Need a translation please

Joined
4 May 2008
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Hi, i'm new here. I was just wondering if someone could translate the following lines into english. I tried using computer translators, but they don't work very well. These sentences are from a manga that I read.

太陽神は3体の生贄を束ねてその力を得る
ただし神を従えし者古の呪文を天に捧げよ

神は地より蘇生する
再生の術と術者の命を与えよ
時はひとつであろうとも戦場の敵は炎によって屍と化す

時ひとつとして神は不死鳥となる
選ばれし魔物は大地に眠る
 
...I guess I should include more information. I know what it says in romaji, and what some of it means:


太陽神は3体の生贄を束ねてその力を得る
"Taiyou kami wa san tai no ikenie o tabane te sono chikara o eru"

Don't understand this one.


ただし神を従えし者古の呪文を天に捧げよ
"Tadashi kami o shitagaeshi mono furusu no jumon o ten ni sasage yo"

Don't understand this one either.


神は地より蘇生する
"Kami wa chi yori sosei suru"

I think this means "The God does revive from the earth"


再生の術と術者の命を与えよ
"Saisei no jutsu to jutsusha no inochi o atae yo"

I think this means "Gives the art of revival and life of jutsusha". I don't know exactly what 術者(jutsusha) means.


時はひとつであろうとも戦場の敵は炎によって屍と化す
"Toki wa hitotsu de arou tomo senjou no teki wa honoo ni yo te shikabane to kasu"

I think that the second part means "the enemy on the battlefield changes into a corpse by flame", but I don't know what "toki wa hitotsu de arou tomo" means.


時ひとつとして神は不死鳥となる
"Toki hitotsu to shite kami wa fushichou to naru"

I think that the second part means "The God becomes a phoenix", but I don't know what "toki hitotsu to shite" means.


選ばれし魔物は大地に眠る
"Erabareshi mamono wa daichi ni nemuru"

I think that the second part means "The evil spirit sleeps in the ground", but what does 選ばれし(erabareshi) mean?
 
...I guess I should include more information. I know what it says in romaji, and what some of it means:
なかなか難しいところが多かったんですね。。。

I quote the following from wikipedia :


According to the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga, the Hieratic Text printed on the Ra card records the following three groups of Ra's abilities (quoted from Seto Kaiba's own translation of the Text in Duel 248 of the Japanese manga):

* (1st ability) "太陽神は3体の生贄を束ねてその力を得る ただし神を従えし者古の呪文を天に捧げよ "
* (2nd ability) "神は地より蘇生する 再生の術と術者の命を与えよ 時はひとつであろうとも戦場の敵は炎によっ て屍と化す "
* (3rd ability) "時ひとつとして神は不死鳥となる 選ばれし魔物は大地に眠る "

When (roughly) translated to English, it reads:

* (1st ability) "Ra shall acquire the power of three tributes. However, only those who offer the ancient incantation to heaven shall God follow."
* (2nd ability) "God shall revive from earth. By offering the Ritual of Revival and his own life, one shall be united with God, and all enemies on the battlefield shall be incinerated."
* (3rd ability) "In an instant, God shall become a Phoenix, and all evil spirits chosen by it shall repose on earth."

These abilities are reflected in the card game as the first two groups of effects explained in the next section, "Ra's true abilities".

In the English version of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, though, the Hieratic Text appears to have a different meaning. This can be seen when Marik recited the Text while gaining control of Ra during his duel with Mai Kujaku (Mai Valentine in the English anime) in episode 92:
"Great beast of the sky, please hear my cry.

Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight.
Envelop the desert with your glow and cast your rage upon my foe.
Unlock your powers from deep within so that together we may win.
Appear in this Shadow Game as I call your name,
Winged Dragon of Ra!"

