#darcx dialogue study

[darcx]

Paper Mario (マリオストーリー): Dialogue Study 5

Hello, time to break down some more Japanese sentences! If you want more, check out the "darcx dialogue study" tag. Last post was introducing Bowser as he confronts Peach after seizing her castle. Now Mario has jumped into frame and Bowser of course has some comments about this.

やはり　出おったな！あいかわらず　ワガハイの　じゃまばかりするヤツめ⋯

For the breakdown, I'll switch to kanji where appropriate, and forgo the spaces.

やはり出おったな！: Sure enough, you have the nerve to show yourself na!

やはり, you may see more often as やっぱり, is a pretty useful adverb/phrases for when you knew something was gonna happen. It can have the same vibe as "I knew it!" or "Just as I thought!" As you can see, there's a lot of creative freedom you have for localization when it comes to words like this.

Next is 出おった. If you've been following along, you've already seen this おる as kind of an old fashioned or high register form of いる. And indeed, when attached to the て form of verbs, it is pretty much that. Here however, it is attached to the 連用形 form, or the "-masu" stem, where it has the same effect as the modern やがる, used to express contempt for the person's actions you're talking to. "Have the nerve to" is often given as a translation, but just like やはり/やっぱり, there's a wealth of options for accurate localization.

The な particle here is acting as a more masculine-coded version of the ね particle.

相変わらずワガハイの邪魔ばかりするヤツめ⋯: You rat, all you do is just get in my way, as always.

A bit awkward to put into English literally... I tried to provide a wording where the meaning is pretty much the same despite being a clunky. 相変わらず and ワガハイの should be pretty clear here.

邪魔する is a verb for being a hindrance/obstacle/etc. Putting ばかり after the noun, 邪魔, gives the sense of "just," "only," "nothing but," etc.

"相変わらずワガハイの邪魔ばかりする" all comes together to modify ヤツめ! This is broken up into ヤツ + め. ヤツ is a word for a person that is very casual. It can be friendly or derogatory depending on the tone an context. め is a suffix you can attach to words that refer to others that further express contempt, kind of a "derogatory suffix," if you will. As usual, there's really no one good way to translate this into English. To me, in this sentence, adding the め to ヤツめ feels like the "scathing 'you'" you use when you're belittling someone, and I chose the word "rat" because it feels appropriate for Bowser's Japanese persona. In reality, a lot of the times you see ヤツ (also written as やつ or 奴) it may be more akin to saying "dude," though.

So a really literal translation might look like: "I knew you'd dare show yourself! Damn guy who, as always, does nothing but get in my way..."

Compare to the official English localization: "[...] I expected you to turn up, right on cue. You're just as annoying as ever."

The やはり出おったな！sentence was mostly translated pretty evenly, but all this talk about Mario being a pest who does nothing but gets in Bowser's way is just reduced to "You're just annoying," lol. It's an understandable decision, trying to encapsulate everything the Japanese line said would be wordy. I said last time that English Bowser's characterization is that of a school bully, and I think this continues to show. Whereas the Japanese Bowser, all-powerful King of Koopas, calls Mario the ever present pest he is!

こんどこそは　キサマなどに　じゃまは　させんぞ！

I won't let the likes of pests get in my way this time, that's for sure zo!

今度こそは: 今度 = "this time," while こそは (kosowa) adds a sort of emphasis, in that it draws special attention to the noun it's attached to, to either indicate a sort of limit, or to really mean "for sure." You also see this as just こそ, I'm not really sure if there's a meaningful difference between こそ and こそは, other than you'll likely see just こそ more often.

キサマなど: キサマ is a very insulting word. It's kind of used as a second person pronoun but Japanese "pronouns" aren't that functionally different from nouns, so, you'll see it translated a lot of the times as "bastard" or something. Since concepts of profanity are handled differently between the two languages though, I'm sure you would agree that for a Rated E Mario title, Bowser's not gonna call Mario a bastard, something non-vulgar but still insulting is more appropriate for a more literal translation. など is used to sort of "broaden the scope," let's say, kind of the opposite of こそ(は). Mario is just an example of the kind of chump that's no match for Bowser!

