Kusuriya no Hitorigoto ~Maomao no Koukyuu Nazotoki Techou~ - Vol. 4 Ch. 16 - The Pipe

[MangaDex]

 

[zenwarrior]

I get that this is meant to be a more concise but detailed version or whatever but why are the names entirely different? it's off-putting.

 

[lordhamster]

Translator explained in notes at the start. He's basically using the Mandarin pronunciations of all the names(Chinese and Japanese use the same characters/kanji) to be more "authentic" I guess because they're supposed to be Chinese and not Japanese.

 

[AnotherDuck]

By her phrasing it seems like she's saying it gets cold because it snows. It's kind of the other way around, so I wonder if the original meaning didn't come across.

Of course he needs permission. He's depriving Renshi from providing for his favourite cat.

"Please return without taking detours."

It's a necessary request in this case. Which she immediately discards.

"Who is this person with strange tastes?"

Such shading. Not that she disagrees.

Ah, yes, the infamous fourth princess, who only once in a blue moon shows her face. If the old hag can manage to force her to.

He knows she should hide her beauty. There's enough of it inside. In many ways.

If something strange happens, either she immediately sticks her nose where it doesn't belong, or someone (name redacted) grabs her by the scruff of her neck and pushes her nose into it.

She's done that many times. And here I thought she was more of a poison lover than a pyromaniac...

Translator explained in notes at the start. He's basically using the Mandarin pronunciations of all the names(Chinese and Japanese use the same characters/kanji) to be more "authentic" I guess because they're supposed to be Chinese and not Japanese.

Yeah, this is one of the stranger localisations I've seen. Changing it, but not to the culture the translation is for, nor the original culture the work is written for, but the culture the work is based on.

 

[Kinshiru]

Yeah, this is one of the stranger localisations I've seen. Changing it, but not to the culture the translation is for, nor the original culture the work is written for, but the culture the work is based on.

There's similar case with the old adaptation of "Kaze yo, Banri wo Kake yo", a novel by Yoshiki Tanaka based on Sui Dynasty's expedition to Korea. The translator choose to using Chinese & Korean pronouncation of all the names than Japanese pronouncation.

 

[Ironclad]

Translator explained in notes at the start. He's basically using the Mandarin pronunciations of all the names(Chinese and Japanese use the same characters/kanji) to be more "authentic" I guess because they're supposed to be Chinese and not Japanese.

The names in pinyin I can grudgingly except but "Bailing-xiaojie" is just being a wanker. You intentionally inserted a Chinese transliteration into a translation of Japanese into English. That's not authentic or reader friendly. It might also be anachronistic, then again this isn't actually set in China.

What was the original line? Maomao always refers to Bailing/Pairin as her sister. That's completely missing from this "translation." "Xiaojie" is a much more distant way of addressing someone.

You're pointlessly adding a barrier to your "English" translation by insisting on arbitrarily swapping in pinyin transliteration. Why? It's actually worse than leaving the original kanji. I need a dictionary either way, but at least I don't need to second guess the accuracy of the first translation.

If you think the series is more authentic in Chinese, just do an actual Chinese translation. Not this unprofessional crap.

 

[Setsura]

The names in pinyin I can grudgingly except but "Bailing-xiaojie" is just being a wanker. You intentionally inserted a Chinese transliteration into a translation of Japanese into English. That's not authentic or reader friendly. It might also be anachronistic, then again this isn't actually set in China.

What was the original line? Maomao always refers to Bailing/Pairin as her sister. That's completely missing from this "translation." "Xiaojie" is a much more distant way of addressing someone.

You're pointlessly adding a barrier to your "English" translation by insisting on arbitrarily swapping in pinyin transliteration. Why? It's actually worse than leaving the original kanji. I need a dictionary either way, but at least I don't need to second guess the accuracy of the first translation.

If you think the series is more authentic in Chinese, just do an actual Chinese translation. Not this unprofessional crap.

Chinese here. Xiaojie is actually an authentic way to refer to your older sister (but not the oldest one) when talking with someone else. It's basically like "-neesan" but since Chinese has a word for like all family members things can get weirdly specific at times.

 

[Seryph3]

The names in pinyin I can grudgingly except but "Bailing-xiaojie" is just being a wanker. You intentionally inserted a Chinese transliteration into a translation of Japanese into English. That's not authentic or reader friendly. It might also be anachronistic, then again this isn't actually set in China.

