Please blur/hide any major events in the current week’s pages (however early they occur), like so:
(that’s [spoiler]text here[/spoiler]).
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, the story, cultural things or anything else related to the book — ask! There’s no need to be shy. If it’s something you are wondering about, chances are someone else will be thankful you asked first, lots of people enjoy answering questions, you learn something new, and the thread gets more lively. It’s a win-win on all fronts!
Still reading along. I now understand your explanation last week shitsurei about colours… although it seems like it is not just mood that changes it, but also being given flowers (or did she eat them? It was a few days ago I forget).
One stumble
It took me quite a while to work out that there were I think 2 different Snorks. One maiden and one… not maiden. Is that right or did I totally misread?
Also if it helps Soggy, given I’m the only one following along we could crunch the scheduling of the last few weeks? My ability to keep up depends more on what’s happening in other parts of life than the chapters tbh. Free up the club to move onto the next book?
I’m actually way behind the club which is why I keep choosing the ‘at my own pace’ option I think we could combine the next two weeks so that chapter is all in one week, but besides that I hesitate to go beyond 25 pages a week for this club.
Edit: Oop, it’s also about time to vote for the next pick anyways! I will make an effort to catch up this week
There is スノーク and his sister スノークのおじょうさん who ムーミントロール is madly in love with.
I’m finally back on schedule with the bookclub lol. I intentionally read ahead in the beginning because I had to travel for a couple of weeks in April.
Cool thanks, I sort of couldn’t be bothered to reread but definitely only figured that out halfway through. Luckily this is not a book that is too taxing in terms of plot nuance haha.
Snork points out that the comet is right there, which makes Snorkmaiden turn green (with fear, maybe). At that moment, Moomintroll comes back with the flowers, and she laments that they no longer match her yellow complexion.
Incidentally, I checked the English translation for this scene too, and in that one, Snorkmaiden goes from pink to mauve, asks Moomintroll for bluebells, and they make ‘fruit soup’ from lemonade. In the Japanese version, she goes from yellow to green, asks Moomintroll for yellow flowers, and they make soup from ‘juice.’ There are also quite a few lines of dialogue in the English version that don’t appear in the Japanese version, so now I’m wondering whether those lines were also present in the original Finnish or if they were added by the translator (it’s quite old, from 1959) who may have put in their own flourishes.
To make things more confusing, in the 90s Japanese animated series, they call Snorkmaiden フローレン and I could never tell if it was supposed to be Floren or Fraulein.
I love that you’ve just casually pulled out a 1959 English translation so good! And v helpful. 5 literature points for soggy
Yeah I wonder if the translator found it as confusing as I did so added some clarifying lines about what colour they were before to help hammer home the point.
This is a recent edition! But it’s still the same translation, I guess there hasn’t been a new translation into English.
I compared the last scene of the chapter in both editions and I have some suspicions that the English translator was making stuff up. Lines of dialogue randomly appear, which characters said which dialogue randomly changes, instead of Snorkmaiden asking Moomin to block the comet with something she says ‘hold my paw, I’m scared,’ which she never says in the Japanese version, so on and so forth.
Oh wow, the English translation is making up things. Completely changes the scene. No holding paws in the Finnish version. Japanese seems very accurate here.
(Although Tove Jansson was a Swedish-speaking Finn and wrote the original in Swedish – Finnish is also a translation).
In fact, just a couple of pages before this, there is this passsage:
– Pelkäätkö sinä pyrstötähteä?
– En, sanoi Niiskuneiti. – Jos vain minun ei tarvitse nähdä sitä ja yritän ajatella jotain muuta.
– Are you afraid of the comet?
– No, said the Snorkmaiden. – As long as I don’t have to see it and I try to think of something else.
So she is slightly nerveous, but explicitly said she isn’t afraid as long as she can ignore it and think of something else. Then she asks him to hang something to block the comet so that she can focus on boiling the juice soup. She calms down after the blanket has been hung to block the view.
(She turned green in the Finnish version.)
Edit: the text says “mehukeitto”, but I’d say marjakeitto is more common term these days. Refers to soup made from berries: Valio vadelmakeitto - Valio. In some later book they specifically use raspberries.
Oh, thanks so much for checking!! I had my suspicions, since it’s not the first time I’ve run into an English translation that changed stuff to be more ‘appropriate’ and the 50’s seems about right for an English speaker to be thinking of the children.
Now I’m glad I have the Japanese version, but surprised no one has seemed to notice or want to retranslate it into English? Although, I guess these books aren’t as widespread in English as they are in some countries; I had never heard of Moomin until I was an adult/late teen. Still though, the changes are quite large
I guess the English translator had a bit of a trouble understanding the sudden second change in color and wanted to spice up the small bit of unease. She didn’t shiver or creep near the fire in the Finnish one; rather, the narrator describes what they see on the sky:
They looked up at the sky. It had begun to grow dark, and the evening sky was a deep red. Through the tips of the spruce trees gleamed a small red spark, resembling a star. But it was not a star. It did not twinkle or shine. It burned. Motionless, for its tail trailed behind it.
IMO beautiful passage, not something to drop at all! This highlights how ominous the sight is.
Additionally, she added a pawful of herbs to the juice soup and distributed crispbread to go with the soup. This is all just “ladled out the soup” in the English version – but then Moomintroll’s reassurance and timetable isn’t there in the Finnish one.
The scary part was earlier in the chapter, the fight against the shrubbery. (When she received the ankle ring she turned yellow from joy, hence the violet flowers…)
Maybe the English translation was based on some earlier draft?
Welcome to week 10 of ムーミン谷の彗星！
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I think we could combine the next two weeks so that chapter is all in one week, but besides that I hesitate to go beyond 25 pages a week for this club.
