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.
There are a bunch of people on the gold ship, which of course makes no sense. The only ones we’re required to talk to are the Queen and the lookout in the crow’s nest, but of course I’ll talk to them all:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
わーい わーい 王様が もどってきたあっ！ | Look, look! The King has returned! | Hooray! Hooray! The king came back! |
テム： （ボクが 王様だって？？？） | And he’s much shorter! | Tim: (I’m the king???) |
OE added a joke. It undermines the scenario a little bit, because it’s not clear whether Tim looks a lot like the king, or Tim appears to these people exactly as if he was the king. In JP these people never give a hint of noticing any physical difference between the two.
I still don’t mind the joke here. It’s funny.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
これは 王様！ よく ご無事でっ！ | It’s the King! You’re safe! | The king is here! I’m so glad you’re safe. |
テム： （ボクが 王様だって？？？） | Will: (I’m the King???) | Tim: (I’m the king???) |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
王様っ！ よく ご無事でっ！ これで やっと 大海原へ 出船できますよ。 | King! You’re safe! Now we can set sail. | King! You’re safe! Finally, we can take to the ocean. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
これが 喜ばずに いられますかっ！ 長い間 王様を 待ったかいが ありましたよっ！ | It’s a happy occasion! We have waited for you for such a long time! | This is cause for celebration! We’ve waited for the king for so long. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
おきさき様は 船室でございます。 はやく その元気な お姿を 見せてあげて下さいまし。 | The Queen is in her stateroom. Please show her that you’re OK. | Her majesty is in the cabin below. You should head down quickly so she can see that you’re well. |
Ooh, nice inclusion of state room.
Below, there’s a woman next to some beds:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
これは 王様。 船内を 見物なさっているのですね。 | Oh, King. Looking around the ship? | Hello, your majesty. So you’re taking a tour of the ship? |
しかし 王様も おつかれのはず。 船をひととおり まわったら このベッドで 少しお休みください。 | But I expect you’re tired. Look around, then rest in this bed. | But your majesty must be tired. After you’ve explored the ship, please rest in this bed. |
You can’t actually rest until the ship has set sail. Further to the right is this person staring out the window:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
暗ヤミにつつまれた どうくつの先に まばゆい光が 見える．．． | Through the darkness, a bright light is visible in front of the cave… | On the other side of the cave, hidden by darkness, I can see a dazzling light. |
あの光にみちた 海原へ出船したとき 我々は 永遠の自由を 手に入れる のだ。 | As the ship set sail, that light represented the freedom we had just won. | When we set sail into the ocean that’s filled with that light, we’ll obtain eternal freedom. |
In Japanese, sometimes when you want to say when or as something happens or happened, you use とき (toki - time). In this case, it’s preceded by 出船した (defuneshita - set sail (past tense)). You might think that, since set sail is in past tense, the とき clause would represent something in the past, in this case something like time when set sail.
But they haven’t set sail yet, so that makes no sense. とき clauses like this change tense not based on the present moment necessarily, but based on what point in time the speaker is imagining speaking from.
Think of it this way: The modifier for とき in this JP sentence is past tense for the same reason that I might use after or once rather than when or as in English. Ex: We obtain eternal freedom, after we set sail… In that sentence I used obtain in the present tense even though it’s an event in the future, and used after to indicate something that will have happened in the past at that point in time. Japanese allows switching temporal perspective in the same way.
They didn’t actually bother to give this guy new dialogue after you set sail. He continues staring out the window and talking about the light on the other side of the cave.
