Talk:Suzumiya Haruhi:Volume2 Chapter4

This chapter is currently being prepared for translation by Freak Of Nature.

Direct all questions and comments to FON's talk page, or make them in the Comments Section below. Please leave the Original Text and Translation Notes sections alone.

Original Text

Page 154

第四章

翌日再び飽きもせず、俺たちは駅前に集まった。ただ昨日と違うのは人員が入れ替わっている点だ。ＳＯＳ団以外の人間三名ほどが新顔として俺の前に立っている。ハルヒ言うところのザコキャラたちである。

「おいキョン、話が違うぞ」

広義するように言い出したのは谷口だ。

「麗しの朝比奈さんはどこだ？　あの方が出迎えてくれるって言うから来たなだぜ。いねえじゃねえか」

その通り、朝比奈さんは定刻になっても来なかった。たぶん自宅の部屋で出勤拒否をしているに違いない。昨日も一昨日も散々な目にあっていたからな。

「俺は目の保養に来たなだぞ。それがどうだ。今日はまだ涼宮の逆ギレした顔しか見たねえぞ。詐欺だ」

うるさいな。長門でも眺めてりゃいいじゃないか。

Page 155

「それにしても長門さん、やけに似合っるなあ」

のんびりと言うのは国木田だ。谷口に続くザコ二号である。昨夜、俺が風呂に入ってたらハルヒから電話がかかってまた。妹から受話器を受け取り、頭を洗いながら聞いたのが、

「谷口のアホと、もう一人……名前が思い出せないけど、あんたの友達よ。その二人を明日連れてきなさい。ザコキャラで使うから」

Translation Notes

"Zakokyara" ( ザコキャラ )

ザコキャラ is obviously one of those -kyara idioms, where キャラ is an abbreviation for キャラクター, kyarakutaa, meaning "character". But what is a zako? I'd not run across this idiom before, so I had to do some furious thinking and asking around.

雑魚 (zako) means "small fry, small fish", and ザコキャラ features prominently on pages about games. I'm thinking it may mean something along the lines of "minor characters", "bit players", "extras", "cannon fodder", "spear carriers" or even "NPCs". I gather that in RPGs, ザコキャラ are the low-level enemies that function more as obstacles than as actual threats. "Orcs", or "goombas".

So how to translate this? Right now, I'm using "small fry", but I'd dearly love to have a better phrase. More to come as I think about it.

--Freak Of Nature 16:09, 26 April 2006 (PDT)

Update: The thought has occurred to me that perhaps, in this case, the word ought to be: "henchmen".

--Freak Of Nature 14:23, 30 April 2006 (PDT)

No perfect single English word occurs to me either. I've changed "minions" to "minion characters" in the first paragraph. Further downstream, "minion" and equivalents can be alternated with "minor character" and equivalents to capture the full meaning.--Nutcase 08:42, 10 February 2007 (PST)

Comments section

Editors and casual visitors should feel free to offer comments in this section. Please leave the Original Text and Translation Notes sections alone.

Regarding the above, maybe 'minions' would work? But I think "henchmen" also works fine.

 henchmen is probably closer, but I think minion better describes the postion of Miruku and Kyon.  They don't have a lot of choice in the matter.

While it is absolutly wrong, I also like Murmidion. I use Suzumiya Murmidian as my title in a couple of newsgroups. 151.151.73.170Steven

I have a problem with the phrase "Asahina-san placed her hands on her extremely short skirt as she become very despaired"

Is is possible that her eyes filled with dispair? Dispair isn't even a verb, is it? Steven24.20.137.157

Hopefully, someone will be able to answer this. Towards the end of Volume 2 Chapter 4, Kyon in his own narration says, "A smile formed on Koizumi's mouth; it looked like a self-depreciating smile." I was not sure whether self-depreciating was intended to be used here, because self-deprecating seems like a better fit. Also, it may just be a typo, since the difference between the two words is one letter, i. I have not changed anything in this chapter, but if it is a mistake, then we should edit to the correct word.

Shouldn't it be "preserving information down on paper" and not "preserving information down in paper" as well as "whose high-heeled shoes don't seem suitable" and not "whose high-heeled shoes doesn't seem suitable" --71.56.235.76 23:20, 7 December 2006 (PST)

It's "Myrmidon." Ant warrior. Anyway, I think I touched up all these points in my recent editing pass.--Nutcase 08:54, 11 February 2007 (PST)

titanium...plastic

"I can't help but be amazed by the conversation made by these two idiots, and I had a feeling that the shortage of talent was becoming very serious. If Taniguchi and Kunikida were titanium alloys, then Tsuruya-san would be plastic. Their difference would be between that of a firework and the Apollo 11 spacecraft. "

I don't get this metaphor. It would seem that Tsuruya should be the titanium alloy relative to the boys being mere plastic, or at least Tsuruya should be a high-tech carbon fiber composite - but that doesn't fit with the firework to spacecraft level difference. Could somebody check this?--Nutcase 09:47, 10 February 2007 (PST)

The original text compares Taniguchi and Kunikida to nickel alloy (ニッケル 合金) and Tsuruya-san to platinum (プラチナ). I have no idea where "titanium" and "plastic" came from except maybe the Japanese version wasn't used for the translation. Smidge204 10:10, 10 February 2007 (PST)

Thank you so much again, Smidge. I will fix this if you haven't already.--Nutcase 07:52, 11 February 2007 (PST)

Seiza?

I recently noticed that this sentence:

"I followed Nagato's example and sat with my knees bent, but I couldn't take it after three minutes, and had to release my legs. Haruhi sat with her legs crossed since the beginning and whispered into Tsuruya-san's ear."

Had been changed to:

"I followed the example of Nagato next to me and sat in traditional style, but I couldn't take it after three minutes, and had to release my legs. Haruhi sat with her legs crossed from the beginning and whispered into Tsuruya-san's ear."

And I was wondering if Seiza position was actually mentioned in the original novel.

Thanks, --Nandeyanen 04:46, 8 June 2008 (PDT)

spellcheck

climatic => climactic, otherwise it would concern the weather or climate.