What was the original line? Maomao always refers to Bailing/Pairin as her sister. That's completely missing from this "translation." "Xiaojie" is a much more distant way of addressing someone.

You're pointlessly adding a barrier to your "English" translation by insisting on arbitrarily swapping in pinyin transliteration. Why? It's actually worse than leaving the original kanji. I need a dictionary either way, but at least I don't need to second guess the accuracy of the first translation.

If you think the series is more authentic in Chinese, just do an actual Chinese translation. Not this unprofessional crap.

We're dealing with Japanese fiction in a Chinese setting translated into English, so I get the confusion. The biggest reason why I decided to translate all the names into Chinese--and it's only just the names I'm translating as such--is that it irons out all the issues you get if you were to follow the furigana reading of the names. It's not all just for fun.

If you want to talk about accuracy (not so much authenticity), here's the original line for Bailing/Pairin's name:

https://imgur.com/a/KmYh19P

...which is Bailing-xiaojie if you read it as it is. It is the Japanese ruby text that tells you the closest Japanese equivalent of what the term means (you will encounter this a lot in this novel/manga), which is why people have been translating it as "older sister" since that is the most common meaning for it, even though it is not necessarily the most correct translation.

Neesan doesn't always mean "older sister" in a familial sense. Perhaps an older female figure would be a better way to put it. Xiaojie, the original Chinese term (which could be translated as "Miss"), is used to refer to prostitutes as well--pretty sure we left a TL note about this in one of the previous chapters. (Also, the pleasure district here is quite Yoshiwara-esque, so you can tell that Pairin and Maomao have a sort of oiran-kamuro relationship just by the form of address.) So as familiar as you are with the "older sister" translation, it has never been the best translation for it--so I took the opportunity to just roll with xiaojie since we are keeping the Chinese elements that have been pushed aside in favour of an English translation that's more reader friendly, as you say.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ironclad]

We're dealing with Japanese fiction in a Chinese setting translated into English, so I get the confusion. The biggest reason why I decided to translate all the names into Chinese--and it's only just the names I'm translating as such--is that it irons out all the issues you get if you were to follow the furigana reading of the names. It's not all just for fun.

If you want to talk about accuracy (not so much authenticity), here's the original line for Bailing/Pairin's name:

https://imgur.com/a/KmYh19P

...which is Bailing-xiaojie if you read it as it is. It is the Japanese ruby text that tells you the closest Japanese equivalent of what the term means (you will encounter this a lot in this novel/manga), which is why people have been translating it as "older sister" since that is the most common meaning for it, even though it is not necessarily the most correct translation.

Neesan doesn't always mean "older sister" in a familial sense. Perhaps an older female figure would be a better way to put it. Xiaojie, the original Chinese term (which could be translated as "Miss"), is used to refer to prostitutes as well--pretty sure we left a TL note about this in one of the previous chapters. (Also, the pleasure district here is quite Yoshiwara-esque, so you can tell that Pairin and Maomao have a sort of oiran-kamuro relationship just by the form of address.) So as familiar as you are with the "older sister" translation, it has never been the best translation for it--so I took the opportunity to just roll with xiaojie since we are keeping the Chinese elements that have been pushed aside in favour of an English translation that's more reader friendly, as you say.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the clarification. That is a pickle. Still I encourage using an imperfect, English word instead of transliteration. Leave an asterisk and continue with explanations in the credits and comments, but don't force a reader out of the story to learn the linguistic nuances.

 

[Seryph3]

Thanks for the clarification. That is a pickle. Still I encourage using an imperfect, English word instead of transliteration. Leave an asterisk and continue with explanations in the credits and comments, but don't force a reader out of the story to learn the linguistic nuances.

Tbh I'm surprised you didn't bring up the -sama/dono/san honorifics, because that's even more out of place than everything else you mentioned lmao. Now why is that fine but not xiaojie? They've been left as it is for the same reason as aforementioned lol

 

[cksn]

if he likes her, then why not just make her his concubine or wife? he already bought her, she's already his property.

i get that men can be like this, "no, i want her to LIKE me first," but come on my guy. stop reading romantic poetry and just seize the means of reproduction. she'll like you.

"then there wouldn't be a story" ok but i can still complain and he had better grow balls SOMEDAY

 

[_immaweeb]

Uh can someone explain the last page please? Have we seen the scroll before?
nvm spoke too soon next chapter explains it all lol