Saturday, March 6, 2021

Hitori's Translator Note Volume 14

 

“In addition, building a nation implies that we will be defending morepeople. Turning countries into graveyards will only damage the name of AinzOoal Gown. Now, has anyone noticed anything?”

[V9 Nigel]

“Making a country willmean we have more to protect. There isn’t anyone to praise the name Ainz Ooal Gown in ruined countries. Now, is there anyone else who thought of something?

[V9 Yen Press]

“There is the question of being able to govern such a kingdom. Ruling over a ruined country would bring shame to the name of Ainz Ooal Gown.” - WN Frostfire

The original context is that it's hard to manage a nation, but the scenes are framed a bit differently between LN and WN despite the scene at large being composed similarly.

The exact Japanese in the WN appears to be what the anime used for reference (as members of the anime staff read the WN and included WN elements [ confirmed in some interviews], in scenes into the anime at various points such as the Season 3 Jircniv reaction scene or Ainz's voice actor using a different voice based on how the drama cd was directed).

"A nation we're in control becoming ruined would be unworthy of the name Ainz Ooal Gown. "

Put More simply: "If the country goes to shit while we're in charge it'll hurt our rep"

Ziggy - WN Literal

Ainz-sama once said that ‘to rule over a ruined nation would be bad for our reputation.’

Volume 14 Hitori

Given how Volume 14(2020) came out after Season 3 of the anime (2018) and Volume 13(2018) most likely that was actually meant to represent Maruyama reacting to WN dialogue popping up in the anime instead of the LN dialogue leading him to be confused as he hasn't worked on it at the time for many years.

Your mileage will probably vary but based on the chronology, the other translator note referring to a scene between Demiurge and Fluder only in the web novel, the existence of WN content in the anime, and all the various translations of these lines, this doesn't strike me as a bad translator note as if someone had originally only known one translation they may have suggested the translation was referring to something but was done poorly when in fact it is referring to previous content that wasn't translated as good originally. Nigel had notes explaining how the orcs are closer to Japanese orcs for example in Volume 12 for context as well to address confusion over why the Orcs didn't look like what people thought they would.

Trying to reconstruct why Hitori included this: Hitori probably read Nigel's translation but then was confused at this line, not recalling these events like most fans probably would, and found the web novel version offered an origin for why this dialogue may exist.

I understand not everyone agrees on the purpose of translator notes (see reaction TNs in manga projects, vs etymology notes, alternate reading notes etc). Ultimately they should at least explain some nuance lost in translation that the translator notices but can't possibly convey perfectly due to the nature of translations. Sometimes the translator needs to tell the audience things because you can't convey every nuance of the author in a new language or due to previous translations clouding self referential content translated by somebody else later.

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