Note that in the English version of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, when Marik attempted to gain control of Ra in his duel with Mai, the viewer can hear him speaking understandable words. However, in the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga, what he recited was the Hieratic Text itself (in the anime, Marik recites some unknown words; in the manga, his speech bubbles are filled with Hieratic Text). In the English episode 221 when Atem summoned Ra, he uses the chant but it is changed (the Japanese version uses the incomprehensible Hieratic). Here is this chant:
"Almighty protector of the sun and sky, I beg of thee, please heed my cry.

Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight.
I beseech thee, grace our humble game.
But first I shall...call out thy name,
Winged Dragon of Ra!"

[edit] Ra's true abilities

With what are observed in various duels, a deduction of the unique abilities of Ra is concluded below (it appears that some of the effects listed below cannot be deduced from the Hieratic Text printed on the card):

* (1st ability)
o Ra's original ATK is the sum of ATKs of the monsters tributed to summon it; its original DEF is the sum of DEFs of the monsters tributed to summon it. This effect was first revealed by Marik's servant ― Odion (Rishid in the Japanese versions) in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 216 and anime episode 89.
+ e.g., player uses 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" (ATK 3000/DEF 2500), 1 "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" (ATK 2400/DEF 2000) and 1 "Dark Magician"[1] (ATK 2500/DEF 2100) as Tributes to summon Ra. Ra now has ATK 3000+2400+2500=7900, DEF 2500+2000+2100=6600.
o One must be able to speak Hieratic Text to control Ra. This effect is open to both sides of the field. So if one player is not able to recite the text properly, the other player is free to try and take control of Ra. The effect was first revealed by Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 222 and anime episode 92. (It should be noted, however, that Yugi has been shown summoning the Winged Dragon of Ra without reciting the Hieratic summoning text. In the English anime, one must know the poem before summoning the card. Yugi, however, has not been required to do this, possibly because of his Millennium Puzzle.)
+ If one summons Ra but fails to recite the Hieratic Text, Ra will remain in "Sphere Mode" (a shining golden sphere), and one cannot use this mode of Ra to attack or defend (in other words, Ra's Sphere Mode has no battle position, cannot attack, and is never the target of attack (it cannot defend player's Life Points)), or activate its special abilities. Once the player recites the Text correctly, Ra will transform itself into "Battle Mode". Only until then can the player truly control Ra, and unleash Ra's secret abilities (in the Japanese manga and anime, though, this must be done by further reciting the lines of Text corresponding to the ability you want to activate).

* When Ra is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, it obtains one of the two following effects:
1. (2nd ability) (Originally known as "One Turn Kill", this effect was first revealed by Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 236 and anime episode 97.
o Transfer as many of your Life Points (LP) to Ra as its original ATK. This is known as "point-to-point transfer" in the English anime.
+ e.g., Ra has ATK/DEF 0, player has 8000 LP. Using this effect, player decided to pay 7999 LP, Ra has ATK 8000-1=7999.
+ Note: The twist to this effect is that player can pay as many LP as they wish. Having LP as low as 1 still keeps player in the duel, and if Ra's attack is successful, low LP does not matter anymore. This effect is used by Marik on the finals of Battle City, but Yugi activated the card that Kaiba gave him, Devil's Sanctuary, that returned the attack to Ra.
o In addition, sacrifice any number of monster other than Ra on your side of the field. Their ATKs are added to Ra's original ATK. This part of the effect was not revealed until in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 269 and anime episode 139 by Marik.
+ e.g., Ra has ATK/DEF 0. Player sacrifices 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" (ATK 3000) using this effect, Ra's original ATK becomes 0+3000=3000.
+ Note: (1). Neither the anime nor manga of Yu-Gi-Oh! stated that the DEFs of the monsters sacrificed with this effect are added to the DEF of Ra. (2). It is still unknown here whether this effect uses the original or current ATKs of the monsters sacrificed as Tributes.
o During the turn this effect is activated, Ra can attack each and every monster that exists on your opponent's side of the field and, if possible, further attack the opponent's Life Points directly.
o Additional notes: In Yu-Gi-Oh! anime episode 222 in which Ra was Normal Summoned (not Special Summoned from the Graveyard) again by sacrificing three monsters, Marik stated that Ra can use its "One Turn Kill" effect, which contradicts what is stated above. However, what Marik said also contradicts Kaiba's translation on the meaning of the Hieratic Text printed on the Ra card, which stated that "God shall revive from earth". Also, Ra was only summoned in the anime. So it is questionable on whether Marik's statement meets with the approval of Kazuki Takahashi, the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
* (3rd ability) (When this effect is activated, Ra will transform itself into its "Phoenix Mode", otherwise known as "God Phoenix" (ゴッドフェニックス), the true and ultimate form of Ra.
1.
o Ra receives no battle damage (i.e., it cannot be destroyed as a result of battle, and its controller receives no damage as a result of its battle). This effect was first revealed by Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 267 and anime episode 138.
+ According to Marik, Ra's Phoenix Mode is "immortal". Although no Spell/Trap effect or Monster effect other than Slifer the Sky Dragon's has ever been used against it, it may be safe to assume that Ra, while in its Phoenix Mode, cannot be sent away from the field by any Card effect.