Further to the right is the queen and an attendant. Here’s the attendant:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
おきさき様は 以前 王様が おくられたゆびわを 今でも 大切に 身につけて いらっしゃいます。 | The Queen is still wearing the ring she got from the King. | Her majesty still takes great care to wear the ring that was given to her by your majesty. |
そうです。 しんりゃく者に追われ 王様とおきさき様が はなればなれに なるときに おくられたゆびわです。 | That’s right. | That’s right. It’s the ring you gave her when the invaders were pursuing you and you were separated. |
It’s the ring he gave her when they were separated by the invaders. |
OE is accurate except for the 3rd person everywhere. All these people are supposed to think that Tim is the king. She speaks in 3rd person in Japanese, but that’s how most people speak when we’d normally use 2nd person in English.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
おきさき様は 王様のことを それだけ したっていらっしゃるので しょうね。 | Since then, she has thought of nothing but him. | It shows just how much her majesty has been pining for your highness. |
Now we can talk to the queen:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
インカ女王： よくぞ ご無事で もどって くださいました。 | Inca Queen: Good. You have returned safely. | Incan queen: I’m so thankful that you have returned safely. |
あなたに 言われたとおり 風のミステリードールを 今日まで 守り続けてきましたわ。 | As you were told, until now I’ve been guarding the Mystic Statue of the Wind. | I’ve been protecting the Mystery Doll of Wind to this day, just as you told me. |
OE makes a slight error, probably due to the many uses of the に (ni) particle. It’s not as you were told, it’s as (unspecified actor) was told by you. Amusingly, as you were told could have a secondary meaning of as you heard from other people on the ship. So the mistranslation is hardly even noticeable.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
あれは あなたが 神から さずかった石像ですものね。 | That’s the statue you were awarded by the spirits. | It’s the statue that the gods bestowed upon you. |
下の倉庫の たからばこに しまってありますから ご自分の 目で たしかめてくださいな。 | It’s in the jewel box in the storehouse below, Look for yourself. | You can see for yourself. It’s locked in a treasure chest in the storehouse below. |
Thanks for the exposition, queenie! Nice of you to catch the king up on all this, just in case he’s forgotten or is actually a different person living centuries later.
She actually answers a question from the attract screen. Why do these strange statues look like gods? Because they were made by gods and bestowed upon humans, apparently!
There are more beds downstairs with someone in front.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
なんで ぼくたちは にげなくちゃ いけないの？ インカは ぼくたちの お家なのに。 | Why must we flee? It is our home. | Why should we have had to run away? Even so, Inca is our home. |
Also down below is a man guarding the chest.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
これは 王様。 ミステリードールは このハコの中で ございます。 | The Mystic Statue is in this box. | Hello, your majesty. The Mystery Doll is inside of this box. |
それに そろそろ 出船の準備が ととのったようですよ。 | Preparations are being made to set sail. | Moreover, our preparations to set sail seem to be almost complete. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
どうですか？ 見張り台に のぼってみては？ 出船の様子が 見られますよ。 | Well? Are you going to the crow’s nest? You can watch the ship set sail. | Well? Will you climb the crow’s nest and take a look? You should be able to see us set sail. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ミステリードールを 見つけた！ | It’s a Mystic Statue! | Got the Mystery Doll! |
Once we’ve taken the statue and talked to the queen, the person who was blocking the crow’s nest ladder will move. At the top:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
見張り： 王様 外を ごらんください。 船が どうくつを ぬけます！ | Guard: Oh short King, look there. The ship is coming out of the cave! | Lookout: Take a look, your majesty. The boat’s exiting the cave. |
Another joke about the king’s height inserted. The black background will fade way into the ocean, with this game’s excellent water effect that I’ve always found captivating. It’s more interesting in motion; screenshots won’t do it justice.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
見張り： ずっと 暗ヤミで 生活をしてきた 我々にとって この海のかがやきは 神の光に 見えますよ。 | Guard: After living in darkness for so long, the brightness is like a new beginning. | Lookout: For us, who have lived in darkness for so long, the ocean’s shine looks like the light of god. |
世界は こんなにも 美しいのに なぜ しんりゃく者が 生まれ 自然を こわしてゆくのでしょうね。 | How can invaders come to destroy a world as beautiful as this? | Though the world contains this beauty, I wonder how such invaders can be born who ruin and subjugate nature. |
(I hate my translation of the second sentence but I can’t be bothered to punch it up.)
You can jump all the way off the crow’s nest, which is one of this game’s many joys. The person by the beds will have new dialogue:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
こんな みすぼらしいベッドで 申しわけないんですが どうぞゆっくり 休んでください。 | I’m sorry that it’s so shabby, but please try to get some rest. | I’m very sorry this bed is so shabby, but please, take a rest whenever you’re ready. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： ボクは もうれつな すいまに おそわれ 深い深い 夢の中へと いざなわれていった。 | Will: I fell into a deep sleep, and was pulled inside a dream. | Tim: Overcome by intense fatigue, I was lured into a deep, deep dream. |
In Tim’s dream, he’s in a house and goes downstairs. His mother is there. When you speak to her in the US version, the scene blacks out except for a small circle around the two of them.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： か かあさんっ！？ | Will: Mother?! | Tim: M… Mom!? |
テムの母 シーラ： テム。 空を 見てごらん．．． ほら すい星が あんなにきれい。 | Will’s Mother, Shira: Look in the sky. The comet is so beautiful. | Tim’s mom, Sheila: Tim, take a look at the sky. See? That comet is so pretty. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
すい星はね 長い長い 年月をかけて 地球に やってきて そして また 遠ざかっていくの。 | After years and years the comet approaches Earth, then recedes. | That comet? Over the course of many, many years, it approaches the earth, eclipses it, and recedes. |
She doesn’t say eclipse necessarily. It covers the earth, or is spread over it, or something like that.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
あの星を 不幸を呼ぶ星っていう人も いれば しあわせの星と 呼ぶ人も いるわ．．． | Some say it’s an unlucky star. Some say it’s a lucky star… | Some people think it invites disaster to our planet, but others say that it brings good fortune. |
テム。 あなたは どっちだと思う？ | Will. What do you think? | Tim, which do you think it is? |
ふこう (fukou): unhappiness, sorrow, misfortune, disaster. しあわせ (shiawase): happiness, good fortune, luck, blessing. I don’t like the choice of luck in OE but it’s not necessarily wrong.
