Welp, first translation post and down into the rabbit hole we go.
Go ahead and download the WIP translation and read along, let me know your thoughts, and share any constructive criticism in the comments below. Honestly, I'm still pondering the best workflow for translating, sharing, and receiving feedback, but until I can get that nailed down, this is how it'll work for now. I intend to figure that part out as we go.
A note on the translation file: Just for ease of viewing, sharing, and copying/pasting into a potential rom hack (maybe? anyone with that knowledge out there?), I've chosen to share the translations in an excel format. This allows me to have columns to differentiate character, scene, dialogue, and any notes or comments I have on the translation of that particular line of dialogue without things getting messy.
Anyways, to get back on topic, in the first Lahan scenes there's honestly not too much of interest since it's still quite some time before the plot really picks up. The most interesting bit of translation came in the first few sentences of the prologue exposition.
Two major things to note and potential points of contention here with some fans who grew up with the traditional English translations (I did too!):
I'm choosing to change the traditionally translated name of 'Ethos' to 'The Church' to more aptly reflect originally intended Japanese name「教会」or "kyoukai," which is a direct translation of the word church. Here it's obviously used as a proper noun for the name of the organization. As I've described in the liner notes, I do think 'Ethos' is a pretty cool name and I grew up with a recognition of this being the name. I can understand the reasoning behind changing the name to this for religious sensitivity as (intentional or not) it draws a pretty direct comparison to the Catholic Church. And I do think the name 'Ethos' in particular is a very thoughtful localization given the modern meaning of the word, its Aristotelian origins, and its usage in the context of the game as the name of a pseudo-religious organization. But to me, in order to fit the elaborate religious undertones and emphasize their significance, 'The Church' seems like a more impactful way to convey the complex relationships between all the religious imagery. Come at me bro.
Here's another big one that I can imagine will affect several other aspects of the story. The Japanese word used for gears in colloquial dialogue (which to be fair is mostly how it is used) is ギア, or "gia." Makes sense, right? And "gear" is how I will continue to translate it when used in most contexts. However, in the prologue here, and several other expository scenes down the line (looking at you disc 2), the Japanese designates normal gears as ギア・アーサー or "gia-ahsah" in romaji and "gear-asah" in the English transliteration. This one confused me for a while during my playthrough until I did a little research. This suffix アーサー, "-asah," is referring to the word for 'to do' or 'to make' in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. In Biblical Hebrew, -asah implies a process of creation, or making something out of existing materials under God's direction. For the translation, I have added a simple line to reconcile the discrepancy between sometimes using "gear-asah" and the normal "gears" in colloquial speech. This hopefully remains consistent with the subtext, because conversely, the suffix "-bara" is used to denote an instantaneous and supernatural creation out of nothing by God's direct hand. This will later be used in the Japanese to refer to what the original English translation calls Omnigears or ギア・バーラー, or "gia-bahrah" in romaji, and "gear-bara" in the English transliteration. Not to get ahead of myself, but for this translation I've chosen to translate ギア・バーラー "gia-bara," the Omnigears, as 'Genesis Gears.' I think this is much more in line with the religious subtext. The word genesis not only means "origin, source, or beginning" but it is also a book in the Old Testament of the Bible that depicts the creation of the universe. We know that in the Xenogears universe, these 'Genesis Gears' are awakened when a gear (or gear-asah) makes contact with one of the 12 Anima Relics. Given that the Anima Relics are a kind of emulator of the Zohar (it's never really explained in easily understandable detail), and the Zohar generates an infinite energy that powers Deus and the rest of the universe essentially, we can make an obvious correlation between these 'Genesis Gears' and the game's equilavent to God, the Zohar/Wave Existence. Essentially, these 'Genesis Gears' are in a way the original gears from which all other gear technology is descended from. Now I'm not a theologian, but this is what I gathered from the research I did online while playing the game. In this first chapter of translation, this was by far the most research intensive and stressful piece to translate given how much subtext and connectivity is in this one word. It's hard to explain the reasoning behind this one word's translation without detailing the entire web of religious symbolism. Does your head hurt yet?
The rest of the translation was mostly uneventful given how we're still in the very early stages of the plot. Some minor adjustments made here and there to the interactions between the characters to make things sound more natural. A lot of the lines in the original sound a bit robotic or unnatural, so just wanted to adjust slightly to sound like a human being would actually say them, while still staying consistent with each character's personality. The Japanese name for Citan is actually シタン, "Shitan," but I'm not calling him that for obvious reasons...Obvious shitty reasons...
Also, I'm choosing to keep Fei's nickname for him as "Doc" where the Japanese has him calling him 先生, sensei, which is of course the word for "teacher" or "master," but it's also used to refer to doctors and scientists, etc.
The rest we know. Fei and Doc listen to some old tunes, Grahf attacks, people die, Fei goes apeshit, even more people die, Fei wakes up to everyone hating him and gets the hell outta dodge. On to Blackmoon Forest!
Let me know what you think of part 1. More to come!
