[ch 1] What the hell does Earth want?! If this continues I w

[onizuka-gto]

What the hell does Earth want?! If this continues I would get Yellow Fever![

Another of Kyon's internal dialogues. The second part should probably be "If this continued, I would get Yellow Fever!" and I changed it as such, but I have no idea what to do with the first. --Ryukaiser 05:51, 21 April 2006 (PDT)

I took it simply as a figure of speech, an exclaimation. If we are to change that first part, try to find a more familiar exclaimation I guess: e.g. just shortening it to "What the hell?" --Psieye 08:55, 21 April 2006 (PDT)

I'm amused at the "What the hell does Earth want?!" It's not a phrase you hear often or at all. It also doesn't sound like something a translator can make up. --Baltakatei 00:05, 22 April 2006 (PDT)

It's a pretty accurate translation of the original text, which is:

地球はいったい何がやりたいんだろう。黄熱病にでもかかってるんじゃないか。

chikyuu wa ittai nani ga yaritain darou. ounetsubyou ni demo kakatterun ja nai ka.

I take it to mean that Kyon is anthropomorphizing the Earth, as an entity that is actively out to get him, by deliberately placing weather and natural obstacles in his path.

As for the Yellow Fever thing? Well, either he means "jaundice" (although that would be 黄疸 oudan), or we can chalk it down to the rather unscientific (superstitious, even) Japanese attitude to disease and health issues. Yellow Fever is a contagious disease that is spread to humans by infected mosquitos in tropical regions, but in Japan there is still an almost 19th century-ish belief that contagious diseases can arise from exertion or exhaustion. It's amusing, really -- I'm a medical historian, and I see this sort of thing all the time, in European texts from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

--Freak Of Nature 03:17, 22 April 2006 (PDT)

I'm sure that readers will be just as confused as we editors were with this, but now we have an explanation it's much clearer. I think we should have a page for translator's notes so that the readers and editors won't be so confused. --Adelina 07:22, 22 April 2006 (PDT)

Agreed. Somewhere to explain references that can be lost across the cultures is necessary - we're translating across cultures as well as languages afterall.
--Psieye 09:37, 22 April 2006 (PDT)

Incidentally, I believe "the world" has the same role in English as "the Earth" seems to have in Japanese. To wit:

It seems like the world is against me, sometimes.

-- a perfectly colloquial English sentence.

As for "Yellow Fever" ... "nervous breakdown"? At least that fits the exertion/exhaustion criteria, mostly because it's an exact medical match. Still, just from the previous information, nervous breakdowns seem to be referenced in English similarly to the usage of Yellow Fever in Japanese. A link to translation notes would be good in any case, since it was an interesting bit of trivia.

--The naming game 11:29, 8 May 2006 (PDT)

I think "nervous breakdown/exhaustion" (or just "collapse from exhaustion") is a perfectly acceptable change to make. The Yellow Fever remark would not carry all the appropriate connotations for an English reader, whereas prostration or exhaustion would.

--Freak Of Nature 13:33, 8 May 2006 (PDT)


While your interpretation is perfectly fine, I must say that I do agree with The naming game rather strongly in that it would be a shame to omit the bit of trivia regarding Japanese superstitions. Hence, I would also suggest keeping the original form of "yellow fever" or a suitable substitute whilst adding a translation note regarding it, explaining the reason for using the term "yellow fever" and its correlation to Japanese superstition.


--Da~Mike 23:02, 8 May 2006 (GMT)

[Guest]

地球はいったい何がやりたいんだろう。黄熱病にでもかかってるんじゃないか。

I take it to mean that Kyon is anthropomorphizing the Earth, as an entity that is actively out to get him, by deliberately placing weather and natural obstacles in his path.

But that's not what this sentence is saying: [Xは]Yにかかってる means that X has contracted disease Y. (http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/bin/dsearch?inde ... &pagenum=1)
So, yes, the Earth is being anthropomorphized, but no, the Earth is not is out to get anyone--Kyon is wondering whether the Earth itself "has contracted/is suffering from Yellow Fever or something" (make of that what you will). "If this continues I would get Yellow Fever!" is a misinterpretation.

Also, don't you think "What the hell does Earth want?!" is straying from the feel of the original? だろう is contemplative/introspective, not accusatory. "Just what is it that the Earth wants?" is closer to the feel of the original. As for what the original actually means...Does context make anything clearer?