Lost in translation (Part 1)

Those who have been following the page CCFS translations might have realized that I haven’t updated the page since December. Let me assure you that it isn’t Fay’s fault. In fact, she’s already finished all the translations from the Spanish version of Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) to English, so what’s happened? 🤔 Did she not give me any update since I posted the second letter in the epilogue?

Well, I’m the one to blame. Normally I’m not a perfectionist, but this time I will explain why I have chosen to delay updating. 😂

Ever since I promised Fay to post her works on my blog, I have noticed some differences or misinterpretations in the translations from time to time. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t mean Fay wasn’t doing a good job. On the contrary, she has put lots of time and efforts into translating every sentence, for that I must say her contributions to the fandom are valuable. ❤️ After all, many more people around the world can read simple English.

However, as Lakewood has pointed out in her comment (and this is my reply to another comment from Lakewood), the mistakes arose from the Italian translator’s poor grasp of some of the original Japanese text, which is a pity. 🙁  Since I knew I wouldn’t have time to proofread every sentence or make any corrections, I turned a blind eye to the discrepancies, because most of which were minor. Yes, nuances were often lost in translation but the meanings were there.

Or so I thought.  🙄

One day Fay gave me Candy’s letter to Georges Villers to post an update, and I happened to spot a paragraph in which the translation was quite off.  However, I was so preoccupied with real life responsibilities that I had no choice but to shove it to the back of my mind. 😓 This went on until the day I received Candy’s letter to Stear. I could no longer ignore the misinterpretation of some important sentences. 😦 Since Fay doesn’t know Japanese, I spent some time explaining to her why the translation of those sentences was incorrectly done. When we finally published the letter, I began to think maybe I should pay closer attention to the subsequent letters.

This is easier said than done, so I didn’t do much until the first letter in the epilogue. Most of you know that these letters between Candy and her Prince on the Hill are particularly precious to me, and I consider the epilogue one of the most precious sections in the entire Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS). As a result, I determined to set aside some time to read the translations of these letters and modify them if necessary. However, it’s more time consuming than I expected, so time-consuming that I thought perhaps it was easier for me to write several blog posts to explain some of the original text with examples and links for more details.

You might say that some people out there have translated these letters, and why do I bother spending time on things that some people have already accomplished? Well, as far as I know, several translations in different Terry fans’ pages or sites have intentionally altered the meanings of some phrases or even skipped words here and there, especially when they are about Albert. 😅 For example, recently my friend Candy Albert sent me this link to a birthday poem, written by Mizuki (Keiko Nagita) herself.  I haven’t read the entire poem yet, but with a quick glance my eyes landed on somewhere in the middle; it talks about a birthday present from Albert. My translation will be something like below:

Candy, hurry up and open (the door)!
The matching flower garland for your birthday is wilting…
for it’s the long-awaited present from Albert-san.

If you read the English translation on that page (within the red box I added on the image), you will notice that there is nothing about Candy’s eagerly waiting for a birthday present from Albert, right? Yet, if you read the Japanese line right below it you will see that the adjective phrase, せっかくの, that modifies the noun ‘the present from Albert’ is omitted (is it intentional?)… 😑 For your interest, せっかく by itself has a different meaning, and when it combines with の it means that whatever noun that follows is something precious, valuable or long-awaited, but you may not be able to take advantage of it. For example, a common usage is when someone said s/he lost an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Anyway, the above case of omitting words during translation is but one example, and I have seen a few in the past which I won’t mention here. Instead, let me show you which paragraph in the letter to Georges Villers has its essence lost in translation.  Fay did the following based on the Spanish translation:

Now that the mystery has been solved, I intentionally address him as if he were a very old man and never stop calling him Great Uncle, and he no longer knows what to do to make me forgive him. It’s a small revenge that I’m entitled to take, don’t you think?

One Japanese fan (who gave us the spoilers) translated the above paragraph from Japanese to English:

— Now that the mystery was solved I call him intentionally “Graaandpa!” as if he were an old man – he’s not happy about it, saying “Forgive me now, pleeease”.
Well, don’t you think I can pay him back a little bit!?

Before I go on, I’d like to point out that in CCFS, especially the letters to and from Candy, Candy or the others (Nagita) liked to express their thoughts in very short paragraphs, sometimes even one sentence (maybe incomplete) per line. It’s almost like she was talking. However, the Italian translator tended to lump several shorter paragraphs together to form a much longer one. Hence, in Japanese, the ‘paragraph’ above is actually one short paragraph plus one rhetorical question to Georges from Candy. So you might ask, what exactly is “Graaandpa”?

In Japanese, おじいさん  is old man or grandfather , and おじさん is uncle or some middle-aged man. For example, when Candy first met Albert the vagabond, she addressed him as おじさん, to which he promptly corrected her. 😀  Now, if we combine 大 and おじさん(or さま, the more polite version of さん)  together, it is the title granduncle. In most letters Candy referred to Albert as 大おじさま, which in hiragana it is おおおじさま.  You see there are three お in a row (the first two お = 大)? You can pronounce them altogether like a prolonged AWE sound.

But Candy told Georges she had been teasing Albert by calling him 「大おじ~さま!」, as indicated in her letter; I’m sure even prior to this Georges was fully aware of her not-so-respectful attitude towards the young heir. This essentially means that Candy pronounced the JI sound (after the AWE sound) longer than usual, forming a new word, a combination of おじいさん  (old man or grandfather) and 大おじさま (granduncle). Thus, I think the Japanese fan did a wonderful job by translating this funny word as “Graaandpa!”.

