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.
Please no jokes in the comments about Karen being a Karen. I really hate that trend.
When we last left off, a giant monster fish called a leviathan (or Riverson lol) had destroyed the ship we were on, and also swallowed Morris whole. So we only officially lost one of Tim’s best friends. That’s not too bad, right?
Tim wakes up adrift on a raft with Karen. Back when I disliked her character, I considered this the worst part of the game. It’s nonstop unskippable dialogue.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： やっと 気がついたのね。 みんなと はぐれちゃった．．． | Kara: You’ve just come to??? I’ve lost everyone… | Karen: Finally awake, eh? We’ve been separated from everyone else. |
体の具合は だいじょうぶ？ | Are you OK? | How are you feeling? |
The next dialogue box differs depending on your choice. If you say you’re ok:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： そう。 テムって 回復がはやいのね。 まるで とかげのしっぽみたい。 | Kara: Hmmm. You recover quickly. Like a lizard’s tail. | Karen: That’s good. You recover quickly. Just like a lizard’s tail. |
What a weird comparison. Lizard tails are notable for being able to regrow at all. I think humans find it so interesting because we’re jealous—if only we could regrow fingers or arms! But the tails are not known for growing back quickly. It takes weeks to months.
Option 2:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： 無理も ないわよね。 半日以上 気をうしなって たんだもの。 | Kara: Of course, you were unconscious for more than half a day. | Karen: That makes sense. You were out for over half a day. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ひょう流の話は 本で読んだこと あるけど まさか 自分が そうなる なんて 思ってもみなかった．．． | I’ve read about being adrift, but I never thought it would happen to me… | I read stories about being adrift, but I never dreamed I would be living it. |
災難って とつぜんに おとずれるものなのね。 | Disasters sometimes happen suddenly. | Disaster can strike so suddenly. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： くよくよしたって しかたないわよ。 | Kara: Don’t be upset. | Karen: It doesn’t help anything to fret. |
先のことは 考えないで ひょう流を 楽しんじゃおっ。 | Don’t think about the future. Let’s just enjoy drifting. | Instead of thinking about what’s next, let’s just enjoy drifting along. |
OE’s translation is spot on, but I do think it’s funny to change this particular instance of can’t be helped to don’t be upset. Uh, one of my best friends just died. Even if I weren’t worried about how the others are doing, it’d still be hard not to be upset.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
もう おなか ぺこぺこ。 お城の地下から もってきた お肉で お昼ごはんに しましょ。 | I’m starved. I’ll have the meat I brought from the castle. | I’m getting really hungry. Let’s eat the meat that we brought from the castle basement. |
I love how the pronoun choice in OE makes it sound like Karen’s going to eat it all without sharing. Or that she has her own meat, apart from Tim’s
Here’s the meat’s inventory description:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ほねつきのにく | Meat | Meat on the bone |
You can actually nibble on this meat at any time before this and it will give an item-specific message:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
骨つきの くんせい肉を ちょっぴり かじってみた。 | He bit off some of the smoked meat. | He nibbled a tiny bit of smoked meat on the bone. |
それは 今まで たべたことの ないような 不思議な味がした。 いったい 何の肉だろう．．． | It had a flavor he’d never tasted before. What could it be? | It had a strange taste, like nothing he’d eaten before. What the heck kind of meat is it? |
When you pick up the meat, the OE says it’s yak, but the JP leaves it unspecified.
That causes a problem here, where Tim wonders what kind of meat it is. OE just says what could it be? wherein it presumably refers to the flavor, rather than the kind of meat.