させんぞ: If you expect this to be a verb, at first this looks like a very weird verb and verb conjugation if you're not used to reading Japanese. And it is a verb! Plus the forceful particle ぞ. So what's させん? Well it's actually a shortening of させない! させる is the "causative" of する. Usually translated as "to make" or "to cause to" do, but it can also mean "to allow to" or "to let" do, which, context here makes it obvious Bowser's saying he will not allow someone to hinder him. This verb is why there's a に after キサマなど, when the verb is in the causative form, に marks the thing that is being made/allowed to do something!

Compare the official English localization: "Unfortunately for you, there's nothing you can do this time."

Something to note about this pair of localizations is the attention to symmetry: There is no symmetry in the English version. In Japanese, Bowser's second box here says 邪魔はさせんぞ, which is in direct reference to the previous box where he says 邪魔ばかりする - which was left untranslated in the English localization... So it would make sense to also not translate it in the second box too. This second box is definitely the most different the two versions have been, both do retain the sense of "This time is different!" Japanese Bowser is just a bit more mean spirited about it. Maybe the English developers didn't want to hurt the players' ego too bad?

[darcx]

Paper Mario (マリオストーリー): Dialogue Study 4

This is part 4 of my Japanese sentence breakdown series on Paper Mario! This is a cutscene between Bowser and Peach after Bowser has seized Peach's Castle through mysterious means.

この城は　もはや　ワガハイのものである

おとなしく　するがよい！

A couple things here before the breakdown: Traditionally, Japanese doesn't have a full-stop/period. This box has two sentences, the end of the first one indicated by a final verb and then a line break. You should get used to this, you won't always see the 。 "period" in Japanese media, so sometimes you have to use context to figure out that you've finished a sentence.

Reading Bowser's dialogue in Paper Mario at least is a great learning experience. Bowser is given a sort of "ancient demon" way of speaking, it's very self-important and old fashioned sounding, which is a bit contrastive from the English localization where his dialogue is more directly goofy and unassuming. So let's see what we can learn here.

この城は　もはや: This castle wa at this point

もはや is a sort of more dramatic もう, used more often in literature from what I gather.

ワガハイのものである: is mine

ワガハイ is an archaic first person pronoun that historically was used by those in high noble positions, so it fits with Bowser's pompous sense of self as the King of Koopas, so adding のもの (possessive の + もの = thing) turns the whole phrase into "mine."

である is a literary way of writing/saying だ, essentially, just another quirk of Bowser's register of speech.

おとなしく　するがよい！: You had better behave!

おとなしく = 大人しく meaning obedient, with the く ending so that する can follow it.

More specifically, するがよい, which is another archaism. In older forms of Japanese, using particles like が was fine after a plain form of verb like する, and that よい is the same as いい (which is why the く form of いい is よく!), so it's kind of like saying "good to do."

Altogether we have something like: "This castle is mine now! You better be obedient/behave yoursef!"

Compare the official localization: "Ha! This castle's under my control now, my dear! Now you will obey ME!"

So while the translation is still fairly direct, Bowser is given a bit of a different characterization here. In this game, Bowser is the main threat, and he is quite powerful (thanks to the Star Wand, if you want to know more of the game's story), so in the Japanese he is given a very pompous and self important way of speaking that mirrors that of ancient nobles, which is a fairly common characterization of demon-like figures in modern fiction. This is still humorous, because Mario & Bowser's rivalry is so cartoony to begin with, and there is the situational irony of knowing that this is a Mario game and you, a simple plumber, will beat him... In English, however, Bowser comes off very pompous and self important still, but his dialogue is more like a schoolyard bully than a demon king.

This is similarly ironic, just in a different frame of reference. Isn't localization neat?

Going forward, I've decided to tag all of these with the "darcx dialogue study" tag, so if you want to see more, just check that out on my blog! There should also be a link to the tag at the top of the blog once I remember how to add those custom links lol

[darcx]

Paper Mario (マリオストーリー): Dialogue Study 2

Welcome back. This is part 2 of my Japanese dialogue study posts, where I break down Japanese sentences, meant for someone who can read kana and has a basic grasp on grammar already. I'm playing Paper Mario where I'm Mario, attending a party at Peach's Castle, and speaking to the guests before going on with the game proper.

