| [ ComicsAnim ] in KIDS 글 쓴 이(By): typhoon (♥한윤수♥() 날 짜 (Date): 1996년05월05일(일) 14시27분44초 KST 제 목(Title): 루미꼬 다까하시 의 만화제목 정하기 http://anime.berkeley.edu/Anime/MI/DOCS/rumiko.txt 에서 발췌: What's In a Name? _Urusei Yatsura_ is a complex Japanese pun that is probably worth explaining, since Takahashi is tremendously fond of puns, and liberally sprinkles her work with them (as do most Japanese writers -- puns are a linchpin of Japanese humor). Japanese is a wonderful language to pun in, since the characters have pictorial meanings in addition to their readings. In the case of "Urusei Yatsura," the pun works like this: "urusai," meaning "noisy," or "shut up," is usually written phonetically in the hiragana character set. Takahashi substitutes the kanji (pictographic character) "sei," meaning "star or planet." This character is used when naming planets -- e.g., Mars is called "Kasei" in Japanese (the "ka" meaning "fire"). "Yatsura" is a somewhat low-class term meaning "rabble" or perhaps "group of obnoxious people." So the first level meaning is simply "Planet Uru Rogues." Layering on the obvious "urusai" implication, the second level meaning is more like "Those Annoying/Obnoxious Aliens from Planet Uru." All of these meanings are more immediately perceived by the Japanese when they read the title -- alas, we can only feel a fraction of that impact. But it does highlight the difficulties faced by translators of Takahashi's works -- and Japanese comics in general. Takahashi has always taken great delight in concocting multilevel puns for her character's names. The name of Shinobu, Ataru's long-suffering girl-friend in _Urusei Yatsura_, means "to endure." Cherry, the doomsaying Buddhist monk, has one of Takahashi's best pun-names. The Japanese word for "cherry" is "sakuranbo." However, using different kanji, but keeping the same homophonic reading for the word gives the meaning of "deranged monk." Takahashi caps this by having Cherry insist that he be called "Cherry," in English. _Maison Ikkoku_ also has some brilliantly clever names. Everyone living in the apartment house has a name which begins with the number of their room -- for example, Godai lives in room #5, and "go" means "five." But more than that, many of the names are that of train stations in Tokyo ... and further, the area surrounding the station often corresponds to the character of the person. The red-headed bombshell bar hostess in room #6 is Akemi Roppongi -- the first character of her name means "six," and Roppongi is an area of Tokyo notorious for its expensive hostess bars. Yotsuya, the extremely strange fellow in room #4, gains his name not only from the number four that begins it, but the Yotsuya train station, and the mysterious Yotsuya of folkyore in Japan. Takahashi has continued this trend in her latest work, _Ranma 1/2_, and show no sign of becoming less inventive -- in fact, one character (Shan Pu) has a name that involves a three-level pun in English, Japanese, and Chinese! A translator's nightmare .... *샴푸(Shan Pu)는 물론 머리감는 shampoo겠죠? 얘를 쫓는 이는 무쓰이고. 그런데, 일본말과 중국어로는 뭐가 된다는 것인가요? 아시는분?* *추가로 1호실에 사는 술잘먹는 아줌마는 'ICHINOSE Hanae', Ichi는 1. -- -. .-. .-. .-. .-. .- | Yoonsoo Hahn (한 윤 수) ||X|||\ /|||X|||\ /|||X|| | Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST |/ \|||X|||/ \|||X|||/ \| | (EMAIL) yshan@sorak.kaist.ac.kr (T) 042-869-5261 ' `-' `-' `-' `-' ` | http://bioneer.kaist.ac.kr/~yshan (P) 015-427-6466 |