Anyway, now Tim and Karen share it:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ぼくらは 骨つきの肉に かぶりついた。 | We bit off some of the meat. | We sank our teeth into the meat. |
今まで 食べたどんな 食べ物より おいしく感じた。 | It was better than any food we’d ever had. | It tasted better than any food we’d had before. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ひょう流 2日目 | Drifting, Day 2 | Drifting, Day 2 |
On the second day, a bunch of fish are jumping by the raft. You can hit them with your flute, which makes Karen mad:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： 何てことするのよっ！ 魚が かわいそうじゃないっ！！ | Kara: What are you doing!! The poor fish!!! | Karen: Oh my gosh, what are you doing!? The poor fish! |
You can talk to her as well:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： きれい．．． 一日中見てても あきないな．．． | Kara: Beautiful…. Even after seeing it all day, I still never get tired of it. | Karen: It’s beautiful. I could look at it all day long. |
That’s good, Karen, because you’d gonna be doing that a lot. All we can do on this day is wait until Tim starts talking to himself. Now’s a good time for donations, as they say.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： 何ごともなく 時間がだけが ゆっくりと 流れていった。 | Will: Time passed slowly, with nothing to break the monotony. | Tim: Time passed on, slowly and uneventfully. |
カレンは 一日中 のんびりと 魚を ながめていたが ボクは それじゃ 気がすまなかった。 | Kara just stared at the fish all day. Will couldn’t stand it. | Karen gazed at fish all day, without a care in the world, but I felt anxious. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
イカダの中を うろつきまわり カレンに 何度も 話しかけた。 | He walked around on the raft and talked to Kara many times. | I paced around the raft, talking to Karen over and over. |
一分が 何度間にも 感じらてた。 まるで のんびりとした時間の足音が 聞こえてくるようだった。 | A minute seemed like forever. But he could hear the march of time. | A minute felt like an hour. It felt like I could actually hear the march of time. |
Edit: I previously had the above as “Though I tried to relax, it felt like I could actually hear the march of time,” but I see now this was wrong. He’s really saying he can hear the march of relaxing/peaceful time. But the meaning isn’t transformed that much. He’s anxious and dreading the coming time with nothing to do.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ひょう流 4日目 | Drifting, Day 4 | Drifting, Day 4 |
4 days, huh? They’ve definitely died of dehydration at this point, right?
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： 何か 予感がするの．．． 助けが くるのかもしれないわ．．． | Kara: I have a premonition… Help is coming… | Karen: For some reason, I have a hunch that help might come. |
あらっ？ | What? | Huh? |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： 何か 流れてくるみたいよっ！ | Kara: Something is drifting here! | Karen: Looks like something is floating this way! |
A pot slowly floats over to the raft.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
つぼの中には 手紙が 入っていた．．． それは こんな 内容だった。 | There was a letter in the jar… The contents read … | The pot had a letter inside. The letter read: |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ぼくらは どれい船にのせられ 見知らぬ土地へ 売られていく ところです。 | We are on a ship on our way to be sold as forced labor in an unknown land. | We’ve been captured on a slave ship and are headed to a foreign land to be sold. |
どなたか この手紙を読んだら 助けてください．．． | If anyone reads this, please save us… | If anyone gets this letter, please help us. |
Sam’s original name is Samus. Yes, the same name as Samus Aran (サムス・アラン). You could change to a western name, as the OE did. But I think Samus, Remus, and Imus are all supposed to have names that sound foreign to Tim. Anyway, we get to rescue this poor slave in the next dungeon.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： あーあ 予感がしたのにっ。 | Kara: My premonition! | Karen: Ahhh, if only my hunch had been true. |
助けてくれって 言われたって．． こっちが 助けてほしいよねぇ。 | You said you wanted to be saved… but it’s me who needs to be saved. | “Help us,” it said. WE need help. |
Oof.
For the first sentence, Karen literally says: Ahhh, even though did hunch. In OE it seems like she’s saying that the letter confirmed her premonition. She’s lamenting that her hunch was nothing.
The second is: Said “come help”… [I or we] [particle indicating specificity] wishing for help, isn’t that right? You have to change a lot to make this grammatical English. With the OE’s decisions, the final result makes it sound like Karen is saying that only she needs to be saved, and Samus (or even Tim) are less worthy. In reality, she’s using specificity to emphasize the irony.
