Game Intro

Astralogic · 28 Aug 2014

Hi, this is the intro of an old NES game (same game from my other posts) from the instruction manual. This will be a long thread but I will take it bit by bit. The first part:

ストーリー
そして新しいヒーローの誕生。

１９９X年、１０月、 THE END DAY.
高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた日でもあり、科学文明の終焉の日でもあった。

Story and the birth of a new hero.
In the 1990's, October, The End Day.

That's the top part, seems easy enough. The next sentence though is very hard, I don't think I can do it. I'll tackle it in parts first.

高慢な人類が自ら = Arrogant humanity brought upon themselves.
首を締めた日でもあり = days of tightening around their necks (symbolic for some sort of societal restriction?)

科学文明の終焉の日でもあった = were days of the demise of scientific society.

I really don't know how to fit it all together, but there is one thing, I don't know what でもある means, I can't find any information about it through google, and example sentences are a bit too vague to help.

So could someone first explain what でもある is all about then could correct any translation mistakes I made and show me how to put it all into one sentence?

Thanks!

Toritoribe · 28 Aug 2014

Have you learned ～である and a particle も?

Astralogic · 28 Aug 2014

Yes, I know about them both individually, but not both of them together.

Toritoribe · 28 Aug 2014

日であった: was the day of ~
日でもあった: was also the day of~

Quite obvious, isn't it?;-)

nekojita · 29 Aug 2014

自ら、首を締めた while not literal, doesn't seem symbolic of anything as mild as "societal restriction". It's akin to the English "give him enough rope to hang himself" - bringing about one's own downfall.

Astralogic · 29 Aug 2014

Toritoribe said:
日であった: was the day of ~
日でもあった: was also the day of~

Quite obvious, isn't it?;-)

OMG... yes very obvious :/

But I don't understand why there are two でもある's. Shouldn't there only be one? "It was the day of <such and such>, it was also the day of <such and such>? Why isn't it: 高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた日であり、科学文明の終焉の日でもあった?

nekojita said:
自ら、首を締めた while not literal, doesn't seem symbolic of anything as mild as "societal restriction". It's akin to the English "give him enough rope to hang himself" - bringing about one's own downfall.

At this point the metaphor is just too vague for me to understand anything about it. But I will trust your perspective on this.

Morphling · 29 Aug 2014

The two もs emphasizes each other although just having one is also okay. The difference is subtle and not translatable to English.

Astralogic · 29 Aug 2014

高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた日でもあり、科学文明の終焉の日でもあった。

I really don't think I can translate this sentence but I will at least make an attempt: It was the days of 首を締めた, and the days of the demise of scientific civilization which arrogant mankind had brought upon himself.

Haha, sorry I couldn't figure out how to put 首を締めた into the sentence so I just pasted it in there It's all I could do

Toritoribe · 29 Aug 2014

高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた modifies 日. 人類 is the subject of 締めた.
日 is the singular.
The omitted subject of the sentence is "THE END DAY".

Astralogic · 29 Aug 2014

Toritoribe said:
高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた modifies 日. 人類 is the subject of 締めた.
日 is the singular.
The omitted subject of the sentence is "THE END DAY".

OK, let me see if I understand this correctly.

１９９X年、１０月、 THE END DAY.
高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた日でもあり、科学文明の終焉の日でもあった。
October, in the 1990's, The End Day.
The arrogant mankind brought upon themselves the day in which (society) choked, it was also the day of the demise of scientific civilization.

Is that any better?

Toritoribe · 30 Aug 2014

The core of the sentence is 日でもあり、日でもあった "It was the day~, and also the day...." 高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた modifies 日, as I wrote, thus, 高慢な人類が自ら、首を締めた日 is a noun phrase.

Astralogic · 30 Aug 2014

Before I try again, could you tell me how you (or anyone) would translate 首を締めた in this case? It makes my head hurt

It was the day that arrogant humanity choked itself, it was also the day that scientific civilization met it's demise.

Toritoribe · 30 Aug 2014

Yeah, your translation is correct. The literal translation of the second half is "the day of the demise of scientific civilization", as in your initial post.

BTW, the first two lines of your quotation are not a single sentence. The first line just says "Story (is as follows):".

Majestic · 30 Aug 2014

自ら、首を絞めた or 自分の首を絞めた

Literally strangled one's self.

But we don't have this expression in English, even though it evokes the right image. Usually we say something like

reaped what they sowed
got their just desserts
got the retribution that was coming to them / they deserved
faced their day of reckoning (← you'd be taking a bit of poetic license by using this. I offer it as a plausible, but not necessarily the best, alternative.)
dug their own grave

The key is the sense of self-destruction; a tragic ending that perhaps could have been avoided.

Astralogic · 31 Aug 2014

Thanks Majestic, that's good to know, I like "dug their own grave".