The next dialogue box is different depending on your choice. If it brings disaster:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
そう．．． じゃあ ふこうが 訪れないように いのらなくちゃね．．． | All right… Then hope that the bad luck doesn’t come…. | So that’s what you think? Well, we’d better pray that’s not the case. |
If it brings good fortune:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
そう．．． じゃあ しあわせが にげないように いのらなくちゃね．．． | All right… Then hope that happiness doesn’t slip away…. | So that’s what you think? Well, we’ll have to pray we get so lucky. |
Literally: well, to be sure good fortune does not escape, [unspecified actor] must pray. OE is closer to literally correct but it sounds awkward to me.
Either way, she’ll wrap it up with:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テムや。 私は いつでも あなたのことを 見守っていますよ。 | Will. I am always watching over you. | Listen, Tim. I am always watching over you. |
When Tim wakes up, the ship looks… not as nice. Or as populated with living people.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
リリィ： テム！ | Lilly: Will! | Lily: Tim! |
テム！ 起きて！ | Will! Wake up! | Tim! Get up! |
Apparently Rob is here for some reason? But forget all that, before we do anything, I’m going to the bridge to get me a Red Jewel.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
モリス： さっき 船の中で きみょうな 宝石を 見つけたんです。 これ テムに あげますね。 | Seth: I found a strange jewel on board the ship. I’ll give it to you. | Morris: I just found a strange jewel on the ship. Here, you can have it. |
You can talk to him again right after for more dialogue:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
そう言えば テムに 物をあげたのは 初めてかも 知れませんよね。 大事にしてくださいね。 | It’s the first time I’ve ever given you anything. Take care of it. | Come to think of it, this might be the first time I’ve given you anything. Take care of it. |
Erik is up here too.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
エリック： わあっ！ びっくりしたっ！！ | Erik: I was surprised!! | Erik: Aaahhh! Oh my god!! |
なんだ テムかあ。 もう おどかさないでよっ！！ | Oh, it’s you, Will. Don’t scare me!! | Geez, Tim. Don’t scare me like that again! |
びっくりした (bikkurishita) literally means was startled. You could translate this as you startled me but it’s a common enough expression of surprise that it’s also translated as oh my god or you got me, etc. Lots of valid translations here. But in this context, I was surprised!! is not one of them.
Right, let’s talk to Lily and Rob now.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
リリィ： テムの帰りが あんまりおそいから 長老様に うらなってもらったの。 | Lilly: You’re back so late, the Elder must have read your fortune. | Lily: Since you were taking so long to return, we asked the Elder to divine where you were. |
そしたら 海の上を 一人で さまよっているって言うんだもの。 びっくりしたわよ。 | He said that you were floating alone on the sea. I was so surprised. | He said you were floating around on the sea, all by yourself. Imagine our shock! |
Here, on the other hand, translating びっくりした as I was surprised or we were surprised is appropriate.
さまよっている (samayotteiru) means roaming about. I translated as floating around, since we don’t usually talk about ships roaming or loitering.
As for the OE… yeah. Unfortunate. I understand not using the exact right definition for うらなって (uranatte), which can be to tell one’s fortune, to divine, to predict, to forecast. But it seems like the translator missed もらった (moratta) entirely. Following a verb’s te form, this means to get someone to do something. They got the elder to divine/predict.
