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caramecocoa · 7 days ago

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Ricky’s Birthday - EOU Short Story Translation

リッキィの誕生日 (Ricky's Birthday) is a short story that was originally written to commemorate the 1st anniversary of EOU, but it appears that it wasn't published until its inclusion in the Visual Materials Artbook. Since I do not think there are any translations of this one online, I decided to take it upon myself to make an (poorly made) attempt at it!

Foreword

I'll preface this post by saying that I am not fluent at all in Japanese, so I had to rely on machine translation whilst double-checking with online dictionaries and/or rewording some certain odd phrases (while making this in just about two evenings' time). Therefore, this translation is not perfect, but it should meet the minimum standards of readability. (When and/or If I'll reach a higher level of fluency, I might rework and republish this.)

When notable changes in respect to the source text are made, I have made sure to explain them in the appropriate footnotes. I also made sure to include other interesting notes.

All that said, please enjoy the read!

As usual, the Golden Deer Pub is packed full with explorers that have finished adventuring for the day, so there is a peculiar hustle-and-bustle.

…Among them, one of the tables is especially lively this evening.

“Happy birthday!”

“Happy birthday to our leader!’

“......”

I, Frederica Irving, am watching the commotion from another table at a distance. There isn’t a reason for it… My eyes are just drawn to “something out of the ordinary”.

I blurt out a question (1), “So, is that how you celebrate birthdays?”

Upon hearing that, Raquna, who is sitting next to me, stares at me dumbfoundedly. “That’s the day everyone’s born in. We give thanks for our existence and for being born–I suppose it is something to celebrate?”

“You don’t even know that? That’s so lame (2)!” Arthur, listening in across the table, interrupts the conversation without hesitation.

…This guy is always like this. Whenever I show the smallest hint of weakness (3), he always lectures me in this snobbish manner.

Raquna says, “That boy never had any juniors… Can you bear with it a little?”, but, to be frank, it does little to lift my spirits.

“It is no wonder if I don’t know. I don’t remember when my birthday falls anymore.”

After I say that, I immediately regret it. It has made everyone uncomfortable… (4)

As I feared, an odd silence has befallen the table, and even that insensitive Arthur has an awkward expression on his face. This is not what I wanted to happen.

“It… It is nothing special. So, what is the big deal? I was just wondering because in the past it wasn’t celebrated in such a grand fashion. That’s all.”

“Ricky…”

…I try to follow it up in a hurry, but I can tell by the atmosphere that it is not a successful attempt.

“Birthdays are to be celebrated” is something I am aware of from common sense knowledge. However, since I wasn’t close to any other people my age and Dad (5) was too busy to ever come home, I spent my birthdays alone for many years.

Once M.I.K.E. was created, he would be the one to give me celebratory messages, but… That said, celebrating like that at the tavern seemed something novel to me, so why do I feel so bad right now?

While resenting my own indiscreetness and Arthur's unnecessary provocation, I ponder if there is any way to somehow get through this heavy atmosphere. (6)

“...Hm. It is a date from a millennium ago. In that case, with some calculations we should be able to figure it out… No, if the calendar itself is different, then it is another story.”

“I wonder if the Midgard Library has a research team looking into that sort of thing? Like the collection of documents marked with dates…”

“And we could seek that information from them! Or we could just ask M.I.K.E.! (7)”

Ah, stop! Don’t make such a big deal out of it! But no matter what I might say right now, it would be futile. I have no doubt that my earnest companions will think that “I am just pretending not to care”.

Seriously, I don't care that much about my birthday… How did it come to this?

Whether or not he knew of my state of mind or not… The youth who has remained silent up to that point has suddenly spoken up (8). “If you don’t know it, you should make it up.”

…Make it up? My birthday?

What is he talking about?

“That’s right! Just as expected from you, Highlander! Well said!”

“...He doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

“Oh, I get it! That’s a great point!”

What!? How do you know that? What does Arthur understand that I don’t!?

Not being able to understand anything of what they are saying, I can only stare at their faces and compare them.

“In other words, those two are saying that you can make your birthday any day you want.”

“A day… I want? The day I was born?”

Simon must have realized my confusion, because he explained it, but... I still don't get the picture.

“Yep, yep, in my case it was Simon who chose my birthday!”

“What. You… Are you serious!?” (9)

“Yeah, isn’t that right? So, Ricky, you can decide it to be whatever you like!”

To decide for myself the day I was conceived?

Do I have the right to do that?

Does such a decision even make sense?

When, in fact, it is not a choice?

