ones) will try and come up with the closest English equivalent to whatever was said in Japanese, in cases where the phrase just doesn't translate over. I've noticed this a fair amount in the various puns in the series Fushigi Yuugi and have really been rather impressed with how they are able to come up with something that works, even if it clearly isn't a direct translation.
|
|||
|
|||
|
abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
|
||
Sort of, and then again, no. What Kyon says is sawara no kami ni tatari nashi, which is a proverb of sorts, meaning: "Disturb not the gods, lest they curse you." There are plenty of Japanese proverbs that match the English "sleeping dogs" proverb, meaning that one should let well enough alone. This one, however, was obviously chosen for its aptness -- and the fansubbers elegantly matched it to an established English pun/proverb combination. Very nice. By the way, in English one doesn't capitalize the plural form "gods", nor the non-specific singular "god". Only "God" is capitalized, because it has the character of a name. The word "God", with capitalization, is usually only applied to the God of Abraham and Isaac, but you will occasionally see it applied by scholars of Indian mythology to the Trimurti, for obvious reasons. - abunai |
|||
|
|||
|
unhealthyman
Posts: 306 |
|
||
|
Heh, thank you for a pretty damn conclusive answer, that was exactly what I was looking for.
Nice! You showoff! I'll try and remember that for the future...
|
|||
|
|||
Wakaiba
 Posts: 62 |
|
||
|
I'm not sure about Japanese cliches, but Haruhi is sort of like a god in the sense that she controls the events around her (although subconciously). Prehaps Kyon was trying to make a pun?
I'm not sure though, it's just a gander. |
|||
|
|||
|
abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
|
||
Kyon was not trying to make a pun in the original. A pun is an intended play on words, using homonyms, alternate usages, or references to commonly used idioms. What Kyon was delivering was a witticism based on a common proverb. The actual pun first appears in the English-language fansub version, where the translators have chosen to translate Kyon's words into the phrase "let sleeping gods lie", where the usual phrasing is "let sleeping dogs lie", i.e. let well enough alone. So what was a witticism in the Japanese original (Kyon using a proverb for its literal content) becomes a pun in the English translation (substitution of "dog" and "god", a bad pun much practiced in English -- William Cowper being the worst offender). It's not the same joke, but it is very apt indeed. You have now put me in the position of having committed the cardinal sin of explaining a joke to someone who didn't get it the first time, thereby killing it deader than Pythagoras. Way to go! - abunai |
|||
|
|||
hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
|
||
Woo! Pythagoras rocks! Sorry but maths is so much fun I can't help myself. Lets dance...the triangle step... |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group