Preface: I am still very new to Japanese, but I practice reading by trying to translate a couple pages out of a manga a day and then check my understanding by looking up an english translation.
When I translated the two boxes ~が I interpreted it as just “Love” “Encounters” kind of like these thoughts are just popping into her head with the が indicating it to be the topic of her thought/ adding emphasis or that maybe she was beginning to think a sentence but the next one popped into her head interrupting. However, the translation I found online says “I will meet someone” “and fall in love” I know there is a lot in Japanese that can just be implied, but I feel like this just isn’t a correct translation or that they added stuff to make it more similar to how someone would write in English? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Does anything follow this in the next panel/page? The thing is, there’s an unstated verb or adjective or something here. Maybe the translator just filled in the rest because leaving it out in English is less common.
Your reading is right, in the sense that "出会いが 恋が” isn’t a complete sentence or anything like that.
To clarify though, what makes it tricky to translate is that here, I get the impression that she’s so overcome that she’s starting a thought and sort of piling more and more on as she thinks of them. (but it’s still the start of a full thought). Like, this could lead directly into the rest of her sentence in a caption in the next panel.
Whereas in English, “Meeting someone!” “love!” would be more direct, but wouldn’t have that same effect, or it would be more awkward… since she’s not exactly declaring general themes in the same way, if that makes sense. and depending on if the sentence does continue, especially, it’ll vary a lot what the best alternative would be in English.
So there’s going to be concessions one way or another to try to make something accurate that gives the effect they’re going for.
Depending on your source for the translation, I would be inclined to trust it more or less.
If it’s an official translation, for example, the meaning is more likely to be correct but the phrasing punched up.
If it’s a fan translation, the phrasing might be more faithful but mistakes more common. (roughly)
(so it’s hard to evaluate exactly what the individual translator was thinking without full context)
You’ve got to take the previous boxes into consideration as well, these don’t stand on their own. In this case,
共学なら
きっと
恋が
出会いが…
(Did a reverse image search and found this on Amazon, for those that want to check themselves. This part is in the beginning and is in the free sample)
In the next page she gets interrupted by running into someone so it only says ごめん. I can post the full page though essentially she just started her first day at a co-ed school so she’s thinking about the possibility of a boyfriend.
Okay yeah I get what you’re saying I think it is kind of like an interruption and then she does get fully interrupted on the next page by a collision. What I’m referencing is a fan translation as this doesn’t have an official english translation yet. I kind off see it as a racing mind or intrusive thoughts since she’s so excited about the possibility of romance?
Ah yeah, so this is a good illustration of how sentences cut off in the middle are tricky to translate, and how you can’t guarantee that each panel is going to line up exactly!
This makes it clearer that the full thought is something like “if I go to co-ed school, I’ll… I’ll meet boys!! I’ll… fall in love!!!”
In Japanese there isn’t much left cut off, it would probably just be… ある I guess or something similar like that.
With English since the word order and structure is so different it would be hard to convey the concepts and also that she’s excited that they’ll happen to her, while still having the cut-off at the end work.
The translation you mentioned at the top accurately (but sort of blandly imo) solves the problem just by dropping the implied part and sense of being cut off / not wording the thought fully.
to sum up - the thought runs across all captions on the page, and by the text if 共学 happens, then きっと (surely) 出会い and 恋 will happen (to her). So the translation isn’t wrong it just loses some flavor, I’d say.
(P.S. I’m injecting “I” in the above a lot since it’s natural in English and by her reaction she’s probably thinking about the prospect of it happening to her, but to be clear, just it happening in general would be a fine interpretation too)
Okay I think I get what you’re saying! It’s kind of a conditional phrase that gets a little interrupted. Also yes I interpreted it as “I” since it lines up with the tone and previous page. I think since the translation didn’t incorporate the sense of being cut off I think it threw me off since I wasn’t sure if I was missing something grammatically or if noun~が on it’s own was some kind of grammar thing I hadn’t learned yet. Thanks so much for your help!