*
o Ra destroys any one monster at the cost of 1000 Life Points. This effect was first revealed by Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 249 and anime episode 127. In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, this effect is extended to all monsters on the opponent's side of the field.

* Additional effects:
o Ra can attack during the same turn it is Special Summoned. This effect was first revealed by Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 236 and anime episode 97. It is known as "Swift Attack" (速攻) in the Japanese anime and manga, and "Instant Attack" in the English anime.
+ According to the gaming rules (known as "Super Expert Rules" in the manga) used in the Battle City Tournament, a monster cannot attack during the same turn it is Special Summoned (unless by using the effects of a Monster, Spell or a Trap Card). However, Ra's ability allows it to bypass this rule. (Note that there is no such rule in the real Yu-Gi-Oh! card game.) Also, in anime episode 97, Ra bypasses the effect of a Continuous Spell Card known as "Vengeful Bog Spirit", which prevents all monsters from attacking during the turn they are Normal Summoned, Filp Summoned or Special Summoned. However, in the manga, no similar card effect, including this card's, was used against Ra.
o Ra is unaffected by the effects of "Obelisk the Tormentor" and "Slifer the Sky Dragon". This effect was first revealed by Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh! manga Duel 275.
+ In the Battle City finale, Yugi Mutou attempted to use Obelisk's effect ― "Soul Energy Max" to destroy Ra but failed. According to Marik's explanation, the three God Cards are ranked among themselves, and Ra is ranked the highest among them. Because of this, Obelisk's special attack is useless against Ra (this is also shown in the Yu-Gi-Oh! R manga. This "hierarchy" rule prevents a God Card of higher hierarchy to be affected by the attacks and effects of a lower ranked one). However, this scenario did not appear in the anime adaptation of Yu-Gi-Oh!, because in the anime Marik used the Quick-play Spell Card "Class System" (階級制度. Effect (translated from the text written on the card): You can activate this card when your opponent's monster attacks your monster or activate an effect on your monster(s). If the Level of your opponent's monster is equal to or lower than that of your monster(s), that attack or effect is negated.) instead of Ra's own ability to stand against Obelisk's effect. This card can be seen in anime episode 141.

There are also certain effects shared by all God Cards; these are listed in that entry for brevity.

In the Manga and anime, a duelist must use the real card to summon Ra. Summoning Ra with a counterfeit card often results in the duelist who played the counterfeit being struck down by lightning. This occurs in Anime Episode 89 and in the video game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction. However, in Episode 85 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Frantz avoids this with a Spell card that was specially created to control Ra.

Ra (Battle Mode)'s attack is known as "God Blaze Cannon" (ゴッド・ブレイズ・キャノン) in the Japanese anime and manga.
 
