translation – HAKUMUSU

I spent some time this morning attempting a translation of this short passage, a caption from an ecological book about wolves (オオカミと野生のイヌ, published by X-Knowledge), beneath a photo of an Arctic Wolf.

The original Japanese:

北極圏に生息するハイイロオオカミの亜種で、体毛は白い。アルビノや白変種など白色の個体は、さまざまな種でみられるが、季節にかかわらず種や亜種に属するすべての個体の体毛が常に白い肉食哺乳類は、シロクマと並んで極めて珍しい。

My translation:

A subspecies of Grey Wolf with white fur that inhabits the Arctic Circle. Individuals with white coloration due to albinism and leucism can be seen in a variety of species. However, along with the polar bear, it is extremely rare for all individuals within a species or subspecies of carnivorous mammals to have white fur year-round, regardless of season.

Translating is a great way to study language. Even in translating a short passage such as this, there is so much to chew on.

I find that in translating, as opposed to simply reading, I’m forced to check my own comprehension of the language. In translating, by actually transcribing the words into English, you are forced to choose and explicitly state the meaning of each word, phrase, or passage. And each time I’ve translated a piece now, especially these harder passages, I discover that, when I take this critical, close look, I have actually assumed some meaning that was not correct. I was close enough to understand generally, but I was not understanding specifically, perfectly. And ultimately, we do want to understand exactly what is being said. Translating forces you to take it word by word, to break it down and confirm your understanding.

For example, in the above passage, there is the word 個体. When I first read this passage, several times, I assumed 個体 to be another word that I have seen, 固体. They are similar, and have the same reading (kotai). In my initial reading of the passage, I misread this word. They are close in appearance and pronounced exactly the same, but 固体 means “solid”, and 個体 means “individual” or “specimen”. In reading the passage and misreading this word, I understood the meaning to be “the physical body” (of the wolf). My interpretation of meaning did work somewhat in my reading, but it was not correct. First of all, my understanding of 固体 was not accurate, as it really just means “solid”, and then, I was reading the wrong word anyway, because in the passage the word was 個体, and these are totally different words. However, I only truly realized this when I started to break the passage down for translation.

I also initially translated 北極圏 as “North Pole”. I caught this mistake later, when checking my accuracy, as I realized that it isn’t exactly North Pole. “North Pole” is, precisely, 北極. I wasn’t paying mind to the 圏 part, but it is there for a reason. 北極圏 is actually “Arctic Circle”. I think I just saw the 北極 part of 北極圏 and immediately thought, “North Pole”, and that is close – but not precise. It’s a subtle difference, and for general understanding, not lethal. But ultimately, 北極 and 北極圏 are fundamentally different words and concepts, and for translation purposes, “North Pole” is not precise enough, and is incorrect.

A few days ago, I had ChatGPT check a previous translation I did (a passage from the same book), and I found it caught mistakes I had made that I hadn’t even considered. I had made assumptions and was confident about some words/phrases, or I had completely misread them, and was ultimately wrong in the translation. In most cases, close, but wrong. It was startling to see that what I had assumed to be true was wrong, and how sneakily I had been misled. Because of this experience, I’m now checking even the Japanese that I think I know. And, for example, in the above passage, when I first read the line, “シロクマと並んで極めて珍しい”, I took it to mean, literally, “incredibly rare to see wolves standing together with polar bears”. In my reading of the passage, that did somewhat make sense, and is a plausible statement. However, in taking the passage line by line, I realized that was not what was meant. Having a better grasp of the passage, I saw that 並ぶ was not being used literally, but figuratively. So again, looking at this example, my initial comprehension was wrong, and that was revealed only after the close examination required in translating.

In these dense, academic passages, there is a lot of information conveyed in a short span. It’s really crucial to have an accurate understanding of every word, vocabulary and grammar, because even a slight misunderstanding can change your entire interpretation of the meaning. It’s interesting that our brains are so good at making meaning and filling in gaps in understanding, and so you can really think you understood something, or come up with a plausible interpretation. You can form a narrative that feels right, and yet you didn’t understand at all – or not perfectly. I read completely the wrong word, 固体, with a separate meaning, and yet I was able to integrate it into a plausible meaning in my interpretation of the passage.

