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Needed help translating some titles from a anime soundtrack

30 Jul 2019
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Hello, recently I was trying to translate some track titles from one of the Hellsing Ultimate CDs, but I was having a bit of difficulty with them.
Thus, I was hoping someone could look over what I had so far and let me know how to best go about translating these into English.

Firstly, I had a question regarding the title of the CD itself which is "ナチスなCD." I'm pretty sure this would just translate to "Nazi CD," correct? (For those who aren't familiar with the series this particular CD covers songs associated with the antagonists whom are Nazis, hence the strange title.) Also, just out of curiosity, is there any real difference between saying "ナチスなCD" & "ナチスCD?" Nearly all of the similar examples I could find online didn't feature "な" between the main part of the title and "CD" which was why I was curious.

"華麗なる宣戦布告"
this title appears to be referring to a line from episode 4 which is said right after the scene where this track plays, the English subtitles for said line being "A splendid declaration of war." However, while looking through a Japanese transcript of the episode (assuming that it was accurate) the line was instead written as "すてきな宣戦布告だ." I'm uncertain if this alters the meaning substantially or not.

"大隊兵諸君"
During the scene where this track is used, the dub verbally translates "諸君" as both, "my friends" and "gentlemen," however the subtitles exclusively translate it as "my friends." Thus, I think "大隊兵諸君" might be something like "My Friends, Soldiers of the Battalion/Battalion Soldiers" or "Soldiers of the Battalion/Battalion Soldiers, My Friends?" Granted, "Gentlemen, Soldiers of the Battalion" might sound a little bit better in English.

"戦争の夜へ"
I think this one would be "To the Night of the War" or maybe just "To the Night of War?"

"進軍序曲"
I think this one would either be "March Overture" or "Marching Overture," maybe even "Overture March?" I'm actually not sure which of these phrasings would be more grammatically correct in English.

"幻覚 mix 強制終了"
I'm not too sure about the title for this one, but "幻覚" seems to mean either "hallucination" or "illusion" and it seems that "強制終了" means something along the lines of "Forced Out" or "Forced Termination?"

"英国進軍歌"
This one is the ending theme for episode 4, "英国" can be translated as "United Kingdom," "Britain" or "England" and "進軍歌" should either be "March Song" or "Marching Song." This track is actually a real life song and was apparently one of the most sung German military songs during WWII. The original song is titled "Das Engellandlied" ("The England-song") and was composed by Herms Niel with the words being taken from the poem, "Wir fahren gegen Engeland" ("For we are sailing against England" or "For we sail to take on the English") by Hermann Löns. With that in mind I think that "England" would be the most appropriate pick for "英国," so this one would either be "England March Song" or "England Marching Song," but again, I'm not sure which phrasing is more proper in terms of grammar.

"赤旗と黒禍"
I think this one would just be "Red Flag and Black Plague?"

"北春日部老人会音頭"
This is probably the one I've been having the most trouble with. I know "音頭" is "ondo" (a type of Japanese folk music) and from what I can gather "老人会" appears to mean something along the lines of "Senior/Elderly Club/Association?" That just leaves "北春日部," which I think might possibly be "North Kasukabe?" "Kasukabe" (春日部市) apparently being a city located in Saitama Prefecture. The track title itself is referring to a brief scene where a group of elderly Japanese tourists are visiting the museum that the main cast are at near the start of episode 3 which is also where said track plays, hence they only logical deduction I can make is that maybe said tour group is from the northern area of Kasukabe. The song does have lyrics so perhaps the context of the title can be derived from them?
 
Firstly, I had a question regarding the title of the CD itself which is "ナチスなCD." I'm pretty sure this would just translate to "Nazi CD," correct? (For those who aren't familiar with the series this particular CD covers songs associated with the antagonists whom are Nazis, hence the strange title.) Also, just out of curiosity, is there any real difference between saying "ナチスなCD" & "ナチスCD?" Nearly all of the similar examples I could find online didn't feature "な" between the main part of the title and "CD" which was why I was curious.
The suffix な works like as "-tic" in English.
 
The suffix な works like as "-tic" in English.

I see, it seems a little strange to use that suffix in this context though unless I'm missing something. Either way, I imagine it be logical to just drop it altogether when trying to translate it into English, right? Also, if it's not too much trouble would you be willing to help me with the other translations as well? I know it's a bit much, but I'm fairly confident I'm at least on the right track with most of them.
 
I would use "Nazi-like".

Sorry, but it's hard to answer many questions if it's necessary to know the background context.
 
I don't think the context is entirely necessary for most of these, however I'm often told it helps to give as much context as possible when asking for translation assistence. Regardless, it is quite a lot though so I understand, regardless thanks for explaining "な" for me.
 
It is important to have context, because Japanese is a very contextual language. You seem to think that all of these very specific nuances can be intuited out of the specific verbiage of the Japanese, when that simply isn't the case. For example:

RosenkreutzXIII said:
"戦争の夜へ"
I think this one would be "To the Night of the War" or maybe just "To the Night of War?"
The only difference between the two English translations is whether it's explicitly referring to a specific war (the former) or war in general (the latter). The phrase as given in Japanese does not distinguish this, because Japanese grammar does not really have anything corresponding to the definite article in English. If it were in a full sentence, there might be other ways to glean this from context, but in the context of a single song title, there's no way to say which is more "correct" without knowing whether, in the context of the story itself, this is explicitly referring to a single war. (And honestly, even if it were, the latter translation could also be appropriate, as one could frame it as a theme of war in a general sense even if it's played in the context of a single war.)

A lot of your questions (like the one about the marching overture) are also really questions about English, not Japanese. There is no one "correct" answer for many of these things you're asking. Japanese-to-English translation, especially of more "poetic" things like song titles and whatnot, is often a matter of interpretation. If you're the translator, you have to make judgment calls like this as to what is (1) accurate to the Japanese, (2) appropriate for the context, and (3) sounds nice in English.

Assuming that you've seen the anime in question, you're probably better equipped to make these judgment calls than we are.
 
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