Thanks, but I already know what its basic meaning. That article is where I got those sentences. I want to know what it translates to literally, word for word.
 
Thanks, but I already know what its basic meaning. That article is where I got those sentences. I want to know what it translates to literally, word for word.
You wanted the translations, no ??? Go ahead and figure it out yourself. :eek:

When (roughly) translated to English, it reads:

* (1st ability) "Ra shall acquire the power of three tributes. However, only those who offer the ancient incantation to heaven shall God follow."
* (2nd ability) "God shall revive from earth. By offering the Ritual of Revival and his own life, one shall be united with God, and all enemies on the battlefield shall be incinerated."
* (3rd ability) "In an instant, God shall become a Phoenix, and all evil spirits chosen by it shall repose on earth."
 
I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I should have been more specific. I wanted to know what the words in the text meant. The translation from wikipedia is a rough translation. I tried looking up some of these words, but haven't found anything on the internet.

I know that "erabareshi" is some form of erabu (to choose/select), but I've never seen that form of it before. It doesn't make sense because erabu is a verb, but it appears at the beginning of the sentence.

"Shitagaeshi" is another verb form that I've never seen before, but I know its a form of "shitagaeru" (to obey/follow)

I want to know what "toki wa hitotsu de arou tomo" means. toki can mean "time", "when" etc., but I don't know which one. I don't know what "dearou" means either. I can't find anything on that.

What does the phrase "toki hitotsu to shite" mean?

What does "te sono" mean in the first sentence? And also, "tabane" means "bundle" or something, which doesn't make any sense.

Once again, I apologize for not being clear with my original question, but if somebody could offer me an in-depth explanation about these phrases, it would be much appreciated. :-)
 
I know that "erabareshi" is some form of erabu (to choose/select), but I've never seen that form of it before. It doesn't make sense because erabu is a verb, but it appears at the beginning of the sentence.

"Shitagaeshi" is another verb form that I've never seen before, but I know its a form of "shitagaeru" (to obey/follow)

従えし者 (Noun phrase) translates to "People whom god follows" / 選ばれし魔物 (noun phrase not at the beginning of the sentence) = "Evil spirits chosen by..."

I want to know what "toki wa hitotsu de arou tomo" means. toki can mean "time", "when" etc., but I don't know which one. I don't know what "dearou" means either. I can't find anything on that.
What does the phrase "toki hitotsu to shite" mean?
One obvious way to approach this is to compare your English examples with the rough translation I've given and work backwards from that point. Did you notice "toki hitotsu to shite" appears congruent, for instant, with the corresponding phrase "In an instant" ?? A starting point both for your own knowledge and one that will likewise build the confidence of anyone attempting a more in depth explanation.


What does "te sono" mean in the first sentence? And also, "tabane" means "bundle" or something, which doesn't make any sense.
Bundle together the three victims to acquire power. sounds reasonable in your context ??

Not to be dismissive but from a place of genuinely trying to help, I get the sense your knowledge of Japanese grammar is much too limited for these exercises and that you would be better off with a more fundamental grounding in basic sentence structure. Good luck in any case. :)
 
Last edited:
Not to be dismissive but from a place of genuinely trying to help, I get the sense your knowledge of Japanese grammar is much too limited for these exercises and that you would be better off with a more fundamental grounding in basic sentence structure. Good luck in any case.

Thanks a lot for the translations. You're right, my knowledge of the japanese language is limited. I only started learning about it a few months ago when I wanted to read the japanese Yugioh manga.

Translating this passage has been really frustrating though because whenever I try googling some of the words, I don't get many results, so I have no way of knowing what they mean. Thats why I made this post; so someone could help me make a literal translation of the passage. :-)
 
The causation of the incomprehensibility of the lines is from the mixture of the archaic and modern grammar/wording.

束ねる exactly means "to bundle", besides it also means "to lead/to head".

