Alternate Japanese Titles

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

     Greetings fellow Queen's Thief zealots ( I'm new ). I was searching through the archives and noticed that there is a Japanese edition of the books. I went to the Japanese Amazon site to check them out, and I noticed they had alternate titles. Now, I am by no means fluent in Japanese, but I have been studying the language for several years and have acquired a working knowledge. I read that several members seem to own the Japanese edition so I thought a translation was called for.
     Be aware the three books were published over five volumes in Japan ( The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia having been split into two parts ). Well maintaining the alternate title of the American edition the split volumes have their own individual title.
     Please, tell me if you think these titles suit the books better or less.
    
P. S. : Fell free to ask any questions about the translation.

 

series title

盗 神 伝

Toushinden

 

Legend of the Thief God


Edit: My first translation of Toushinden was slightly off being that my dictionary gave me the wrong meaning for one of the kanji. I have discovered that the kanji in this case means "thief" not "to steal". Legend of the Thief God is the correct translation.

 

author’s name

 
M • W • ターナー

M • W • ta-na-

 

Megan Whalen Turner

 

The Thief,  volume 1

ハミアテスの約束                   

hamiatesu  no  yakusoku

 

Hamiathes’s Promise

                                                         

The Queen of Attolia, volume 2

アトリアの女王

atoria no joo

 

Attolia’s Female King

 

復 讐

fukushuu

 

Revenge

The Queen of Attolia, volume 3

 

アトリアの女王

atoria no joo

 

Attolia’s Female King

告白

kokuhaku

 

Confessions

 
The King of Attolia, volume 4

新しき王

atarashiki o

 

The New King

 

孤立

koritsu

 

Isolation

 

The King of Attolia, volume 5

新しき王

atarashiki o

 

The New King

栄光

eikou

 

Glory

Comments

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

fascinating!
thank you

eta: and welcome!!!

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Wow, thats really cool! Its really interesting to see the different titles. "Stealing a Godly Legend"... I like that one alot.

Thank You

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I really like the series title too; for not only could it refer the the first book, but it touches upon the idea of Eugendies becoming an immortal legend.

Re: Thank You

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

BTW, in LJ if you don't specifically reply to the comment you're replying to (Click the link Reply to this), the person would not get a comment notification in her inbox.

Unlike forums, on LJ most people rely on comment notifications instead of checking the post to see if anybody responded.

[(Anonymous)]

I was not aware of that button (new). Thank you for mentioning it.

Japanese titles

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

Hi and welcome =D

hamiatesu --> shouldn't that be Hamiathes?

I def. prefer "The Thief" over "Hamiathes' Promise," because I love thief characters and would always pick up a book with the word "thief" in the title and at least read the book blurb.

But I guess to a Japanese audience "Hamiathes' Promise" is more evocative of Western fantasy, etc.

From what I remember of QoA and KoA, "Revenge + Confessions" and "Isolation + Glory" are apt secondary titles =D
My quibble with "Confessions" as a secondary title--I guess I watch too much anime because whenever I see "kokuhaku," I automatically picture a blushing school girl confessing her love to his man =P

I actually prefer "The New King" over "The King of Attolia," because new readers coming into the series are more likely to pick up the former title than the latter, IMO. Esp. since KoA can be read without reading T & QoA first =3

Re: Japanese titles

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Hamiathe (hamiatesu) is written in katakana: the phonetic alphabet the the Japanese invented for the use of spelling foreign words. I merely wrote the romen letter equivalent to the Japanese pronounciation. Japanese people find the English sound "th" almost impossible to pronounce so they substitute "te" as in take and "su" as in soup. Clip the e and drop the u when you pronounce it and you get a simalar sound to "th".
I agree with you about Confessions (kokuhaku). The kanji literally means to proclaim ones whiteness or purity, and I don't know if that suits Irene.

Re: Japanese titles

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

I meant, you have it as "Hamiatha" up there ^^;;

Re: Japanese titles

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

I don't know if that suits Irene.

Also, I don't remember any particular confessions in the second half of QoA. Unless they're referring to "Gen is awesome as always, and here's how he did it." *g*

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

Attolia's Female King. Heh heh. That is so awesome.

Thanks for posting these; they were quite interesting!