ピーチ姫って　うわさどおりの　やさしくて　すばらしい　お姫さまですね

ごあいさつに　きたかいが　ありましたよ

As with last time, some games forego most kanji and with that, they use spaces to make it more parsable. Let's break it down:

ピーチ姫って: Princess Peach tte

This Noun + って construction is something you'll come across a lot when reading Japanese depicting casual spoken conversation. It is essentially an emphatic topic-marking は when used this way. You often see it used when expressing a certain emotion about the Noun it's attached to.

うわさどおりの　やさしくて　すばらしい　お姫さまですね: She is the kind and wonderful princess she's rumored to be ne

Here we have a string of adjectivals. うわさどおりの, as rumored, though it has a の at the end, we can assume it is not linking to the very next word as we're so used to, since the next word やさしくて is an adjective. We're going to have to wait and see what the noun is after all the descriptors. We do get a classic やさしい->やさしくて, te-form here to allow for すばらしい to chime in as well! It may be more accurate to say that the の in うわさどおるの is linking うわさどおり to the entire noun phrase やさしくて　すばらしい　お姫さま, in case you need help grasping the placement of that の.

ごあいさつに　きたかいが　ありましたよ

This sentence is spaced very interestingly, and can be a tough one to figure out if you don't have enough prior knowledge. I'm going to break it down in chunks that feel more natural for our English brains

ごあいさつに　きた: lit. "Came to greet", could be localized as something like "having come to meet"

This is a complete sentence, but as you may have learned, complete sentences (those with verbs at the end of them) can also themselves be used as descriptors for nouns.

かいが　ありましたよ

Here's where Japanese being a popular language to learn comes in handy. You would be correct in assuming this is some noun かい + が + ある, a pretty familiar construction so you might go digging into what かい could be. It can be kind of vague, especially with no kanji! Always keep in mind that Japanese dictionaries tend to include phrases, so if you're having trouble understanding this sentence, you might type in: "かいがある" which will reveal that this is a phrase meaning "to be worth it." The sentence modifying かい (in this case the kanji is 甲斐) clarifies what was worth it, in this case, having come (=きた) to meet & greet (=ごあいさつに) (Princess Peach)!

Putting it altogether, a straightforward localization might be:

"Wow, Peach is the kind and wonderful princess she's rumored to be, huh? Coming to see her was worth it!"

Compare the official localization: "Princess Peach is such a generous and wonderful lady, just as I was told. It was worth coming to visit."

You can see it's also pretty straightforward with a couple liberties. "generous" seemingly in place of やさしい is interesting, I suspect it was chosen because the usual translations for やさしい don't sound grandiose enough for describing a princess! I like this decision. Using "visit" instead of meet/greet for あいさつ also feels more natural while conveying the same sentiment, which is always the goal!

マリオさんも　ぜひ　いちど　サムイサムイ地方に　あそびに　きてくださいね

マリオさんも: Mario-san mo

も means "too/also" here, as it usually does. You'll find in the official localization that it's not really translated, and this is fairly common. I feel in English we're more likely to use "too"/"also" if the person is doing an action that is the very same as what was also done/is being done/will be done. In this sentence though, the Toad is saying that, just as he came to Toad Town to visit Peach's Castle, Mario should come to his town to visit as well. I think in terms of including "also"/"too"/"as well" in this specific case, it could really go either way.

ぜひ　いちど　サムイサムイ地方に: certainly sometime Shiver region ni

いちど here is 一度, literally "one time," or "once," but I find "sometime" is a natural translation of it in some cases, here included. サムイサムイ地方 literally means "Cold cold area," but it was localized as Shiver region... Which is kind of confusing, considering there's another region in the game called Dry Dry Desert, so it would have been cute I think to mirror that here. What do you think?