But if Arthur, one who “has no memories of suffering”, says that he actually did and there is no problem with that…

In this day and age, is that good enough? (10)

Looking at the happy-go-lucky Arthur and the confident look on the youth's face who made the suggestion... It's strange, because it makes me feel like it's the proper thing to do.

“Um, well…” I speak up as my heart beats fast.

There is one “important day” that I would definitely choose if I had to do so. But would this decision actually matter?

There is only one day I was born. It is the day when Mom and Dad made that important decision for me. But, that day… It is not a happy one.

If I had to choose an important day that is not that.

If I had to celebrate a day I could call my “birthday”.

I am very, very embarrassed about it, but I know that no one here will make fun of me, so I am going to put my wishes into words.

“...I want it to be the day I met you all.”

Yes.

The day I woke up in this era, and when I met those people I cherish…

I want it to be that day.

And so, ever since then… I have had two birthdays.

──────────────────────

One night, after dark. Four suspicious shadows stand in one of the rooms of the Rooster Inn.

“Heh heh, I bet she’ll be surprised when she wakes up!”

“Hmm... It's a pity we won't get to see it.” (12)

The shadows surrounding the sleeping girl... Secretly, stealthily, they place one present after another under her pillow. The short shadow leaves an assortment of sweets. The one with the long hair, a hair ornament.

The tall shadow puts down the stuffed animal as he mutters, “…But isn’t this a way to celebrate a different event?” (13)

Then, at last, with a nod, a shadow-the youth's-places a small wrapped gift.

“Well, some people here are pretty shy about being direct.”

“Sh-Shut up!”

“You are being too loud. It would be bad if we were caught, so let’s get back to our rooms.”

Then, silently, quietly, the four shadows leave the girl’s room. Among them… One shadow, the youth, stops and looks back at her.

‘Ricky… Happy birthday.”

One year had passed ever since the boy and the girl had met. (14)

Footnotes

(1) The literal phrase was “The question comes out of my mouth”, but since it is a somewhat unnatural construction in English, I opted to change it for “to blurt out”, which hopefully conveys the “involuntary” aspect of that utterance. (2) ダッセェ is the slang form of ダサい, which means “uncool”, “lame”, “corny”, etc. (3) So, the original text doesn’t specify what the 少しでも見せると refers to. Literally, it would translate as “When I show a little…” which, in English, doesn’t particularly make sense. From the overall context, I assumed the word “weakness” to be the “missing part”. I think the fancy French translation term that applies is suppléance mentale?

(4) I originally opted to retain the translation for こんな事は言うべきではない (i.e. “I shouldn’t have said that”), but, since it was redundant, I opted to cut it. I also considered translating the 「しまった」と思った。こんな事は言うべきではない。as something like, “My thoughts were filled with regret…” but I felt something like that was a bit too poetic for it to be Ricky’s character voice.

(5) In the official English translation for the game, Ricky does refer to her father as “Papa”, if my memory serves right. I personally think it does sound a bit too childish coming from a teenager, so I opted to render it as “Dad” instead. (6) For some reason, only in two particular sentences the POV switches to third person (the noun 少女 is used to refer to Ricky). POV mixing seems to be a thing, although it is more of a thing in alternate chapters, not in the middle of narration… For the sake of consistency, I decided to turn them into the first person. (7) Since the party is still in an amicable position with M.I.K.E., it is safe to assume this story takes place between the events of AREA III and AREA IV.

(8) See footnote 6. (9) According to this post, そうだったの can be used as a reaction to something surprising. I decided to translate is as “Are you serious” as it felt more appropriate. (10) I believe Ricky might be concerned about bureaucratic matters here. (11) The change of tense is intentional here, as I assume the previous narration utilised the historical present to recount the events. See the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_present. Check also this for a more concise explanation: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/73870 (12) This line of dialogue might imply the epilogue takes place the night after the Primevil/Yggdrasil Core battle.

(13) The event referenced here is most likely Christmas and similar celebrations wherein presents are left to children in the middle of the night. (14) While in the rest of the translation I opted to use “youth” to translate 少年 (referring to the Highlander), here I left it as “boy” both to retain the “mirror” structure and as a reference to the “Boy Meets Girl” narrative trope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BoyMeetsGirl

#translation is not a free action #etrian odyssey #etrian odyssey untold #i'll be real with you half the battle was trying to get the phone's keyboard to recognise the kanjis i was attempting to write by hand #why are there so many footnotes you ask. i just like explaining #div cr: pommecita

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