Please Translate - Chinese Characters in Titles

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[Zergrinch]

As feared, Episode 38 is chock full of signs.

Should I even attempt this board?


AXN calls these the Four Gods Response Buns.  I am skeptical of the use of "response".  WWWJDIC translates the last two words as "Ideal Topography", which is basically the proper geographic positioning.  I'm inclined to translate this to "Ideal Topography of the Four Gods".


AXN calls these the Spirit Calming Buns.


"Big Eight of Seafood".  But I distinctly remember using the term "Dried Seafood" in an earlier episode.


"Eight Seafood Treasure Bun of the Four Gods".   A tad unwieldy, but is it the best choice?  If so, I'd render it as "Eight Seafood Treasures of the Four Gods Bun.


Super Dim Sum, according to AXN.  But it doesn't match the "Super" in "Super Chef"


Not translated by AXN, but Shell was talking about how he made the dough flat on purpose.  Looking it up on WWWJDIC gives me a choice between "Baking Soda", "Sodium Bicarbonate", and "Baking Powder."  Since AXN and the subsequent screenshot use "Baking Powder", I'm inclined to use this.


This is only for my reference.  I'll sound this out (no need to look it up).  At any rate it translates to "Baking Powder", perhaps the Japanese pronunciation of the earlier words.


I recognize the individual words: Yellow Gold Open Mouth Laugh.  What's the best way to translate the phrase, though?  AXN calls these the "Golden Laughing Bun"

[plau]

Since this is very very very long, I'll be brief.

Episode 36
===

Congealed is fine.

===

反跳 is actually rebounding, but it wants to mean Bouncing.
So Just use "Bouncing Turtle soup"

===

I don't know about Yu Dong, will need to check the Cantonese version. I think I may have come across a solid soup, but I don't recall at the moment.

===

I'm not too sure about 王道. But basic should be okay.
独創 is Japanese for Originality.

===

難吃 = Distasteful/Unpalatable
印 = Seal
難吃印 = Distasteful Seal

===

I'll talk about Chinese culture and location names later. [TO BE ADDED IN]

===

鎮魂麵 = Japanese for "Requiem Noodle"

===

晃頂餃子 = Not sure, will investigate.

===

心胸 = Cardiothoracic (or Heart)
点改 = Point change? I don't have a better translation
点心 = Dim Sum

===

This one is actually very easy... Read the articles, they may have other names you might want to consider

餃子 = Dumpling
春卷 = Spring Roll
甜点 = Dessert
粥 = Congee
粽子 = Zongzi
饅頭 = Mantou
花卷 = Flower Roll? (Hanamaki - a town in Japan)
麵条 = Noodle
水餃 = Dumpling (Water Dumpling)
燒賣 = Shumai
燒餅 x2 = Bing (Chinese flatbread)

[Zergrinch]

Alrighty, here's how I'm gonna run with it:

Episode 36 title:
冷 = cold
製煮 = cooking system
こごり = congealing / jelly
スープ = soup

I'm changing Congealed to "Jelly", although I'm not sure what 製煮 means.

> 反跳 = bouncing

WWWJDIC technically translates this as "recoil" which bears more similarity to "rebound" than "bounce".  But I concur that bouncing is probably what's intended.

Yu Dong = 与凍
I'm going to assume the intent is to make it similar with 肉凍, hence "Aspic", which is a type of animal gelatin dish.  Which Sanche's dish certainly is.

> 難吃印 = Distasteful Seal

I'm planning to use "Detestable Seal".  Basically synonymous with distasteful, although I think it is a bit more negative.

> 鎮魂麵

I'm not comfortable using the word "requieum", which needs the word for "song" to make it so.
I plan to use "Repose of the Soul Noodles" here.

> 晃頂餃子

晃 = brilliant, dazzling light
頂 = crown, summit, (mountain) spire
餃子 = dumplings

Does "Dazzling Crown Dumplings" sound okay?  Contradicts AXN's "double-layered dumpling" a bit but that's always adjustable >

>> 心胸
>> 点改

心 = heart
胸 = chest; so yeah, "cardiothoracic" is the right word.
点 = dot, point, mark
改 = revision, so "point of revision"

But it doesn't flow, so I'm going to use:

心胸 = state of mind
点改 = change

To flow with Shell's dialogue that 点心 is supposed to 点改 your 心胸 :p

What do you think?