太陽神は3体の生贄を束ねてその力を得る:
Ra(literally, "the god of the sun") shall acquire the power of three tributes/sacrifices by leading them.


従えし者;
従え(従へ; the adverbial form of the archaic verb "従ふ") + し(the adnominal form of the archaic auxiliary verb "き" which indicates "past")

神を従えし者:
The person whom the god follows/obeys

So literally, 神を従えし者古の呪文を天に捧げよ:
The person the god follows, (you should) offer the ancient incantation to heaven. (the imperative sentence)


術者: the performer of the ritual

再生の術と術者の命を与えよ:
Offer the ritual of revival and the performer's own life. (the imperative sentence)


時はひとつであろうとも
This clause does not make sense. Literally, it means "even if the time would be one".
After reading Elizabeth's quotation, 'Originally known as "One Turn Kill"', I came up with that it might be used as the meaning of "一度だけだけど/ワンターンしか使えないけど(even though it could be used in "one turn")". If so, it should be like "時一度なれども(toki hitotabi naredomo)" in the correct archaic wording.


時ひとつとして
This clause does not also make sense. I doubt it could be the misuse of "時一にして(toki itsu ni shite)", which means "同時に/瞬時に(at an instant/in an instant)".


選ばれし魔物:
As Elizabeth explained, "the evil spirit/monster chosen by..."


and few corrections to romaji

太陽神: taiyou-shin
古: inishie
によって: ni yotte

hope this helps:)
 
Last edited:
The causation of the incomprehensibility of the lines is from the mixture of the archaic and modern grammar/wording.
束ねる exactly means "to bundle", besides it also means "to lead/to head".
太陽神は3体の生贄を束ねてその力を得る:
Ra(literally, "the god of the sun") shall acquire the power of three tributes/sacrifices by leading them.
Oh, yes. I should have checked into this further, also. :p 束ねて (たばねて) in verb form is like "to "govern/manage/control." Ra no Yokushinryu do you have a kanji dictionary you can look stuff up in rather than Google ? I can't imagine using such a high level manga to learn basic Japanese so the frustration of doing it fully on line must have been immense. There's no way to get the meaning really without also putting in some of the English translation. :(

時ひとつとして Like this I also only found a few hits on. In situations like that, you can always ask here for one or two lines that are either unreadable or appear to be mistakes. :-)


So 神を従えし者 may be close in spirit to 神を従えさせなくてはならない者 ?? :D
 
Lucky for me, I'm generously sized. I've got room for plenty of tattoos.
 
Oh, yes. I should have checked into this further, also. 束ねて (たばねて) in verb form is like "to "govern/manage/control." Ra no Yokushinryu do you have a kanji dictionary you can look stuff up in rather than Google ? I can't imagine using such a high level manga to learn basic Japanese so the frustration of doing it fully on line must have been immense. There's no way to get the meaning really without also putting in some of the English translation.

I used a few different kanji dictionaries as well. The main problem was that they only offered a list of definitions, but didn't indicate whether the words were nouns, verbs, adjectives etc, so it was a little confusing. So I looked them up on google hoping to find examples.
 
I did some more reading and my understanding of japanese grammar is better. Here's what I've got so far...


太陽神は3体の生贄を束ねてその力を得る
ただし神を従えし者古の呪文を天に捧げよ
Sun God bundles three body-sacrifices and gains that power.
However, person obeyed by God offer ancient incantation to Heaven.(imperative sentence)

神は地より蘇生する 再生の術と術者の命を与えよ
時はひとつであろうとも戦場の敵は炎によって屍と化す
God revives from earth. Give revival ritual and performer's life.(imperative sentence)
…all battlefield-enemies change into corpses due to fire.

時ひとつとして神は不死鳥となる
選ばれし魔物は大地に眠る
…God becomes phoenix.
Chosen demon sleeps in earth.