In today’s translation exercise, I felt very clearly the value of translation as a tool for language study.

It is episode 32 of Dragon Ball Z. Vegeta has gone full monkey mode, creating an enormous shining star of energy to trigger his transformation into a giant beast monkey, which increases his power by 10x (10倍), and he’s got Goku on the ropes. He’s crushed Goku’s legs, rendering them useless, and now, he’s going for the final kill, with a single finger, moving to squash Goku like a bug, and it looks very dire for Goku. But suddenly, as monkey Vegeta brings his finger of doom down, Goku throws up an arm and fires off a powerful laser blast, shooting it straight into Vegeta’s giant red eye, his right eye, and blowing it up. Vegeta screams, immediately recoils, holds his face and cries out in agonizing pain. And there is a shot of Goku, laying there with his broken legs, chuckling, and he says – 「イタチの最後っ屁ってやつで」

That is, itachi no saigo ppe yatsu de.

Now, this was totally unexpected. We thought that, we all thought that it was over for Goku. Vegeta definitely thought this was the end of Goku, but Goku had one last gasp. And me, who is listening so intently, I am completely stumped by Goku’s line. I rewind, I listen three times. I hear “itachi”, so it seems, and I hear “no saigo”, and then whatever is at the end… but, itachi means “weasel”, and saigo means “final”. Surely, Goku is not talking about a weasel, and “the weasel’s final”? That doesn’t even make sense.

I turn on the English subtitles for guidance, relying on translators past, and I see this incredible English:

“That’s what you call the weasel’s last fart.”

So, the truth is that our hero Goku was actually saying “weasel”. The weasel’s last fart. Now, I had to Google this, because, what the hell are we talking about here? Is there truly a known Japanese phrase, in common usage, that is, the weasel’s last fart?

Well people. Yes there is. The phrase is exactly what Goku said here:

イタチ → Weasel

の最後 → ‘s last

屁 → fart

That is, イタチの最後っ屁. This is a known phrase used by the Japanese. We can easily infer from the context that we are talking about “a last ditch effort” or “last gasp”. My favorite dictionary, Jisho.org, chooses not to give a literal translation. As you can see, they say “final emergency measure” or “final defence when one is cornered”. It is basically “a last ditch effort.” And this makes you wonder, if you didn’t know already, do weasels fart in self-defence? Surely they must. Like a skunk?

Some brief research confirms that this is true.

The English subtitle translations are very trustworthy. As we can see from this example, and across the board, the translation team often stays very close to the original Japanese, which makes the subtitles especially useful for language study. In this case, they didn’t just preserve the meaning, but the imagery itself. Choosing “the weasel’s last fart” was probably a deliberate decision, even knowing it might sound strange or confusing to English speakers. Rather than choosing something familiar like “last-ditch effort,” they let the original metaphor stand. That’s a confident choice, and you have to respect that. It suggests the translators wanted viewers to know exactly what Goku said, regardless of it being received as quirky or strange.

It is interesting to hear the Japanese and then see what the translators ended up translating it as. For example, after Tenshinhan has blasted Nappa with his final, most powerful move, and Nappa survives with barely a scratch, there is a shot of Krillin and Piccolo who are both shocked and horrified, and Piccolo says, 「まさか！やつ不死身か！」”Masaka! Yatsu fujimi ka!” The second part of this line, やつ不死身か, is relatively straightforward. やつ→He/This guy (Nappa), and 不死身(ふじみ), is a great word to have in the bank, meaning immortal/undying/invincible. In this case I would choose invincible as the closest meaning. But the first word, まさか, is one of those Japanese words that is flexible, used in various scenarios, and pretty “Japanese”, so you could translate it in quite a few ways. (Jisho offers 5 different situations and usages with many offered definitions.)

I would translate Piccolo’s line as: “No way! He’s immortal??” or “You’re kidding me! He’s invincible!” You could also say “Unbelieveable!” or “I can’t believe it!” All of these would be fine choices here.

The DBZ subtitling team went with this as their translation: “Don’t tell me he’s immortal!” I think that also captures the meaning accurately and is a good translation.

Tag: translation

Translation As Language Study

The Weasel’s Last Fart