Regarding the dim sum wheel, I'm gonna look through wikipedia's dim sum article and see what familiar western names I can use.  

餃子 = Dumplings (as in earlier episodes)
春卷 = Spring Roll (as in earlier episodes)
甜点 = Dessert
粥 = Congee (as in earlier episodes)
粽子 = I'll probably use Rice Dumpling, because personally I don't know what a Tamale is.
饅頭 = Should I use "Bun" or "Steamed Bun"?  (AXN translates manju simply as "bun")
花卷 = I'll go with "Flower Roll" although I've never ever seen such a dim sum...
麵条 = Does "Noodle Strips" make any sense?
水餃 = Water Dumpling
燒賣 = Siu Mai
燒餅 = Do you think the literal "Hotcake" will work, or should I use the more precise "Roasted Pastry"

[Zergrinch]

Episode 39 comes with a few characters that will be used for the remainder of the anime.

I have taken it for granted that Shan's title in the Underworld is "Black Peony".  Knowing what we know of her, the name fits.  But after examining the manga (the character was never flashed in the anime), I have my doubts.

Her title is 一丈青.  There is no word for Black (hei) anywhere.  Does the phrase mean anything significant?  I've been getting nonsense phrases like "one green length" or some combination thereof.
一 : one, best
丈 : 3.03 meters, length, height, stature
青 : blue, green

AKeep just has a long-ass translation note about how her name came from a chef who made meat buns from human meat, from a story called "Yi Zhang Qing San Er Liang".  I'd do some research on this, but I don't know the right Chinese transliteration for it...

This nickname will be used for the rest of the series when referring to Shan, so I think nailing it down now is important.

__


Akeep - Reqiuem Over
AXN - Prayers Finished
CMBT - In previous episodes, I've translated this orally as "It is done" (this is the first time the words are flashed on screen).  Still, I looked at the literal meaning, and it seems the most appropriate to use is "Soul Repose Prayer Complete".

___

匕星破軍生墨鱼片

AKeep - Seven Star Destructive Army Raw Squid Slice
AXN - Seven Star Fresh Slices of Raw Squid

The AKeep rendition sounds more plausible, although I have doubts about the "Destructive Army" bit.

___

匕星破軍迅切開

AKeep - Seven Star Destructive Army Quick Slice
AXN - Seven Star Cut Open

[plau]

Yu Dong = 与凍
I'm going to assume the intent is to make it similar with 肉凍, hence "Aspic", which is a type of animal gelatin dish.  Which Sanche's dish certainly is.

Aspic should be pretty close enough.

> 難吃印 = Distasteful Seal

I'm planning to use "Detestable Seal".  Basically synonymous with distasteful, although I think it is a bit more negative.

> 鎮魂麵

I'm not comfortable using the word "requieum", which needs the word for "song" to make it so.
I plan to use "Repose of the Soul Noodles" here.

Detestable does really translate well. While 難 is "Bad", "吃" specifically mentions "eat", and you would lose that in Detestable. As for "Requiem", I don't think song is entirely necessary. And that is the best word for "鎮魂". Also, I think "Repose of the Soul" is a bit too long.

> 晃頂餃子

晃 = brilliant, dazzling light
頂 = crown, summit, (mountain) spire
餃子 = dumplings

Does "Dazzling Crown Dumplings" sound okay?  Contradicts AXN's "double-layered dumpling" a bit but that's always adjustable >

"Dazzling Crown Dumplings" is excellent.

Regarding the dim sum wheel, I'm gonna look through wikipedia's dim sum article and see what familiar western names I can use. 