So I've got everything except those two clauses which start with 時. I looked up とも (to mo) and found out that it can mean "all", which would fit in well with the second clause in the sentence.

I watched a subtitled yugioh episode on youtube and one of the characters said these lines. For "toki wa hitotsu dearou", the subtitles said "theres only one chance". For the second last line, "toki hitotsu to shite", it said "in a second".

Still not sure if these are right, but I was hoping this might be helpful to anyone helping me translate this. Feel free to tell me what you think. :-)
 
I looked up とも (to mo) and found out that it can mean "all", which would fit in well with the second clause in the sentence.
Could you tell us where you found this? Do you mean you put punctuation before the particle "とも"?
時はひとつであろう、とも戦場の敵は炎によって屍と化 す???
 
Could you tell us where you found this?

I found it on wikipedia page titled "japanese particles". However, it says that "to mo" means "both" or "all of the" when its in kanji form (which it isn't) and "even if, even though" when there is no kanji. Its strange though, because if it meant "all" then it would fit this context perfectly.

Do you mean you put punctuation before the particle "とも"?
時はひとつであろう、とも戦場の敵は炎によって屍と化 す???

Honestly, I have no idea since I still don't know what the first part of the sentence means. I just suggested that "とも戦場の敵" could mean "all battlefield-enemies".
 
Not to be dismissive but from a place of genuinely trying to help, I get the sense your knowledge of Japanese grammar is much too limited for these exercises and that you would be better off with a more fundamental grounding in basic sentence structure.
I agree with Elizabeth...

その二つの文節に関して言えば、製作者サイドの古語文 法の原則に関する知識が根本的に欠如してたか、読者・ 視聴者にわかりやすいようにと中途半端に部分的な現代語約を施した結果、奇妙奇天烈な日本語 になってしまったか、のどちらかでしょうね。 (多分後者。)
そういう文章は逐語訳しても意味がないです。意味類推 しながら意訳する以外やりようがないんですから。。。
 
I agree with Elizabeth...

その二つの文節に関して言えば、製作者サイドの古語文 法の原則に関する知識が根本的に欠如してたか、読者・ 視聴者にわかりやすいようにと中途半端に部分的な現代語約を施した結果、奇妙奇天烈な日本語 になってしまったか、のどちらかでしょうね。 (多分後者。)
そういう文章は逐語訳しても意味がないです。意味類推 しながら意訳する以外やりようがないんですから。。。

I'm only trying to learn the meaning of the sentences that I posted. I'm not trying to learn the entire language. I wish people would stop lecturing me about why I shouldn't be doing this. If you're so smart then why don't you figure out what "時はひとつであろうとも" and "時ひとつとして" mean?
 
I'd already done...

時はひとつであろうとも
This clause does not make sense. Literally, it means "even if the time would be one".
After reading Elizabeth's quotation, 'Originally known as "One Turn Kill"', I came up with that it might be used as the meaning of "一度だけだけど/ワンターンしか使えないけど(even though it could be used in "one turn")". If so, it should be like "時一度なれども(toki hitotabi naredomo)" in the correct archaic wording.

時ひとつとして
This clause does not also make sense. I doubt it could be misused of "時一にして(toki itsu ni shite)", which means "同時に/瞬時に(at an instant/in an instant)".

そこにも書いてありますが、最初にその文章を読んだとき、何を言いたいのか全くわかりませんでした。しかしながら「遊戯王」に関する記述を読んだ後でなら、その意味を類推することは可能です。つまり言い換えると、そこまでの文脈を理解している読者・視聴者にとっては、例え奇異に聞こえる文章であろうと、あるいは古語文法を完全には理解していないであろう子供たちでも、意味を推測しながら理解することは可能だろうということです。
そもそも言葉とはそういうものなのでは?