Moving on…
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
あーあ もう お腹と 背中が くっつきそうよぉ。 | Oh! I am so starved. | Ahhh, it feels like I’m wasting away already. |
テム： だから あのとき 魚を とっておけばよかったんだ。 そうすりゃ 今ごろは．．． | Will: You should have caught that fish. If you had…….. | Tim: Yeah, that’s why we should have kept some fish from earlier. Then we wouldn’t be in this situation. |
An interesting expression, here. She says It looks like soon my stomach and back will be fused. I chose wasting away for translation.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： あんな かわいい魚 殺せないわ！ | Kara: I can’t hurt such a pretty fish! | Karen: We can’t kill the cute fish! |
テム： じゃ 何にも食べないで ぼくらが 死んでもいいって いうのかっ？！ | Will: Are you saying it’s better to starve?! | Tim: Well if we don’t eat anything, we die. Is that what you want!? |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： だいたい 生の魚なんて 気持ち悪くて 食べられないわよっ！ | Kara: Raw fish gives me the creeps! I can’t eat it! | Karen: Raw fish is gross, I can’t eat stuff like that. |
それに 魚だっていっしょうけんめい 生きてるのよっ！ | Besides, the fish is fighting to stay alive! | Besides, that fish is struggling to survive just the same! |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
魚だって 痛いって思うのよっ！ テムは 魚の気持ちを 考えたこと あるわけっ？！ | Fish feel pain! Have you ever thought of how the fish feels?! | Even fish feel pain! Haven’t you ever thought about how the fish feels? |
そんなに 食べたきゃ 勝手に 食べればっ！ あたしは 食べないからねっ！！ | If you want to eat it, go ahead!! I’m not going to eat it!!! | If you want to eat so badly, go ahead! I’m not doing it!! |
Karen, I feel you, but you’re not even a vegetarian. I think before you get preachy you should maybe… start there? I’ve been vegan for ~13 years and even I’d eat the damn fish in this situation.
If you talk to Karen again, she’ll just give you the ………. treatment. Wait a while and Tim will say:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： カレンは その日 口をきいて くれなかった．．． | Will: Kara didn’t say anything all day. | Tim: Not another word came out of Karen’s mouth that day. |
まったく おじょう様には 困ったものだ。 やれやれ．．． | A typical princess… She’s such a bother… | Good grief, for a princess, she’s such a pain. Yeesh. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ひょう流 ７日目 | Drifting, Day 7 | Drifting, Day 7 |
So… they’ve died from dehydration at least twice over now, right?
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： ひょう流 一週間目。 再び 魚のむれに 出会った。 | Will: Drifting. First week. A school of fish…. | Tim: We’ve been adrift for a week. Once again, we came across a school of fish. |
体力も もう げんかいだった。 ボクは これ以上 食べなければ 死ぬと思った．．． | He reached the end of his rope. | My stamina was giving out. I felt like I’d die if I went any longer without eating. |
If he didn’t eat more, he thought he would starve… |
I really don’t understand why OE changed so many of these to third person. By the way, Tim uses the first person pronoun ボク (boku), which is a pronoun associated with young boys.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム．．． 昨日は あんな言いかたして ごめんなさい．．． | Will… Sorry I talked to you that way yesterday…. | Tim… I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. |
あたしも お魚 食べてみるわ。 死んじゃったら どうしようも ないもんね。 | I’ll try to eat the fish. I can’t do anything if I starve. | I’ll also try to eat some fish. There’s nothing I can do if I’m dead. |
Karen apologizes for the argument yesterday. But this is drifting day 7, and the argument was on day 4. This goof is in the original JP, which says 昨日 (kinou - yesterday).