餃子 = Dumplings (as in earlier episodes)
春卷 = Spring Roll (as in earlier episodes)
甜点 = Dessert
粥 = Congee (as in earlier episodes)
粽子 = I'll probably use Rice Dumpling, because personally I don't know what a Tamale is.
饅頭 = Should I use "Bun" or "Steamed Bun"?  (AXN translates manju simply as "bun")
花卷 = I'll go with "Flower Roll" although I've never ever seen such a dim sum...
麵条 = Does "Noodle Strips" make any sense?
水餃 = Water Dumpling
燒賣 = Siu Mai
燒餅 = Do you think the literal "Hotcake" will work, or should I use the more precise "Roasted Pastry"

Use Steamed Bun.
I've never hear of Flower Rolls either.
Do not use Noodle Strips, it's just noodles,
Hotcake should be okay.

[plau]

Episode 37 is a breather.  Only has one visual hardsub that isn't already part of Episode 36!

This is the full name of Lakon's technique.


I know the first two words stand for "Hakura" (Lakon's surname).  Still, I'm curious what the literal Chinese translation (and English transliteration) might be!

Interestingly, I thought the origin of the steamed bun in Chinese cuisine being rooted in the Three Kingdoms period was a bunch of Cooking Master Boy hooey.  I'm pleasantly surprised to find out that this Zhuge Liang chap DID in fact make human head-shaped buns as a river offering, according to legend.

======

Episode 38 is going to have some Four Gods lovin'.  Any anime watcher who's already seen Fushigi Yuugi will surely know what "Suzaku", "Seiryuu", "Byakko", and "Genbu" is.  But many may not.  I'm wondering whether I should:

a. Leave the Japanese untouched (Suzaku, Seiryuu, Genbu, Byakko)
b. Use the Chinese equivalent (Zhu Que, Qing Long, Xuanwu, Bai Hu)
c. Literal English equivalent (Vermilion Bird, Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, White Tiger)

The first option is more familiar to anime watchers, but may be unintelligible to the casual watcher.  The second option is the most precise when it comes to period flavor (if we ignore the fact that these Chinese guys are speaking in Japanese), but is even more unintelligible than the first, especially to non-Chinese.  The last one is more accessible, but is rather long-winded compared to the rest.

What say you? 

> 白羅蛇転練

転 is Japanese. It's not a Chinese word. It should be 轉.
白羅 doesn't really mean anything in Chinese.
蛇轉練 is transliterates to "Snake Turning Practice", so I think we should use "Snake Turning Technique"

===

I'm leaning C, but A is alright. Don't use B, no one will get it. A previous episode references Suzaku/Vermillion Bird. What does that episode have to say about it?

[Zergrinch]

There was a reference to Suzaku?  Where, which episode?  (Don't remember, after doing thirty over, they tend to blend together ._.)

[Zergrinch]

Episode 40!  Whoo!  (12 more!)

There's just two to do here.


芙蓉蟹＝かに玉

Now, I know 蟹 means "Crab".  Searching for 芙蓉 gets a Wikipedia entry on Egg Fu Young.
Akeep interprets Fu Young as "Waterlily"  Technically, 芙蓉 means a Cotton Rose (hibiscus mutabilis), a kind of flower I assume. 
かに is also "Crab", but 玉 is more unclear.  It stands for gemstone, right?

I'm inclined to use "Egg Fu Young = Crab Omelet" for this one.  Any more-accurate renditions?

=======


蟹斗=甲羅盛

I have not the slightest idea what Crab + "斗" is supposed to be.
AXN calls these the Stuffed Crab Shells.  Pretty much describes the dish, but I was expecting something more flowery.  
AKeep interprets it as Crab Shells = Assorted Crab Shells, which sounds kinda bleh.
Any better suggestions?

[Zergrinch]

Hot damn, is episode 42 ever so verbose.

And so much referencing to past episodes!

(Well, nothing really to translate here.  Just venting).

Oh, and I decided to go with "Ten-Feet-of-Blue" as Shan's appellation.  Seems like it's another Water Margin reference.

[plau]

Episode 38.

(Sorry for it being late, I've been busy)

Don't translate the Chinese wheel of fortune thing, it's loses a lot of meaning if translated.

> 四神相应
四神 translates to Four Gods, but they're actually called the Four Symbols. I would suggest using Four Guardians.
相应 translates to Correspondiing, so I don't know what you want to do with it.