(違和感の根源は、「時」という単語を数えるのに「(ひと)つ」という数助詞を使ったことでしょうね。 ちなみに、二番目の文中の「時」は恐らく「機会」を、三番目の文中の「時」は「時間」を表そうとしているはずです。)
 
その二つの文節に関して言えば、製作者サイドの古語文 法の原則に関する知識が根本的に欠如してたか、読者・ 視聴者にわかりやすいようにと中途半端に部分的な現代語約を施した結果、奇妙奇天烈な日本語 になってしまったか、のどちらかでしょうね。 (多分後者。)
そういう文章は逐語訳しても意味がないです。意味類推 しながら意訳する以外やりようがないんですから。。。

こにも書いてありますが、最初にその文章を読んだと き、何を言いたいのか全くわかりませんでした。しかし ながら「遊戯王」に関する記述を読んだ後でなら、その 意味を類推することは可能です。つまり言い換えると、 そこまでの文脈を理解している読者・視聴者にとっては 、例え奇異に聞こえる文章であろうと、あるいは古語文 法を完全には理解していないであろう子供たちでも、意 味を推測しながら理解することは可能だろうということ です。
そもそも言葉とはそういうものなのでは?

(違和感の根源は、「時」という単語を数えるのに「(ひ と)つ」という数助詞を使ったことでしょ うね。 ちなみに、二番目の文中の「時」は恐らく「機会」を、 三番目の文中の「時」は「時間」を表そうとしているは ずです。)

Could you tell me what all of that means?
 
I'm only trying to learn the meaning of the sentences that I posted. I'm not trying to learn the entire language. I wish people would stop lecturing me about why I shouldn't be doing this. If you're so smart then why don't you figure out what "時はひとつであろうとも" and "時ひとつとして" mean?

The lines you've quoted are not standard - it's a mixture of archaic language and modern Japanese, obviously trying to imply some authority (to fit the context - maybe it's from a game?).
Nothing wrong with themselves, but the problem is it is not always grammatically correct and without the context it is very difficult to tell exactly what they are meant to express, especially on word by word or phrase by phrase basis.

You can imagine what I mean if you think of such a situation: there's a very interesting game and to give the whole story a certain "atmosphere", the language (English) used for the game is something Shakespeare-ish (or even Chaucer-like) English but not quite exactly.
Then if a foreigner who is not a native speaker of English just quoted a few sentences from that and asked what it means word by word, it is not always so easy and you might say "to understand the exact meaninig you should learn English more, you need some knowledge about Middle English, etc.
 
The lines you've quoted are not standard - it's a mixture of archaic language and modern Japanese, obviously trying to imply some authority (to fit the context - maybe it's from a game?).

Nothing wrong with themselves, but the problem is it is not always grammatically correct and without the context it is very difficult to tell exactly what they are meant to express, especially on word by word or phrase by phrase basis.

You're right about it being from a game. For context, the text I posted is from the yugioh manga, which is mostly about a card game. The text describes the special abilities of a card named The Winged Dragon of Ra. It is named after Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun.

The actual text on the card is written in Egyptian Hieratic. One of the characters in the manga translated the text into Japanese and then read it out loud to himself. That would be the text that I posted.

You can imagine what I mean if you think of such a situation: there's a very interesting game and to give the whole story a certain "atmosphere", the language (English) used for the game is something Shakespeare-ish (or even Chaucer-like) English but not quite exactly.

That makes sense.

Then if a foreigner who is not a native speaker of English just quoted a few sentences from that and asked what it means word by word, it is not always so easy and you might say "to understand the exact meaninig you should learn English more, you need some knowledge about Middle English, etc.

I understand. The text is also spoken by a character on the anime. The reason I bring this up is because if they said these phrases on tv, then I would imagine that viewers would recognize their meaning, otherwise they would have no idea what the character was trying to say.
 
>if they said these phrases on tv, then I would imagine that viewers would recognize their meaning

This is not necessarily true.
A lot of text you put up is written in archaic and/or garbled form just to make it look and sound cool.
 
Back
Top Bottom