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
きらいな食べ物を 食べないなんて いっていられるのは 平和なとき だけなのよね．．． | Only in peace time can you refuse food you don’t like… | You can only refuse food you don’t like during times of peace. |
テム： よおし。 じゃ 魚をとってやる。 とびっきり うまいやつをさ。 | Will: Let’s catch a fish. A good one. | Tim: Good. Well then, I’ll catch a fish. A really tasty one. |
I wonder if being on the brink of starvation would make raw fish taste amazing, just because it’s any food at all? Hard to imagine.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： カレンは おいしそうに 魚を 食べた。 | Will: Happily Kara ate some fish. | Tim: Karen ate a delicious looking fish. |
ボクの中で カレンが ちょっぴり 気になる存在に なってきたようだ．．． | Will found that he was starting to develop feelings for Kara… | She was starting to catch my eye a teensy bit. |
The OE gets the intent across, but it misses something minor: That the word Tim uses to describe his growing affection seems to minimize it. ちょっぴり (choppiri) - just a smidgin, a tiny amount.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ひょう流 １２日目 | Drifting, Day 12 | Drifting, Day 12 |
They’re definitely dead 4 times over, now, right? Because there’s no fresh water?
No?
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： 星が きれいね．．． | Kara: The stars are beautiful… | Karen: The stars are beautiful, aren’t they? |
もう ちょっと 背が高かったら 手が とどきそうよね。 | If I were taller I could reach them. | They look like you could touch them if you were taller. |
OE ignores the そう (sou - looks like) verb ending on とどきそう (todokisou), which means looks like reach/touch/get to. The end result makes Karen seem a bit sillier.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
きっと リリィや ロブたちも 同じ 星空を 見てるんだろうな。 | Surely Lilly and Lance are looking at the same star-studded sky… | Surely Lily and Rob are looking at the same starry sky. |
星と お話できれば みんなのいる場所も きっと わかるのに．．． | If I could talk to the stars I could find out where everyone is… | If I could talk to the stars, I would know where everyone is. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： あ そうそう 最近 気がついたんだけど 白鳥座の近くに 星が一つ ふえてるの。 | Kara: There seems to be one extra star near the constellation of Cygnus | Karen: I just recently noticed a single star has appeared around the cygnus constellation. |
ほら あの 赤い星。 | Yes, that red star. | Look, it’s that red star. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ねぇ。 あの星に お願いごとしない？ きっと かなうような 気がするの。 | Shall we make a wish upon that star? I have a feeling it’ll come true. | Hmm. Would you like to make a wish on that star? I have a feeling it’s sure to come true. |
テムも ちゃんと 目を閉じて お願いしてね。 | Will, you close your eyes, too. | Tim, close your eyes and make a wish. |
Make a wish upon the game’s antagonist!
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム：ボクは みんなの無事と 父さんのことを いっしょうけんめい いのってみた．．． | Will: I hope for everyone’s safety, and for my father… | With all my might, I wished for everyone’s safety, and to find my father. |
OE is literally correct. He doesn’t wish to find his father, he just wishes for his father’s こと (koto). It’s like wishing for stuff about his father, or his father’s circumstances, or something like that. I inferred a verb that makes sense. It could just as well be for everyone’s safety, including my father.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ひょう流 18日目 | Drifting, Day 18 | Drifting, Day 18 |
I’m losing count of how many times they’ve died from dehydration. Maybe we pretend that in their world, ocean water is potable?
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： もう ひょう流してから 3週間 近くたつのね。 | Kara: We’ve been adrift for almost three weeks now. | Karen: We’ve been adrift for almost 3 weeks. |
テムってば 少し カミの毛が のびたんじゃない？ そうね ２ドットくらい(笑) | Hasn’t your hair gotten a little long? Just a little (Laughs). | Your hair has grown a little, hasn’t it? Yeah, I think about 2 pixels. Hahaha. |
WHAT
Oh my god, this joke is so good. Why did they take it out? Maybe they didn’t understand it? Did they think children wouldn’t understand it?
