First attempt at a translation.

Okay, I'm new here. Not sure if I'm posting in the right place but here goes:

I'm new to 日本語 (been studying on my own for about a month now) and I decided to jump in the deep end and see if I could at least not drown. I went ahead and ordered an untranslated manga from Japan. It's called 鬼姫.

Anyway, this is the first page. I've only done a rough translation here and there are holes where I didn't know what it meant. I figure I will have plenty of these holes as I go through but I'm trying to use this as a learning tool. So I'll likely translate through the book more than once.

I would just like for someone to tell me if I'm WAY off base. I feel like I shouldn't really be attempting something like this just yet, but I'm so TIRED of train stations and restaurants... Actually the site that I'm using is really helpful. I just wanted to try to challenge myself. I need a lot of work on grammar and especially Kanji. I have to rely on JWPce to figure out the kanji.

So here it is:

戦国時代末期 - The era of civil war is at an end.

寵愛する次男に家督を継がせるため - Second son inheritance... inheritance.... uh.....

長男の毒殺を謀り - Eldest son killed by poison (I assume the second son planned this)

「鬼姫」と呼ばれ人々から畏怖された奥方がいた - Everyone called her Devil Princess from fear... somethingorother... Lady/Noblemans Wife... uh...

伊達政宗公 「独眼竜政宗」 - Vain... stuff about government, religion and politics?... "One Eyed Dragon...stuff"

の母 「義姫」である - Mother "Righteous Princess" formality? or exists? de aru? dearu?

だが - However...

Wow... that seemed like SO much more before I posted it here. I plan on doing the whole book. Even if my translations all look like this!

This is kind of heavy stuff, and will be very slow work indeed. Perhaps you should set this series aside for the moment and concentrate on some lighter fare to acclimate yourself to the language first? You can always come back to this later, and you'll be amazed by how much more you understand.

I kind of was thinking that. But I figured I would just see what I could do in my spare time, then compare later in the future.
Someone told me I should try Doraeman. I may order that if I can find it somewhere. Preferably with furigana. Any idea if that would be better? Or can you suggest some lighter reading that's still interesting?

I agree with nice gaijin-san. It would be pretty tough for beginners to figure out that the subjects of the five verbs in the first sentence, 継がせる, 謀る, 呼ばれる, 畏怖される, and いる, are all the same one 奥方.

Ah, plus, 義姫 is her name, よしひめ.

RebelDogg said:

I kind of was thinking that. But I figured I would just see what I could do in my spare time, then compare later in the future.
Someone told me I should try Doraeman. I may order that if I can find it somewhere. Preferably with furigana. Any idea if that would be better? Or can you suggest some lighter reading that's still interesting?

Click to expand...

I once recommended a site.

Things to read | Japan Forum

So what I'm getting here is that it may just be a waste of time for me? I knew I wouldn't be able to do much of a job at this point but I thought I might learn a few things. If nothing else, a few kanji. It's by no means a main point in my studies. Actually, it's what I'm doing when I take a break from studying...

But as people who have been where I am now and gotten past it all, you think I should probably just put Oni Hime on the side for a while? Maybe you're right. But I would still like to try my hand at some translations. It was a lot of fun and very interesting just trying to do that one page up there. But it'd be a lot better if I felt like I accomplished something.

Any suggestions of better things to try for someone at my level? As far as kanji, I kinda rely on furigana for the most part. I still have absolutely no idea how to tell which readings (if any) apply...

Toritoribe said:

I once recommended a site.

Click to expand...

Woops... didn't see that last post! Thanks!

戦国時代 - Sengoku Jidai, it's called the Warring States period, a civil war that wracked the country from the 15th century to the 17th century (not to be mistaken with the Chinese Warring States period, which is called the exact same thing but occurred long before the Japanese version).

伊達政宗 - Date Masamune. Famous samurai in the Warring States period. He was also known as the One Eyed Dragon Masamune (独眼竜政宗) because he was missing an eye.

You are better off looking for slice of life and kid comics for a first foray into Japanese translation imo, unless you possess a lot of background knowledge into Japanese culture... and history n this case, since Onihime is a period manga.

de aru, de gozaru are archaic terms you hear a lot in period dramas and manga. Most of your translations aren't too far off the mark, but of course, you will probably die from the work required to translate a whole volume of this theatrical stuff.

Thanks, Neokai! 迚も 面白い！

I'm realizing I made a big mistake thinking just because it contained furigana that I could translate it with a book, program, and a lot of spare time... I think I'll still give it a try now and again. Just for the hell of it.

But I've stepped down. I just bought a book called "Japanese in Mangaland." There's really nothing new for me in the book but there is some reading and a pretty cool little workbook... Reading practice.

I really wanted to order Doraemon, but I'm afraid to get a version without the furigana. I've heard that some of the comics don't have them, and the websites I've seen it on don't say. Except on Jlist.com, where it's the "Bilingual Version" Which is okay, except I can't tell if there was any kanji at all because the picture was too small.

But then again I guess I need to stop being such a baby. If I start by relying on furigana I may just end up with weaker reading skills. What the hell, I'm gonna go order Doraemon and takes my chances.

And if I can't translate THAT... then I'll just have to try again after I've learned a bit more.

Ouch... this whole experience really messed with my ego.