What I really want you to take from this though is ぜひ. Dictionaries will say it means "certainly," "by all means" (in this context at least). This is another one of those words where it being translated to English is kind of a crapshoot. When used in inviting sentences like this, it simply expresses your sincere desire to have the person as your guest/company.

あそびに　きてくださいね: Please come by to see us ne

あそぶ is often taught as meaning "to play," but in English this is pretty much exclusively used for playing games or when kids get together to have fun. In Japanese, あそぶ can be used amongst adults as well, though! It can have the nuance of visiting, seeing, or hanging out with someone. Putting it into あそびにくる is just the same as あそびにいく, just with くる instead of いく - movement to a place in order to perform an action. Since this Toad is suggesting that Mario, the listener, move towards the speaker (not literally, but the speaker's home, where he will be), くる is just more appropriate.

The official English localization: "Mario, please come visit us in the Shiver region someday!"

This is pretty much a direct translation, with the omissions I alluded to in the breakdown: も and ぜひ didn't quite make their way into the translation. And that's alright!

[darcx]

Paper Mario (マリオストーリー): Dialogue Study 3

Welcome back! This is my 3rd dialogue study on Paper Mario. Let's jump into it. As before, Mario's at Peach's Castle for a party and was getting acquainted with the guests, though Peach isn't in this room.

ピーチ姫なら　��い　さっ���　おくの部屋へ　行かれましたよ

ピーチ姫なら: If (it's) Princess Peach (you're looking for)

なら is a quite versatile and useful word. It is technically a conditional (in good company with ~えば, ~たら, and the conjunctive と), but I find it's often used to state a condition that you have reason to believe is true (while still coming off like you're not making an assumption). Here, the guard Toad has plenty of reason to believe Mario is looking for Peach. In fact, in a world where Mario has dialogue, Mario could have outright said he wants to see Peach, and I think the guard's dialogue here could still be ピーチ姫なら. It's almost somewhere between "given that ~" and "if ~".

つい　さっき: just (+ past tense. As in, she just went)

This is a set expression containing つい (just/quite) and さっき (moments ago), used to indicate something happened very very recently.

おくの部屋へ: interior/private room e

The full kanji version would be 奥の部屋, referring to a room, usually in a large building I presume, in the back of the building, typically never a guest room but one where someone who lives there takes. And へ of course is the directional particle.

行かれましたよ: went yo

We saw this use of the passive in the first Paper Mario Dialogue Study post I made. This is simply the "honorific" passive, it has no grammatical implications but is used because he's talking about what Peach has done.

This was a pretty straightforward sentence structurally, so I'll compare my literal-natural interpretation to the official localization at the end! Let's move on:

ちょっと　おつかれに　なられたんでしょう

ちょっと　おつかれに: a bit o-tired ni

おつかれ is usually an expression thanking someone for their hard work, but here it's just an honorific (= お-) noun referring to a tired state. The に here is because of the verb being used next:

なられたんでしょう: it's that (she) got ... I think

Just like before, なられた is just the passive of なる, but this passive is simply honorific. んでしょうis the infamous のです, put in the "speculative" form. When it comes to literal, not-necessarily-natural translation/understandings, I love using the "it's that" construction for forms of のです, because it is quite literal and the conventional uses of the construction in Japanese are more easily understood knowing that. Here, though, it's the most commonly explained usage for it which is that he's just explaining something, in this case adding more context for why she went to her room. Putting でしょう there instead of です adds and element of "I guess"/"I think" in this case.

So all in all, our literal translations might look something like:

"Peach? She just went to her room (in the back). Perhaps she got a bit tired."

Compare the English localization: "Princess Peach went into her private chambers just now. She must be a bit tired."

A nice natural interpretation of the original. I find なら is most often not translated when attached to nouns like this. "Private chambers" is great castle-speak for 奥の部屋, and the speculative "must" is a great parallel to でしょう.

A pretty simple one today but still with lots to talk about! Or maybe I'm just good at yapping. Next time we'll be looking at our first encounter with Bowser, I think. He has some interesting dialogue! Stay tuned.