But this has gotta be the best line in the game, right? What a loss.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： そういう カレンもさ、 おひめさまって 感じじゃなくなった よな。 | Will: Kara doesn’t act like a spoiled princess now. | Tim: You don’t feel like such a princess anymore. |
どっかの島の 女の子って 言っても わかんないと思うけど。 | If you told someone she was one of the island girls, no one would doubt it. | If I told people you were just some island girl, I don’t think they’d doubt it. |
Once again, problems with the fact that JP speakers frequently say people’s names instead of using second person pronouns. In English, if he were speaking in his head or as narration, he’d use 3rd person, but if he were speaking to her, he’d use 2nd.
But I’m sure Tim is saying this out loud to Karen because of the next line…
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： ひっどーい！ | Kara: It’s terrible!! | Karen: You’re terrible! |
な なに．．．？ あの 海にいるの なに．．．？ | What is that…? There in the water…? | …What? What’s that in the water? |
…In which Karen responds to Tim’s teasing. I used to think she was talking about the sharks being terrible, but she’s not even aware that the thing in the water is anything scary yet. The line is definitely directed at Tim.
So, some sharks come and scary dungeon music starts playing.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： イカダのまわりを ぐるぐるまわる だけで おそってこないわね．．． | Kara: They’re circling our raft, but they’re not attacking… | Karen: They just go around and around the raft without attacking. |
テム： しばらく 様子を見てみよう。 | Will: Let’s think about this… | Tim: Let’s wait for a moment and see what happens. |
Wait a while and Karen will speak on her own:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： もしかして サメ．．．？ | Kara: Maybe a shark…? | Karen: I think they’re sharks. |
あたしたち 食べられちゃうの かしら．．． どうしよう．． テム．．． | We could be eaten….What should we do?… | Do you think we’ll be eaten? What should we do, Tim? |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： わかった！ この子たち お腹がすいてないのよ！ | Kara: I’ve got it! They’re not hungry!! | Karen: I got it! These juveniles aren’t hungry! |
むかし じいやに 教わったの。 お腹がすいてないのに 生き物を おそうのは 人間だけだって。 | My grandpa told me that only humans attack living things when they’re not hungry. | Something a tutor taught me, long ago: Humans are the only creatures that attack living things when they aren’t hungry. |
Say, did you know that free-range domestic cats kill more than 4 billion animals per year? They’ve even helped contribute to the extinction of some species. One study put cameras on house cats, and found that they only brought 23 percent of their kills back to a residence. It found that another 28 percent were eaten and never brought home, and a full half were left at the capture site uneaten. So that’s more than 2 billion animals killed each year, just for funsies, by a single cat species. Unsurprisingly, other felines like lions and leopards have displayed similar behavior.
…Wait, what were we talking about? Why did I bring up cats? I can’t remember. Anyway, keep your damn cats indoors.
I don’t know why she specifies that the sharks are young, but she does. JP doesn’t really say tutor. It says じいや (jiiya - elderly manservant). The implication is probably more one of the castle servants than a tutor, but eh, I don’t think it matters that much.
じい on its own can mean grandpa, which is where the OE comes from. They either missed the や part or thought it meant something else.
