Inuyasha - Translation Notes

INUYASHA: SENGOKU O-TOGI ZOUSHI:
TRANSLATION & READING NOTES

READING THE MANGA

The manga is scanned as it appears in the Japanese publication "Shonen Sunday.
That is, it's read from right to left. I generally keep the words in the same
places as they appear in the original.

PARDON MY JAPANESE...

First of all, obviously I'm not a professional translator. I've studied Japanese
and translate this for my own enjoyment, so I just don't forget what I've learned.
(Not that manga is a very good way of "studying the Japanese language" so to
speak, it's fun to read...) That and I like continuing to read and learn more about
the Japanese culture and language.

Anyway, I do take a few minor liberties in translating. I try to keep things as literal
as possible while still trying to flow in natural English (ie. not quite "bookish")
and build on character personalities. There are swear words where the language becomes
so in the original Japanese version. I also find mistranlations and errors in my
translating here and there. Plus there's almost always lines that bowl me over
in regards to what they really mean...

This isn't perfect, but hopefully passable. Special thanks to Roy for doing some
proofing for me, as well as being my dictionary, thesaurus, and all-around Japanese crash
course instrcutor when I'm thrown for a loop. Heh-heh.

~ MS

CHAPTER 338 GLOSSARY & NOTES

Please refer to the Inuyasha General Glossary for recurring words that remain untranslated.
(I'll get that up soon)

All "HAKU"-ed out this time around. *LOL* We have HAKUdoushi, KoHAKU, and now the youkai called HAKU. HAAAAAAKU. This week was actually pretty straightforward. Only a few comments this time. ^_^

HAKU - (title, page 5) The term haku is the name of a youkai, and it's written to mean "soul." The same kanji is used for the word tamashii. It's explained that the haku youkai eats human haku (souls). The word haku is used in all instances of the word "soul" here, except on page 5, where Hakudoushi first comments, "Look, Kohaku. Souls of the dead." In this case, he uses hitodama, which is a disembodied soul.

"SNEAKY TALKS" - (page 14 and 16) A more literal translation is something like, "If it's like that, nothing would be a sneaky talk for you both." I guess it coulda been that way, but I just wanted to make it sound a little more natural in English. The jist is there, right? Kagome's just annoyed that Inuyasha and Kikyou seemed to exclude the group in their last chat.

A few lines later, Inuyasha mentions a not talking about "anything shady." Again, the words are "not a shady/underhanded talk." Just making it sound more natural. ^_^