>鎮魂饅
Once again, I would submit Requiem Buns

>八大海鮮
Eight Seafood

>四神海鮮八宝饅
四神 = Four Guardians
海鮮 = Seafood
八宝 = Eight Treasures (this one is slightly redundant)
饅 = Bun
"Eight Seafood Bun of the Four Guardians/Gods"

>超点心
超 = Super
特 (From Super-Chef) = Special (It's always been special)
so it's "Super Dim Sum" and "Super Chef" should have been "Special Chef" all along.

>重曹
Baking Soda in JAPANESE.

>黄金開口笑
黄金 = Golden, just golden
開口 = Open
笑 = Laugh
"Gold Laughing Buns" would actually be the most appropriate

The map from Ep36 is a reference to the Three Kingdoms period. The green is Wei, orange is Shu and yellow is Wu. Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms

[Zergrinch]

Episode 43 Signs:

Mao explains his Magical Panda Tofu.  As per episode 1, the character on the right is La (Spicy Hot), which I translated as Spiciness in Eps 1 and 2.  The right character is Ma (Numbness).  No question here, but it gives context to the next picture:


Does "Ma La" mean anything significant?  Or is simply "Numbness" and "Spiciness"?  I'm leaning towards just calling this "MALA"


Mao is asked to explain his dish:

1. How did you turn liquid soymilk curd into striped tofu?
I am leaning towards "黒 Black の and 白 White 縞模様 Striped Pattern"


2. How did the tofu cut itself?
I am leaning towards "自然 Spontaneous 切断 Cutting"


3. Why was the tofu, fresh from the hardening case, so hot?
I am leaning towards "型枠 Mold * 熱 Temperature"

[Zergrinch]

No new signs for Episode 44.  It says right on the tin: "Originality" and "Universality".

Three signs for Episode 45:

The decoded map has five letters (轉動老天爺) in addition to Shanghai.

It seems 老天爺 is a sky god of sorts.  But what does 轉動 mean?

I'm leaning on treating this as an instruction.  轉 = Turn, 動 = Movement, aka "Turn the Sky God around"



As far as I can ascertain, this means "Kitchen God".  However checking Wikipedia shows "God of the Hearth" as an alternative.  AXN says "Cooking Stove".  Which sounds better?  (I'm leaning on Kitchen).


So, 転龍壺 = Coiled Dragon Pot?  Coiling Dragon Pot?  Does it make a difference?  (I'm partial towards Coiled, which is AXN's version).

[Zergrinch]

Just one apiece for Episodes 46 and 47

While partially obstructed, I have reason to believe the sign says 門衛縣.  I'm not really sure what it means, though I might well put "Courthouse" in the absence of new information



Wong Seiyo calls it his 魔聖銅器...
AXN: Magical Copperware
AKeep: Holy Copperware
Me: Um... 銅器 is definitely copperware.  BUT 魔 = Demonic while 聖 = Sacred/Holy.  How the holy hell can you reconcile these?

[Gongbao]

Episode 40
Kani + Tou = Cancer (the constellation).  Or at least, that's the impression I'm getting - the second kanji seems to have some association with stars and constellations.  And, given the dude's Seven Stars knife collection, it also makes sense.

Episode 42
For question 2, "How did it cut itself?" Shouldn't that be "Autonomous Cutting"?  The other definition for jizen was "natural", which implies something like "This Tofu, in its natural state, appeared to have already been cut!"

Episode 47
How about "Spiritual Copperware"?

That's about all I can help with!

[Zergrinch]

Thanks for the input, Gongbao.  It seems you've hit the "Cancer (constellation)" name on the head.  Yeah, it probably means the astrological crab.  Now, to find a way to phrase this delicately (there's no way I'm eating a dish with "Cancer" in its name, astrology be damned!)

JDIC has the following definition:
自然 【しぜん】 (adj-na,n) (1) nature; spontaneity; (adv,adv-to) (2) naturally; spontaneously; (P)

Autonomous matches what's being said more closely than "spontaneous", but I may use the latter anyway.

Hmm, Spiritual Copperware sounds okay.  I guess now I'm kinda vacillating between "Spiritual" and what Google Translate calls it 魔聖, "Holy Magic".  I'm going out on a limb and saying Google's Chinese translation of "Magic Santa" isn't too accurate

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