Here's another big update, which brings us to page 55 (27 left to go) and pretty much concludes the transformation scene. At more than 23,000 words, the initial drafts of this translation now fill one and a quarter composition books.
I've decided to translate Baphomet Complex once this chapter is finished, then go on to Mimiru's chapter, and then alternate between the remaining chapters and the short stories from Diaries of the Age of Monster Love.
Well that tone shift was expected and surprising at the same time. It looks like the tentacle rape is about to go hardcore only for us to find out Druella never intended for that from the very beginning. All along she wanted to get to Wilmarina's real feelings, or at least what she judged to be her real feelings.
ReplyDeleteAll in all I am impressed, one can understand a bit now that Druella has some real charisma as a "savior" to the women she transforms. She started acting almost like a counselor and mother figure at the same time.
For all the mind corruption that can be read into it (though the text goes to great lengths to tell the reader it is more about the "real" Wilmarina's desires, much as her profile says), it was a relief to see her finally collapse in tears and get a comforting hug.
Since you're leaving this book for a while soon I don't suppose you could take a quick look at the part that Druella/Deruella having sex with a man and determine if she already has a husband in this story or if she decided to screw Elt too could you? Its something we fans have long wondered about, as her profile in the world guide could be read as her already being married.
I haven't had the time to read every section of Fallen Brides yet, but I do read every story I translate through before I start work on it, so I promise to let you know when I find out for sure. For what it's worth, that paragraph in World Guide I reads to me like it's contrasting her focus on transforming women and her large-scale, ideologically motivated actions with the more personal ambitions of most monsters, rather than implying she has a husband.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that all of Baphomet Complex is slightly shorter than the portion of Fallen Brides I've translated so far and most of the other stories are shorter than that, so I won't actually be taking all that long a break from working on it; I just thought it would be nice to have a bit more variety instead of doing all 560+ pages of Fallen Brides in one go.
No problem, thanks again for all your efforts.
ReplyDeleteHi OtherSideofSky, just wanted to add my personal thanks and supportive cheers for your efforts here. Also wanted to ask if it would be okay if this were posted on Monstergirlsredux.com (its already posted, but I thought I'd come ask the source to be polite and if it isn't okay I'll remove it). Anyway, really nice work :)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I don't mind anything I post here be re-posted or linked elsewhere as long as no one actually changes anything. There's not much point in translating a thing if it doesn't end up where people might read it, after all.
DeleteJust curious, with Druella/Deruella, I've always thought it was Druella over Deruella thanks to the older germanic name Druella meaning "eflin vision" or "pretty elf" and I've just assumed that the De was used because Japanese doesn't have a singular "D" sound and half the Fallen Maiden's names are puns or meaningful. Do you think I've been steering folks wrong?
DeleteNo, you're probably right, although it isn't exactly the most natural way of imitating that sound with the Japanese syllabary. Most of my renderings of names that didn't get definite results from a search on the katakana ("デルエラ" returns only MGE discussion, and consequently demands more consideration at a later date, while some others, like "ダスカロス" return actual people's names and are therefore quite easy to be sure of) are currently placeholders until I take the time to do more research during the editing process. My academic background is all in Asian languages (mostly Japanese and Mandarin), so I'll probably end up taking time to find decent sources to consult on anything that looks like it might have a European origin.
DeleteTo add the fruits of a simple experiment:
DeleteThe normal Japanese rendering of the name "Druella" appears to be "ドゥルーエラ." This still doesn't rule out the possibility that KC intended the name, of course. (The name doesn't seem to be very commonly rendered in Japanese, so it is easily conceivable that KC might have attempted an independent transliteration or have deliberately employed an unusual one in order to make the name seem more exotic.)
I've always found Mimiru the most annoying to try and put into English. I've left it as is, tried Mimil and Mimiel (the later because its a real name and was used by a moderately known tarot persona in Japan during the 00's). But I still have no idea if its meant to be Mimiru, Mimil, Mimiel :P
DeleteI'd probably go with Mimiru there, just because it sounds the most magical girl-ish of the possible translations, and that's both her motif and the title on her Fallen Maidens page.
DeleteAt least no one in Fallen Brides has a name as silly as the girl from Baphomet Complex, who is called, I kid you not, Lilia Flimlight. That's almost a Tomino Yoshiyuki caliber of silly name.
Oh, would you also like a copy of the short story in Fallen Maidens? I think the version I scanned is a little easier to read because I debound the book rather than pushing it open on a scanner.
DeleteThis should be it :) http://www.mediafire.com/download/wwhgt0wrgn1gx89/FMSS.rar
DeleteThanks a bunch. I own physical copies of both the world guides now (I acquired them along with Baphomet Complex about two weeks back), but this will save me having to risk bending the book by leaving it held open on a stand for too long.
DeleteOh, if you want any of the stories or sections from MWG 1-2 let me know, I've got them both debound and scanned. I've also got a copy of Fallen Brides if you'd like a scan of any of its chapters.
DeleteThanks for all that hard work translating Fallen Brides. I have a question for you - do you know the names of the two children next to Sasha? I'm making a RPGMaker game using characters, transformation motive and world setting from Fallen Maidens profiles (story is my own, since when I was starting there was no translated story) and I couldn't find them anywhere.
ReplyDelete