Candy admitted in her writing that she treated Albert like an old guy (年寄りっぽく) by calling him (呼んで)「大おじ~さま!」on purpose (わざと), to which Albert reacted with 「もう許してくれ~ 」. This means it wasn’t the first time he had asked her for forgiveness, and the fact that the interjection begins with もう and ends with an elongation ~ shows his frustration too. You think Candy didn’t know he was upset? Of course she did; she ended this short paragraph with 困られています , which means she knew he was troubled because of her. This is quite different from her ordinary behavior (don’t you think she acted like what Terry had done to her in London?) , not to mention she seemed “proud” of being a troll to Albert.

The question that follows this short descriptive paragraph was Candy’s justification of her odd behavior; it was her revenge そのくらいの仕返し. It’s funny, isn’t it? This extract alone is a solid proof that Albert was not a father figure to Candy. If she had any genuine respect for him in that regard, she wouldn’t have acted like this, right? 😛

The next one I’m going to discuss is Candy’s letter to Stear. The highlighted section in the picture was what I wanted Fay to make changes to her original translation. I was told that the Italian translator didn’t have much background in Candy Candy, so her translation wasn’t necessarily biased but her interpretation could be wrong.

Here, Candy told Stear that ever since she had received the invitation to Archie and Annie’s engagement party, she couldn’t help feeling happy (or she could hardly contain her joy), then she talked about Stear being the only one who could share her excitement / happiness, and Albert asked, “What about me?”

I hope you know which paragraph I refer to. 😅 The translation (based on what we know in Spanish) is misleading, because Candy was saying Albert didn’t understand her, and that explained why she didn’t tell him or something like that. I can’t find this passage in Spanish at this moment, but if any of you know the Italian version please share it with us in the comments section.

I said it was misleading because it contradicts the other parts in CCFS when Candy said she could tell Albert practically anything, including things about Terry or Susanna. Therefore, let me explain the original Japanese text here.

この喜びを共有できるのはステアしかいないのよね！僕は？って大おじさまったらアルバートさんぶって(って、本人なんだけど）参加したがるの。
でも、やっぱりステアです。

My translation to the above will be (I have paraphrased a bit):

Only Stear can share such joy/happiness with me! “What about me?” asked Granduncle with exasperation. Pretending to be Albert-san (he said, but he is the said person himself), he’s eager to attend (the party).
But still, it’s Stear.

You can probably see that I’ve provided links to almost every keyword, so if you’re interested to read the dictionary entries or explanations yourself, please feel free. 🙂 Here I’d like to point out the text highlighted with green. If you click on it you will see that it has more than one meaning, and if it follows someone’s name it indicates exasperation. In this case, it’s right after the title Granduncle (the bolded text, which we have already discussed in length). Apparently, Candy had told Albert that only Stear could share her happiness, and Albert was not pleased to hear that. 😉

After telling Stear that Albert was eager to attend the engagement party pretending to be Albert-san, Candy restated her opinion. The highlighted text in the color cyan has various different meanings, depending on the context. My gut feeling is that Candy emphasized her original statement that only Stear shared the same extent of her joy, because right after this passage she went on to explain in detail that they both witnessed how Archie and Annie had begun their relationship and all. I suppose Candy also said similar things to Albert in response to his question “What about me?” lol. 😄 After all, Albert had to admit he wasn’t close to them yet (just a friend working in a zoo) back in London.

This passage implies that Candy and Albert had talked in person about her excitement prior to writing this letter to Stear, and I find it funny that Albert told her that he would pretend to be Albert-san (the text highlighted in pink). Was it a subtle hint from him that he wished she could treat him like Albert-san again? 🙄 Of course she knew who he was, but at the same time something between them had undoubtedly changed. Anyway, regardless of what Candy said here, I suppose Albert was just as happy (he desired to or eager to participate, see the highlighted text in orange) for Archie and Annie, and thanks to him, they could get engaged and later married. ❤️

Before I end, I want to bring up the last sentence in Candy’s first letter to Albert after his important confession on Pony’s Hill.  This example shows us that sometimes it’s inevitable that the nuance will be lost. First, those who have the Japanese copy will know that this short letter is divided into three parts, separated by a blank line in between; the first part she wrote with high respect, the second part she described her shock and reactions to his confession, and the last part there is only one sentence about her inability to fall asleep that night.

なんだか今夜はとうてい眠れそうにありません。

Again, I’ve provided links to almost every term / phrase. Basically, Candy predicted she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. The grayed text negates one’s ability to do something (the verb before it), so here it negates the verb 眠れ (which means being able to sleep). Hence, the phrase can be translated as “won’t be able to fall asleep”. Note that the text (in purple) just before the verb 眠れ has a similar effect; the phrase can be translated as “by no means”, “quite impossible” or “cannot possibly”, etc. Therefore, below are my attempts to translate this short sentence:

I feel I won’t be able to fall asleep tonight.
By no means will I be able to fall asleep tonight.
It’s utterly impossible for me to fall asleep tonight.

Anyway, you get the idea. Candy’s strong emphasis about having the least likelihood to sleep that night is somewhat lost in English, but direct translation will make it sound very odd in English, don’t you think? 😉

Thank you for reading. I know it’s taken me a long time to update this time, but many thanks for your patience and understanding. I’ll start working on Candy’s first reply to Albert’s letter in the epilogue after this. If you have any question about the translations or any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Looking forward to hearing from you! 🙂