Moving on…
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： それなら ボクらのやっていることは 人間らしくないんだなあ。 | Will: Then what we’re doing is not usual human behavior. | Tim: In that case, what we’re doing isn’t so much like other humans. |
死にそうになるまで 魚を 食べなかったもんね。 | We didn’t eat fish until we were starving. | We didn’t eat fish until we were about to die. |
Later, Tim would go on to kill many, many snakes in the Great Wall of China, because they give powerup jewels when they’re all defeated.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： そうよね。 あ いっちゃうみたい。 サメさん さよーならぁー．．． | Kara: That’s right. They’re going. Good-bye, sharks… | You’re right. Ah, looks like they’re leaving. Goodbye, Mr. Shark. |
She’s adorable.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ひょう流 21日目 | Drifting, Day 21 | Drifting, Day 21 |
This is the final day drifting, thankfully.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： あたしね。 お城にいるときは 夕日をみるのが 好きだったの．．． | Kara: When I was in the castle I loved watching the sun set… | Karen: When I lived in the castle, I used to love watching the sunset. |
お城のわたりロウカから見る 夕日は すっごく すっごく きれいで．．． | The sunset was so beautiful from the corridor of the castle… | From the skybridge in the castle, it was incredibly beautiful. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
でもね。 今は きらいになっちゃった。 | But now I’ve come to hate it. | But now I’ve come to hate it. |
夕日がしずむと 暗くて こわい ヤミが やってきて．．． | After the sun has set, the darkness comes… | When the sun sets, the dark and scary night comes. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
そのまま 二度と 朝日を 見られないんじゃないかと思って．． | I thought I’d never see the sunrise again…. | It’s made me think I’ll never see the sunrise again. |
でも テムが そばにいてくれたから 毎日 きれいな 朝の光を 見られた のよね。 | But since you’re with me, I see a beautiful sunrise every morning. | But because you’ve been by my side, every day I’ve been able to see the morning sun’s beautiful light. |
I feel like there’s a puzzle here I can’t crack. The second sentence seems like a non sequitur. If she were saying that being with Tim helped her see the dawn on the horizon, helped her imagine the sun would rise again, it would make sense. And it would fit with the next sentence. But no matter what, I couldn’t figure out a way the sentence could mean that. She really does seem to say that… Tim helps her survive the night? That’s not as romantic.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テムが 近くに いてくれると、 たわいない こんな時間も なんだか 楽しく感じるの。 | With you by my side, I can even enjoy times like these. | Even when those silly thoughts take hold, I can still feel happy, as long as I’m near you, Tim. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： ボクは そんな カレンに 話したいことが あるはずなのに なぜか 言葉が 出てこなかった。 | Will: I’ve wanted to say the same things to you, but somehow the words just wouldn’t come out. | Tim: I wanted to say something similar, but for some reason the words wouldn’t come. |
ボクは だまって うなづくだけ だった．．． | I just nodded, saying nothing… | I just nodded my head silently. |
I really wish this game would indicate when Tim is speaking vs when he’s internal monologuing. The only indication that he’s not saying the first sentence out loud to Karen is the second sentence, which makes absolutely no sense in the OE’s interpretation. I always thought Tim had confessed his feelings to Karen at this point, but he hasn’t.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： とつぜん ボクは ひざから がくっと くずれ落ち 意識が 遠のいていった．．． | Will: Suddenly Will fell over, unconscious… | Tim: Suddenly I lost strength in my legs and collapsed. My consciousness faded away. |
OE’s transformation of these first person internal monologues into 3rd person comes back to bite it, here, where it prefaces the third person narration with Will: as if Will is saying, internally or out loud, Suddenly Will fell over, unconscious.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： テムっ！ テムっ！！ どうしたのよっ！ | Kara: Will! Will!! What’s wrong!! | Karen: Tim! Tim! What’s wrong!? |
しっかりしてよっ！ あたしを 一人にしないでよおっ！！ | Wake up!! Don’t leave me here alone! | Hold on! Don’t leave me alone! |
And we’re done with drifting, huzzah! But this isn’t the natural stopping point for this entry. The game cuts to around the time Tim wakes up.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
男の声： もう そろそろ 起こしても だいじょうぶだろう。 | Man’s voice: You can wake him up now. | Man’s voice: I think it’s ok to wake him up soon. |
ビタミンCも じゅうぶんとらせたし 体のつかれも 回復しているはずだ。 | He’ll be fine if he takes Vitamin C. | He’s gotten enough vitamin C that his body should have recovered from fatigue. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
これは かい血病といってね 長期間 ビタミンCをとらないと かかる病気なんだよ。 | It’s scurvy, a disease caused by a long-term lack of vitamin C. | This is called scurvy, an illness you can contract if you go a long time without enough vitamin C. |
カレン： ふうん．．．． | Kara: Hmmmm… | Karen: Hmph. |
The cause of scurvy was contentious for a long time. It was basically proven in the mid 1700s that citrus fruits prevent scurvy, but experiments conducted later on cast doubt on that conclusion. It turns out they were carried out in ways that confounded the experiments—pasteurizing so much that the vitamin C was destroyed, assuming all citrus fruits equivalent when they were not, storing in copper which interacts with the vitamin C, etc. By the late 1800s through early 1900s some scientists still disputed that lemon juice could prevent scurvy. You can read this old but good blog post about unfortunate things that happened as a result, specifically to explorer Robert Falcon Scott.
