鋼の錬金術師 1 🦾 (IMC) - Week 4

Japanese Language Book Clubs
21

I’m glad I’m not the only one having a lot of trouble with this chapter!

My (slightly long) answer

I also had a lot of trouble with that panel so I turned to Deepl. The Deepl translation is more along the lines of (paraphrasing a bit) “While X are shirking the duty to pay taxes, X only keep claiming rights.” So Deepl is keeping the subject X the same in both parts of the sentence, which is usually how Japanese sentences work, I think.

Deepl used “you” as the subject for me, but that’s probably because it doesn’t know the context. I think the subject should logically be “they” here so that it becomes they dodge their duty + they assert rights, instead of they dodge their duty + you have a claim.

I think Ed is going along with the sentiments of the 中尉 here about how the miners are not paying their taxes but still think that have all kinds of rights regardless. That is why the 中尉 is agreeing so profusely in the next panel.

A panel that I’m still having trouble with is on page 126:

Panel and my question

IMG_0027
IMG_00271275×390 86 KB

The best I could come up with for this panel was (rough translation):

(right side): Even if I were to give you money here, it would immediately be taken away as taxes.

(left side): If it were used for the preservation of that place of yours for a temporary reprieve, こっち => I?, も also, たまったもんじゃねー => cannot tolerate that?

Edit: ah, a その場しのぎ is something like: a stop-gap measure, a band-aid. Still not sure about the sentence as a whole, though.

My translation for the right side seems okay (but I’m not even 100% sure about that one), but the left-hand side I’m really not sure about… Any insights would be appreciated!

2 Likes
22
the miner/tax thing

Yeah I had to use ChatGPT to help me with this one but I reached the same interpretation, he’s basically buttering the official to make him think he’s sympathetic by agreeing with him. “Pesky miners not paying taxes and still expecting that they should receive your help!”

その場しのぎ tentative breakdown and translation

I think the right-side is indeed what you said, for the left side:

  • あなたらのその場しのぎに: “your stop-gap measure”, “your temporary solution” or something like that
  • 使われちゃ: being used as
  • こっちもたまった: “myself endure”
  • もんじゃねー: no reason

So I understand it as something like “and you’re not entitled to using me as your stopgap measure” or something like that, basically rejecting that he should be expected to help them even if he could.

3 Likes