As for Rob…
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ロブ： お前の様子が 変だから 3人で こっそり 後をつけたんだ。 | Lance: You were acting strange, so we followed you. | Rob: You were acting really fishy, so we 3 secretly tailed you. |
そしたら 変な村に たどりついてさ．．． | Then we reached a strange town… | That led us to a weird village. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
リリィ： ちょっとお。 あたしの 生まれた場所なんだから 変な村なんて 言わないでよっ。 | Lilly: Wait. Don’t call it strange. I was born there. | Lily: Hey! That’s my birthplace you’re talking about. Don’t call it weird! |
ロブ： じゃうぶん 変な村じゃねえかっ。 目に見えない村なんてよっ。 | Lance: It’s invisible. | Rob: I’d say a village you can’t see is plenty weird enough. |
I’d call that pretty strange. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム。 おれたちに かくれて 旅に出よう ったって そうは いかないぜ。 | Will. You can’t go on a journey without telling us. | Tim. You think you can up and disappear on your friends, ditch us while you travel!? No way! |
友達だったら 楽しみと 苦労は わかちあわなくっちゃな。 | Since we’re friends, we have to share good times and bad. | Friends share both good times AND bad. |
He says this now, but I wonder if he changes his tune in 5 minutes when Morris friggin’ dies. (Uh… spoilers.)
And neither of you explained at all how the heck you made it onto this ship!
If you check any of the corpses lying around, they all say the same thing.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
テム： ここは さっき インカ人が 立っていた場所だ．．． | Will: This is where the Inca were standing. | Tim: This is the spot the Incan was standing just a while ago. |
Karen is staring at the queen’s body.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： もどるはずのない インカ王の帰りを まちつづけて 彼らは 死んでいったのよね．．． | Kara: They perished waiting for the King’s return… | Karen: They died waiting for the king, but he never returned. |
平和にくらしてた人たちの 生活を こなごなにするなんて ゆるせないよ やっぱり．．． | I can’t stand anything that disrupts people’s peaceful lives. | I can’t bear it when peaceful people, minding their own business, have their lives so utterly destroyed. |
How does Karen know they were waiting for the king to return? Tim knows because some ghosts told him.
My translation of the second sentence is too wordy. The original’s good except for one thing: disrupts isn’t forceful enough. こなごなにする (konagonanisuru) means to pulverize or shatter.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
きさきの ミイラが 静かに ねむっている。 | The Queen’s mummy sleeps silently. | The queen’s mummy is quietly sleeping. |
その 細くて 長い指には 黄金のゆびわが はめられている ようだ．．． | There’s a gold ring on her long, slender, bony finger… | It looks like a gold ring is fitted on one of her long, thin fingers. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
リリィ： この船に 積みこまれた 貴重な 黄金細工っていうのは きっと その ゆびわのことだよね。 | That ring must be one of the artifacts put on this ship. | Lily: That ring must be one of the valuable gold treasures that are rumored to be on this ship. |
他の どの黄金細工より かがやいていたんじゃ ないかなあ。 | This is the most valuable of all the artifacts. | I’m guessing it shone brighter than any of the other gold treasures. |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： 黄金を 見つけて お金もちに なろうとした 人たちは こんな ゆびわのために 命を 落としたわけね。 | Kara: Many people have lost their lives trying to get rich by finding this ring. | Karen: I bet some gold hunters seeking fortune lost their lives in search of this ring. |
あたし この ゆびわ もらっとこ。 かわいくて なんだか すっごく 気にいっちゃった。 | I want the ring. It’s so pretty. I really must have it. | I’m gonna take this ring. It’s kinda cute and I think it would really suit me. |
Ooooh, my girl Karen is grave robbing! Idunno about this. On the one hand: yeah, grave robbing, ugh. On the other hand: uh… Tim is a grave robber. This whole ship is a mass grave and I took the Mystic Statue. Not to mention all the herbs and jewels that I just got out of the Incan ruins, which an Itory villager said was a tomb of the ancients. Maybe it’s different if it’s something on a corpse, but let’s not forget all the times Tim just shoved aside corpses to look at people’s private letters. On one he even took an amulet out of its hand and read what was sealed inside. This dude loves taking things off corpses.
There’s really no fate for this ship other than to sink. Even if it weren’t going to be destroyed in a minute, which it is, it couldn’t last that much longer. All else equal I’d rather the historical artifact be saved. But this is something arguably crummy that Karen does. Karen haters score a point. Lily is predictably angered:
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
リリィ： あなたには えんりょってものが ないの？！ のろわれても 知らないからねっ！ | Lilly: Have you no shame!?!? You could be cursed!!! | Lily: Have you no restraint at all!? That thing could be cursed! |
Literally It’s because don’t know, even if [unspecified thing or actor] is cursed. Not clear whether it’s Karen or the ring.