Many scientists continued to accept the idea that scurvy was a… something deficiency. But they had trouble isolating what. Vitamin C, aka ascorbic acid, wasn’t actually isolated and proven to be the substance that prevented scurvy until ~1928-1933. Albert Szent-Györgyi won the 1937 Nobel prize in medicine for the discovery. It was first isolated from adrenal glands, but later was able to be isolated from plant material. If you want to read that isolation process from 1932, you can do so here. It’s not exactly simple!
Point is, I don’t think the game world of Illusion of Gaia has progressed enough technologically or scientifically to have isolated vitamin C. They could certainly know that citrus fruits cure scurvy, but I’m surprised they’d know exactly why. The most advanced technology we see in this game is an airplane… but there’s only one in the whole world. This is a pre Industrial Revolution world, right?
…
You might say I’m overthinking things, but that’s missing the point. The point is that I learned a lot about the history of vitamin C while overthinking this, and that’s the joy of having an overthinking brain.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
かの有名な 探険家 コロンブスの 一行だって かかった病気だ。 気に することはないさ。 | Columbus’s crew contracted it once. Nothing to worry about. | Even the famous Columbus expedition party suffered this illness. No need to worry about it. |
この病気が もっと ひどくなると 血がダメになり ヒフの色が どす黒くなってくる。 | When it gets worse, the blood gets bad and the skin turns black. | If it’s allowed to get severe, your blood goes bad and your skin turns dark black. |
Yellow, actually. Scurvy causes jaundice. But it also causes skin to bruise more easily, which can turn it black in areas.
I really like the description of the blood gets bad. Anemia was first named in 1807, and first described in 1761 (as far as I know), long before tools for counting red blood cells. Autopsies of severely anemic people revealed a lack of colored blood in the circulatory system. I can see that being described as blood going bad.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
歯ぐきから 血が止まらなくなり やがて 体が くさって．．． | The gums bleed, and the body starts decaying… | Your gums won’t stop bleeding and your body eventually festers… |
カレン： やめてよっ！！ そんな こわい話 聞きたくないわっ | Kara: Stop! I don’t want to listen to such talk!! | Karen: Stop! I don’t want to hear such scary talk. |
Karen and Tim have been living off of raw fish for a couple weeks. (The first week, they didn’t eat.) Is 3 weeks without vitamin C long enough to cause someone to collapse from scurvy? Short answer: probably not. But it is long enough for symptoms to start.
I got curious how much vitamin C raw fish would actually have. Is it really so little? Many meats contain lots of vitamin C. The answer is… yeah, most raw fish contains very little vitamin C. But fish roe (eggs) actually has a fair amount. If Tim had eaten those gross little orange balls inside the fish, maybe he could’ve been spared this ordeal. Though he’d have to have eaten 2/3 cups a day to get even the minimum needed to prevent scurvy. Yum, yum.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
男： はははは。 まあ 無事で なによりだ。 | Man: Ha ha ha. I’m glad you’re OK. | Man: Hahahaha. In any case, I’m glad you’re safe. |
カレン： でも おじさんって 物知りなのね。 本当に ありがとう。 | Kara: But you know best. Thank you. | Karen: But you’re extremely well informed. Really, thank you so much. |
“Oh, I know best? Glad you’re deferring to my judgment, now let me continue with the gory details about scurvy.”
