Hello readers,
It’s been a minute, but the first two sections of Chapter 2 are ready for reading. I hope you enjoy!
I also wanted to share a couple of comments on translation from Chapter 1.
First, I do feel particularly fond of the description of the thundering army that ends the first half of Part III:
「八万の騎兵が突撃したのである。馬蹄の轟きは、文字通り地軸をゆるがすと思われた。」
The Japanese use of the word “literally” here felt out of place with the epic nature of what was being described. I also felt while the Japanese also doesn’t use the word 地震 for earthquake, but rather 自軸, hinting at the word captures the same poetic reference as the original:
It was a march of 80,000 men on horseback. And it was no exaggeration to say that the roar of their horses’ hooves in that moment caused the earth to quake.
…
Not all was smooth sailing, however, the Silver-Masked Man’s dialogue at the end of Part V definitely gave me pause:
「いまにわかる。いまにわからせてやる。それとも、アンドラゴラスよ、これほどの憎しみを受けながら相手が分からぬほど悪業をかさねてきたか」
This sentence honestly gave me a rough time. To break it down:
それとも、アンドラゴラスよ — Or is it, Andragoras…
これほど憎しみを受けながら — While receiving this much malice/spite…
悪業を重ねてきたか — You’ve continued to stack up atrocities…
Usually, the pros of Arlsan flows easily, but in this case, the second part of the sentence felt encoded in a way I could wrap my head around. Once I understood that that the malice was that of all the people the Shah has wronged, the translation came together more more smoothly.
“Now you will know. Now I will let you know. Or, Andragoras, have you continued to do such evil without needing to know the malice of the ones you have hurt?”
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