[darcx]

Paper Mario (マリオストーリー): Dialogue Study 1

Hi! I've been really hunkering down and trying to read Japanese media for a bit now and thought I'd share some sentences from whatever I'm playing/reading to break down.

This is still in the beginning of the game, when Princess Peach invites Mario and Luigi to her castle for a party.

ピーチ姫は　あさから　マリオさんたちが　いらっしゃるのを　たのしみに　しておられましたよ

To make the game more readable for younger ones, fewer kanji are utilized, and you'll notice it's common practice to actually use spaces in these cases. Here is the sentence written more standardly:

ピーチ姫は朝からマリオさんたちがいらっしゃるのを楽しみにしておられましたよ

This sentence is pretty interesting because it shows that, yes, even if you're playing video games, it's still important to learn polite registers of Japanese. This is a young person talking about royalty, so you'll be seeing some polite forms that aren't often taught, yet you'll come across when reading Japanese quite a bit!

Let's do a high-ish level breakdown:

ピーチ姫は朝から: Princess Peach wa from/since morning

マリオさんたちがいらっしゃるのを: Mario-san and company (= Luigi) ga being/coming here wo

楽しみにしておられましたよ: looking forward to yo

Put it all together, and you've got something like: "Princess peach has been looking forward to you and Luigi's arrival since this morning!"

Important points:

たち: Usually introduced as a plural suffix you can only use for living things, and this is true. This specific usage of "Mario and company" is a bit unexpected for English speakers sometimes, so it's important to be aware of! When translating to English, it might be more natural to be more direct and say who that company is.

いらっしゃる + の: You're usually first introduced to いらっしゃる in the phrase いらっしゃいませ, the shopkeeper greeting for customers. The verb is kind of a general honorific-speech one that's a bit versatile, as it can be used for going ≈ 行く, coming ≈ 来る, and being ≈ いる. But this is likely the most common case for using the verb you'll see outside of いらっしゃいませ, which is coming to an event such as the context here, attending a castle party. Whenever you see a plain form of a verb + の, you can bet that that's the nominalizing の, turning all of マリオさんたちがいらっしゃる into a noun phrase.

~ておられました: Here's a double whammy of sorts. ~ておる is, you guessed it, an honorific version of ~ている! And then it's put in the passive form, changing the る in おる to ら and then adding れる. This, however, is nothing but another honorific way of speaking.

The official English version of this dialogue is: "I think Princess Peach has been looking forward to seeing you since this morning, Mario." It's a pretty direct localization, though the choice of using "I think" here is interesting – it's usually Japanese that makes these sorts of statements indirect, but there's really nothing in the original Japanese text to invoke this "I think" qualifier.

She has one more dialog box:

ずっと　ソワソワしておいでで　クスクス⋯　ピーチ姫ったら⋯

ずっとソワソワしてお出でで: All this time has been in a fidget te

~ておいでで is a pretty odd string of characters at first. ~ておいで is often a "casual and mild" form of different commands, as this Stack Exchange user says, but the second で at the end here makes all the difference, as here it's being used as the て form of だ/です (hence why I just put it as te in the breakdown), making it fit the 5th definition that that gracious Stack Exchange user gave - yet another honorific way of expressing ~ている! The ��す being in the て form is, I think, a trailing "and..." meaning, it's connecting to an unspoken thought, because...

クスクス is a chuckling onomatopoeia, and then

ピーチ姫ったら⋯ this ったら is kind of like an emotional particle when attached to a person. The emotion is typically that of annoyance, surprise, or criticism. Read more about it here (the Expressing Annoyance section specifically), and here (Japanese language resource, machine translating is passable, though).

So all in all this box is something like: "She's been in a fidget all this time, hehehe... Oh, that Princess Peach..."

Compare the official English localization: "She's been restless... Hee hee hee... How cute..."

The "How cute" is appropriate here because though ったら in the original is used to express a kind of tilted emotion towards the person it's attached to, the クスクス before shows it's all kind of playful. I do think the original Japanese has a bit of a different tone than the English localization, but that's the beauty of localization - it's not about direct translation.

Wow! This ended up being way longer than I expected it to be. Let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or corrections! And thank you for reading.