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
礼なら 外にいる 犬に言ってくれ。 あいつが 君たちのイカダを発見して 私を 海につれだしたんだからな。 | You should thank the dog outside, He found your raft and came to get me. | If you want to give anyone thanks, give it to the dog outside. He found your raft and brought me over to help. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： テム！ テムっ！！ 目を覚ましてっ！！！ | Kara: Will! Will!! Wake up! | Karen: Tim! Tim, wake up! |
陸地に 陸地についたのよっ！！ あたしたち 助かったのよっ！！！ | We’ve reached land!! We’re saved!!! | We’re on land! We’ve been saved! |
テム： う ううん．．． | Will: Uhhh… | Tim: *groan* |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： はっ カレン．．．？ ここは いったい．．．？ | Will: Kara…? Where am I…? | Tim: Karen? Where the heck are we? |
カレン： あたしたちを 助けてくれた 親切な おじさんのおうち。 | Kara: We’re at the home of the kind man who saved us. | Karen: We’re in the house of the kind man who helped us. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
まったく テムったら ねぞうが 悪いんだからっ。 | You’ve been tossing in your sleep. | You were really tossing and turning while you slept. |
病人だっていうのに おふとんを かけても かけても はいじゃうん だもの。 | I kept putting the blankets on you, but you threw them off. | Even though you were sick, every time I put a blanket on you, you kicked it off. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
男： ここは オークランドの南のはずれ。 | Man: This is the south outskirts of Oakton. | Man: We’re at the southern edge of Oakland. |
ここから 半日くらい 北へ向かうと 花の都 フリージアがある。 | The city of Freejia is half a day to the north. | From here, if you travel north about a half day, you’ll reach the City of Flowers: Freesia. |
I’m guessing they changed Oakland to Oakton so it’s not confused with Oakland, CA?
Freesias are flowers native to southern Africa. They’re in the family Iridaceae, the same family that contains irises. They’re named after German physician Friedrich Freese.
Pic from Wikipedia of a freesia flower.
So yeah, Freejia is a mistranslation.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
はぐれた仲間を さがすなら まずは 大きな町へ 行ってみることだな。 | If you’re looking for your friend, you should look in a big town. | If you’re looking for lost friends, a big city is a good place to start. |
If you talk to the man, he just repeats the line about how you should thank the dog outside. Speaking to Karen…
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： とにかく そのフリージアっていう 町へ いってみましょ。 | Kara: At any rate, let’s go to Freejia. | Karen: Anyway, let’s head for the town called Freesia. |
あたし 犬に お礼いってくる。 じゅんびができたら きてね。 | I’m going to thank the dog. Come back when you’re ready. | I’m going to thank that dog. Tim, come when you’re ready. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
わん わんっ！ | Woof woof! | Woof woof! |
カレン： この犬 ターボっていう 名前なんですって。 かしこそうな犬よね。 | Kara: This dog’s name is Turbo. Isn’t he cute? | Karen: The dog’s name is Turbo. What a smart dog he is. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
さあ 行きましょう。 きっと リリィや ロブ、エリック たちと 会えるわよ。 | Well, let’s go. Maybe we’ll see Lilly, Lance, and Erik. | Ok, let’s go. Surely we’ll find Lily, Rob, and Erik. |
こうして 二人は 花の都 フリージアへ向かう．．． | So they went to Freejia…. | Thus the two of them left for the City of Flowers, Freesia. |
We’re on the Diamond Coast, so we must be in southern Africa. Then we go north to…
Uh, Freajia. Freejia may be a mistranslation, but let’s be happy it wasn’t even worse.
That is the natural stopping point for this entry. Next time: Red jewels! Slavery! Being evil! Alcohol censorship! And more!