[aDoBJG] K 💮 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

[fallynleaf]

かしら

As I mentioned in a previous thread for this club, I’ve only seen one example of this in my wrestling translations so far!

Here it is, courtesy of Sakisama:

@fallynleaf

I have a super fun example of this from pro wrestling! There’s a wrestler in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling called 沙希様, which Mr. Haku romanizes as “Sakisama” because the 様 is just part of her name, haha. Her character is a joke that’s a bit hard to explain… She’s portrayed by a DDT wrestler named Saki Akai (the woman in my profile picture!), but Saki Akai and Sakisama are considered completely different characters in kayfabe and have separate backstories, though other wrestlers will occasionally point out that they look remarkably similar…

In any case, Sakisama is VERY elegant, and she absolutely uses extreme polite speech to add to that effect. When I first translated her over a year ago, the keigo went almost entirely over my head, haha, but I totally caught what was going on when I translated her most recent post-match comments! It’s a fun challenge trying to figure out how to convey this in English.

(This is from TJPW Grand Princess on March 18, 2023)

Hard mode: here is the video of Sakisama and Mei Saint-Michel’s post-match comments . The transcript of the Japanese is from shupro; the translations are all mine and might contain errors.
(Note: Sakisama typically spells 試合(しあい) as 試愛(しあい), which the transcriber has faithfully reproduced here, haha)

沙希様「久しぶりのここのおリングだったわけだけど、ワタクシたちおリングは久しぶりじゃないの。いつもおリングに囲まれて生活してるわけ。でも、久しぶりにここに立って、少しだけワタクシも気分がよかったわ。メイ・サンはどんな気分だった？」

Sakisama: “It has been a while since we’ve graced this ring with our presence, but you could hardly call it our return to the ring. Every day we are always surrounded by rings. But, standing here for the first time in a long time, I dare say it was somewhat pleasant. Mei-san, how did you feel?”

メイ・サン「ウィ。ワタクシ有明コロシアムとやらで、とてもうれしゅうございました。ワタクシはあとは、あとは…お台場？とやらが近いとお聞きしました」

Mei-san: “Oui. I am very pleased to be at Ariake Coliseum. And, and… Odaiba? I heard that it was very close.”

沙希様「そうよ。お台場には謎の大きな大きな球体があるそうよ。ワタクシはその中に何が入ってるか調べなきゃいけないわけ。（今回はしばらく滞在する？）ワタクシたち、まだ明日の予定も決まってないの。すべて気分なわけ。メイ・サンがお腹空いてれば試合に出ないし、お腹いっぱいだったら寝ちゃうし。気分屋さんなわけ。（フランスでは試合していた？）ワタクシたちは毎晩、お屋敷で舞踏会という…今日、お試愛をしたけどリング上で踊ってたわけ。みなさんもご覧になってたと思うけど。それがお試愛みたいなもんよ。今回、お台場より行きたいところある？」

Sakisama: “Yes, indeed. It seems that there is a mysterious large globe at Odaiba. We have to find out what is inside of it.”

(Will you sojourn here for a while this time?)

“We still have yet to decide on our schedule for tomorrow. It depends entirely on our mood. If Mei-san is hungry, she won’t participate in the match, and if she’s full, she’ll go to sleep. She’s a moody person.”

(Did you have wrestling matches in France?)

“No, but we hosted a ball at our estate every evening. Today, we had a match, but we were dancing in the ring. I think everyone was watching. A ball is like a match. Is there anywhere you want to go besides Odaiba this time?”

メイ・サン「あとは…ワタクシはなんだかあのあたりにガシーンガシーンといった巨大なロボットがあるとお聞きしました」

Mei-san: “Besides that… I heard that there was a giant robot stomping around there somewhere.”

沙希様「等身大のような予感がするけれど、それはどこかしら。ちょっとワタクシたちが調べなくちゃいけないんじゃなくって。行きましょう、メイ・サン」

Sakisama: “I have a hunch that it’s life-sized, but I wonder where it is. You’re saying we should investigate it? Let’s go, Mei-san.”

方

I have kind of a funny example of getting confused by this one recently, haha. Generally I don’t feel like I have any trouble with it, but I totally got tricked by this tweet:

今となっては見る方の感じ方でいろんな感情に陥ると思いま（ス）！

This tweet was from the producer of a wrestling photobook who was responding to a fan’s impression of a photo at the end of the book, which seemed to foreshadow the wrestlers reuniting almost three years later (the initial breakup happened almost immediately after the photobook came out).

I was totally confused by “見る方の感じ方” at first because I didn’t notice that 見る方 wasn’t that same Vます 方 pattern, so I was trying to read it as like: “way of viewing’s way of feeling” which just plain doesn’t make sense, haha. But I believe it’s 方 as in one’s side, so “viewing side”, which basically just means “the viewer”! So “見る方の感じ方” is “the viewer’s way of feeling”, or maybe “viewer’s perception” is a more natural way to translate that, haha.

I also didn’t understand at first how the meaning of 方 as described in the dictionary here could be ambiguous, but I think I puzzled it over enough after reading note 1 that I managed to figure it out .