I agree with Rodan here–this is a good example of how context informs subjects, and how nuance can get lost in translation. In English you can sort of leave it ambiguous and have her be thinking about the subjects in general (“If I go to a co-ed school, it’s guaranteed. Meeting someone…falling in love…”), or about herself specifically. In English the run-on thought isn’t as clearly unfinished after ‘love’, so it kind of feels like to make that clear you’d either have to remove information or add it to make it clear it’s cut off (for example, either “meeting someone, falling in–” or “meeting someone, and falling in love, and–”). There are probably other options too, of course!
To sum up, I don’t think you got anything wrong here! A lot of translations reword things either to have them sound more natural or to try to clarify the tone they’re going for, and that’s definitely made me go “wait, am I missing something important here?” in the past, but as long as you’re getting the general concepts and understanding as you go I don’t think you have to worry.
Thanks for your reply I totally agree. I’m glad that my overall understanding was okay and it was more of a nuance in how to translate. Since I’m using this kind of reading to supplement grammar I think I get too in my head if things don’t match up since I worry it might just be me totally not knowing a grammar point. I also really like your translation “If I go to a co-ed school, it’s guaranteed. Meeting someone… falling in love…” I think that’s how I probably interpret it!
One tricky thing that slowly gets better with practice also, is just getting used to the flow of manga captions!
The ones here, for example, flow together more naturally than it might seem when trying to pick apart the meaning compared to English, since thoughts often run across multiple captions like this, and particles are natural break points for those beats.
Reading as a beginner, the rhythm is a lot more stop-and-go than it would be for a native reader since you have to pick things apart more, which can sometimes trick you by forgetting the thing you picked apart a few captions ago that’s still relevant!
Anyway, seems to me like you’re getting some good practice in! Good luck!
Honestly, I think that’s a really good point that I’ll keep in mind in the future! I think that is part of the reason I got confused since I was viewing stuff more isolated instead of a continuing thought. I’m so used to English manga kind of finishing a thought in each caption that I’m not used to the kind of flow that you’re describing. Thanks again for all your help I really appreciate it!
I would read 出会いが first because it’s overlapping the first part of the visible area, the upper-right close-up. It also just makes sense to think about an encounter before you think about love.
Yeah I think that translation is really good it’s similar to how @Notebooked translated it. As for the right node raising maybe? I’m not familiar with it, but maybe the character ----> could fit in for 町 since she’s thinking of herself meeting someone and falling in love and ある could be implied. I could also see it as being more separated and just having the verb being implied twice kind of like how we discussed it being two thoughts kind of starting and being interrupted/ trailing off. I’m not sure if the right node raising totally fits, but I think the concept may be similar and would kind of get to a similar result to some of the translations mentioned in the thread?
I confess I’m not really at the “intensely analyzing the structure” stage myself (I’ve been reading a lot more than I’ve grammared lately, so it’s mostly absorbed intuition and guesses for a lot of stuff…)
But I pretty much agree with @bearytost - not familiar with the structure so maybe! but leaning slightly against it. (and ultimately not thinking the distinction matters too much since we know the meaning either way)
I think my best argument for it to not be right-node raising as that comment is describing is… it’s only one node!
Like, I think the same thing is happening! 出会い and 恋 are coordinating and both occupying the same place in the sentence… it’s just a lot more simple because it’s not like, 私の出会い and 彼の恋, or whatever, it’s just 出会い and 恋. And I think that more complicated version is what the post is describing - when there’s a second part to it that, what happens then.
If that makes sense anyway!
Reading it again, I think I misunderstood it, sorry! So I retract my attempt at guessing and will leave it at “I dunno!” haha. In any case, it’s definitely less complicated and easier to understand than the example sentence they used.
(cool grammar form though! I didn’t know about it)
(and reading through it again, now I’m actually leaning towards it indeed being an example… but anyway, neat! and I have no idea!)
since I worry it might just be me totally not knowing a grammar point. I also really like your translation “If I go to a co-ed school, it’s guaranteed. Meeting someone… falling in love…” I think that’s how I probably interpret it!