It’s also not clear whether Karen succeeds in taking the ring off the queen. In any case, the ship starts shaking violently.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
カレン： な なに？ | Kara: What? | Karen: W… what? |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
リリィ： リバイヤサンかも しれないっ！ | Lilly: Maybe it belongs to Riverson! | Lily: It could be a leviathan! |
このあたりの海には 化け物みたいに おっきくて どうもうな魚がいるんだ よっ！！ | In this part of the ocean, there are fish that are as dangerous as, well, sharks!! | It’s a huge, ferocious, monster-like fish that lives in these waters! |
OOF.
If you’re a fan of this game you might have already heard that Riverson is supposed to be leviathan. JP is リバイヤサン (ribaiyasan). If it were supposed to be Riverson, it would probably be リバーサン (ribaasan). Whether there’s one or many leviathans is unclear, but I think there’s more than one. So I translated as a leviathan.
But that’s not all that’s mangled here. Maybe it belongs to Riverson? Is she talking about the ring!? Uh, no, Lilly, it belongs to the queen. (Or maybe Karen.) The sea monster probably doesn’t wear rings.
The sentence is リバイヤサンかも しれない (ribaiyasan kamo shirenai). かもしれない means might/perhaps/etc. The sentence is literally Maybe leviathan [implied copula]. There’s nothing belonging to anyone here.
I know it’s only one sentence, not a big deal, but I can’t stop imagining leviathan attacking this ship because GRRR THEY’RE STEALING MY RING.
The second sentence could actually be a decent translation, if Lily were talking about the ocean or fish in general. But she’s talking about the specific one that is attacking the ship, so the OE is a bizarre non sequitur.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ロブ： だいじょうぶかっ？ | Lance: Are you OK? | Rob: Are you OK? |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
うわあああああああああああああっ | Wa-a-a-a—a-ah!!!! | Aaaaaaaahhhh! |
ロブ： モリスの悲鳴だっ！ かんぱんの方から 聞こえたぞっ！ | Lance: That’s Seth! It’s coming from the deck! | Rob: That scream was from Morris! It came from the deck! |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
ロブ： モリスは どうしたっ？！ 何が あったんだっ！！ | Lance: What happened to Seth? Something happened! | Rob: Is Morris ok!? What happened!? |
エリック： うえぇぇぇぇぇぇぇぇん モリスが モリスが．．． | Erik: Eeeeeeeh!!! It’s Seth!!… | Erik: Wwwwwwwwwaaaaahhh! Morris… Morris… |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
でっかい魚が 船にぶつかってきて ヒック．．． | A huge, enormous, giant fish ran into the ship! Sob… | A gargantuan fish crashed into the ship and… *sob* |
モリスが 海の中に おっこって ヒック．．． | Seth fell in the water! Sob… | Morris fell off the ship and… *sob* |
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
うわあぁぁぁぁぁん モリスが 食べられちゃったよう ヒック ヒック．．． | He was swallowed! Gulp… Sob… | Wwwwwwwaaaaahhhhh! It looked like it ate Morris whole! *sob* *sob* |
ロブ： な 何だってっ？！ | Lance: What was that? | Rob: W… What did you say!? |
Oh. Well. I guess Morris is dead.
Alas, Morris, we hardly knew ye. Seriously, you had like 15 lines, they wouldn’t give you new dialogue in the cave at all. You just kept saying that you were sure to win again, over and over.
Well Morris, in your honor, I offer this delightful illustration I found from user Alandar on deviantart:
It took me a moment, but I totally see it.
Japanese | Original English | Translation |
|---|---|---|
エリック： うわああああああん また あの魚だぁっ！ ボクら 食べられちゃっうんだぁっ！ | Erik: Aaaggh! It’s that fish again! We’ll all be dessert!! | Erik: Waaaaah! It’s the fish again! We’re gonna get eaten! |
ロブ： 泣いてる ヒマがあったら 何かに つかまれっ！ ふりおとされるなよっ！ | Lance: Stop crying, and grab this, or you’ll fall overboard!! | Rob: If you’ve got time to cry, grab onto something! don’t get thrown off! |
I think we’ll all be dessert is a fantastic punch up to the original line. At this point, everyone gets thrown off the ship. Tim and Karen are going to spend a few days stranded on a raft, which is where we’ll pick up next time.
I expect these blog entries to come a bit slower from here out. I made most of these translations years ago, and we’ve caught up to the point where I lost steam—midway through the drifting sequence. Hopefully I can keep it up this time and see it through. See you next time, and pour one out for Morris. Then pour another one out for Seth.