[kulai-raito.livejournal.com]

ooohh the books were broken into volumes..how I am not surprised :)
Love the jap. translations. I could only read the chinese characters. I want to go on vacation this summer, I heavily consider Japan in which I go buy the books if I was there..
Welcome!

[secondstar.livejournal.com]

That is so awesome!
I took a couple of japanese classes and this made me realize how much I miss it.

[kitsune-rains.livejournal.com]

I must say that I don't particularly like the "Attolia's Female King" thing, just because of how the titles were dealt with in the Eddis short story. Helen took the king's title, Eddis, instead of the queen's title, Eddia. So, I feel like Sounis and Eddis each have their kings and Attolia has her queen.
And king now, I guess. XD
I do like the Revenge/Confessions, Isolation/Glory subtitles, though.

(Does Sounis have a wife?)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Not yet. But he'd lurve to have a certain one.

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

The two kanji in The Queen of Attolia title are 女 and 王. The first means women and the second means ruler or king. Put together they can mean queen, or something more like female ruler. I choose female king, because I thought that got the point across more clearly. In a way it means both so you can take in which ever way you prefer.

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

So...Gen should have been Attolis?

ETA: Or is Gen more like the Royal Spouse? X-D
Royal HAB (Husbands and Boyfriends) *g*

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

Welcome! This is so cool. Is the 'female king' deal another of those things where the word 'queen' just means 'wife of a king', so they went with the other, since she ruled alone? I'm intruiged!!!

The japenese covers have to be some of my favorites - second only to the UK QoA.

I'm emailing this post to my friend G (TA: the same G who introduced me to LotR), because she's a Japan nut and maybe super analyzing the titles will get her syched about super analyzing the books.

I KNOW she'd love QT if she'd just try it. So I came up with a plan of attack:

1) Hype up the books, likening them to the mangas and historical books that she likes, and stressing the hotness of certain characters. (completed)
2) Agree to read one of her mangas if she agrees to read TT. (completed)
3) Force her through to the end of TT. I know she'll love the last half or so (starting when he steals the gift) but I'm not sure about the first half. I really want her to read QoA and KoA, but I'm not about to let her read those first, am I? (in progress)
4) Get her hooked on the books. (not begun)
5) Get her to join Sounis. (not begun)

女王

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

In Chinese there's a distinction between 女王 (female king) and 王后 (king's wife). In Japanese I think there's only the one option for "queen"; at least, that's what I've seen so far.


LOL I love your plan of attack X-D

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Go TLE, go TLE....*\o/*

Concerning queens

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I must say, I'm impressed by everyone's enthusiasm. I did not expect to get thirty comments and certainly not within 24 hours. Usually, when I try to talk to people about Japanese, I get "much surrptitious eye rolling".

I've looked through the different kanji for queen and there are two other possibilities. One of which was already mentioned.

皇后: (pronounced kougou) means empress in reference to the wife of the Japanese emperor.

王妃: (pronounced ohi) means noble lady, princess, or queen.

女王: (pronounced joo) can also mean queen, but has an insinuative meaning of female sovereign. Considering the kanji combination, and its use in the words 女王蟻 (queen-ant) and 女王蜂 (queen-bee).

If the translators had simply meant a wife of a king, they probably would have used 王妃, because I don't think 皇后 can be used for anything except when referring to the empress of Japan.

Unfortunately, I can not give you a definitive answer, because my "official" kodansha Japanese to English dictionary is apparently too "official" to have such fantasy related words as: king, queen, castle, etc. I'm having to work from a somewhat reliably on-line dictionary and cross reference it with my kanji dictionary.
Essentially, Japanese people delight in giving nonspecific answers that can mean multiply things. 女王 can mean queen or female soveriegn depending on which is more to your liking. This is how the Japanese maintain their characteristic nonconfrontational atmosphere, make everyone happy.

P.S.: I'd like to thank everyone for their posts and suggestions. This turned into quite the discussion.

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

(TA: the same G who introduced me to LotR)

So, should she and I be collaborating on a plan of attack to get YOU reading Lord of the Rings?

XD

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

ALRIGHT!!! I've gotten her to read the books! She says she will soon.

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Welcome! What an interesting post!

[mycenaeth.livejournal.com]

^__^ I translated the japanese blurbs a while back. They are interesting as well.

(http://community.livejournal.com/sounis/126906.html)

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

Ooh, link pls? =D