Story: The Birth of a Hero
199X, October, The End Day.
It was the day that arrogant humanity dug their own grave, and it was the day of the demise of scientific civilization.

Ok, let's have a crack at the second sentence.

生き残った人々には、過酷な試練が待ち受けていた・・・・・・地球の地軸が狂い、穏やかだった自然環境は崩壊し、それによって生物界の様相は一変した。

Severe hardships awaited those that survived...The Earth's rotational axis had deviated, the peaceful natural environment was destroyed, and due to that life had taken a major turn.

I'm not sure if 生物界の様相は一変した means that life changed or that animals physically transformed (like into monsters or something).

Also, what is the difference between 受けていた and 受けた?

I also don't know if 試練 can be translated as hardships, but it seems logical.

Toritoribe · 31 Aug 2014

Majestic said:
we don't have this expression in English

Ah, I see where the problem was.

Astralogic said:
I'm not sure if 生物界の様相は一変した means that life changed or that animals physically transformed (like into monsters or something).

生物界: living world
It includes both their relation and physical appearance.

Astralogic said:
Also, what is the difference between 受けていた and 受けた?

Haven't you learned ～ている form?

Astralogic said:
I also don't know if 試練 can be translated as hardships, but it seems logical.

Yeah, that's not bad.

Astralogic · 31 Aug 2014

Yes I know the ている form, but both past tense forms seem the same to me. "Was happening" perhaps?

Toritoribe · 1 Sep 2014

In this case, ～ている form expresses that 試練 was waiting for people coming in a future point. Although there would be no better translation than "awaited", as in the dictionary.

まちうける【待ち受ける】
【例文】
思わぬ幸運が待ち受けていた
Unlooked-for good fortune awaited us.

[URL='http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/71684/m0u/%E5%BE%85%E3%81%A1%E5%8F%97%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B/']まちうける【待ち受ける】の英語・英訳 - 和英辞書 - goo辞書[/URL]

Astralogic · 2 Sep 2014

Severe hardships awaited those that survived...The Earth's rotational axis had deviated, the peaceful natural environment was destroyed, and due to that life completely changed.

I reworded the last part a little, it seems to sound better.

Here's the next sentence:

従順な生物たちは、凶暴なモンスターに変貌を遂げて、力を失った人類に牙を向け始め、生き残った人々は互いに寄り合って村落を作り、懸命に外敵から身を守った。

The docile animals transformed into ferocious monsters, the powerless humans faced their tusks for the first time, and the survivors gathered together and built a village which they defended from outsiders fiercely.

How's that?

Morphling · 2 Sep 2014

...started to turn their tasks towards humans who have lost their powers... is more true towards original sentence.

Toritoribe · 2 Sep 2014

In addition, 懸命に外敵から身を守った doesn't modify 村落. See the difference.

生き残った人々は互いに寄り合って村落を作り、懸命に外敵から身を守った。
生き残った人々は互いに寄り合って、懸命に外敵から身を守る村落を作った。

Majestic · 2 Sep 2014

I think 牙を向け始め should actually be 牙を剥け始め (or even, 剥き始め)

牙を剥く means to bare one's teeth (or, to show one's fangs - in other words growl or snarl). I don't think 牙を向く or 向け makes much sense, but it would be a common mistake. So the opening would be talking about how even once-obedient animals turned into vicious monsters and started snarling at the weakened human race.

I also wonder if the opening is talking about the humans forming one specific village, or if the image is of humans gathering in (a number of) villages. My guess is the latter.

And lastly, "the Earth's rotational axis had deviated" is a bit of a mouthful. In typical English we would probably just say "the Earth's axis had shifted". But this is a question of style.

Toritoribe · 2 Sep 2014

牙を向ける and 牙を剥く are different idioms, though the meanings are close.

牙を剥き始め can be used instead of 牙を向け始め, but 牙を剥け始め doesn't make sense or is grammatically wrong since 剥け is the -masu stem of 剥ける, which is the potential form of 剥く or an intransitive verb 剥ける.

Majestic · 2 Sep 2014

I've never heard of 牙を向ける.

I was looking at this conversation...and feeling like I was not the only one.

[URL='http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1034240630']牙を「むく」漢字はどっち？牙を「向く」？牙を「剥く」... - Yahoo!知恵袋[/URL]

Toritoribe · 2 Sep 2014

Do not mix up 向く with 向ける. As a person answered "向けるならわかるけれど向くは変ですよ。" in the page you linked, 牙を向く is wrong, but 牙を向ける is correct. Haven't you heard 刃を向ける, 敵意を向ける or something like that? That's the same usage of 向ける.

二人が争えば善鬼が勝ち、次は一刀斎に牙を向けるだろう。
剣豪一刀斎柴田定著日本文学館 2005

飛び起きたチャールは激しくうなりながら、姪の手に牙を向けた。
犬が本当の｢家族｣になるとき片野ゆか著講談社 2003

Game Intro

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