K (karanguni) wrote in 1931, @ 2008-04-18 02:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | translations |
Some minor translations
HI. I come with some (not very good) translations from the Chinese volumes of Baccano! -- all from the Gandor-centric fourth volume. It's mostly just snippets, but they're snippets of such sheer awesomeness that I thought I'd share with everyone.
DISCLAIMER: These are not meant to come over and on top of the amazing translation efforts going on at the Baccano! LJ community, and since it's coming in from a Chinese translation it's probably less than fully accurate. My own translation skills are shoddy at best, and I've taken some liberities in freeing up the prose. Some scenes were translated with aid from an excellent and noble RL friend of mine, who unfortunately does not float around much on the internet. If that's all right with you, read on! Also, can you say spoilers?
Luck
Scene background: Gustavo, our friendly burly stupid!man from the Runoratas, has screwed up in the most major of ways possible. Besides backstabbing the Runoratas, hiring a bunch of assassins, storming the Daily Days and pissing off the Gandors (destroying property, dealing drugs, oh, and blowing Luck's face in during a peaceful negotiation attempt), he's also gone insane and just wants to kill everyone. This scene is set during the major shootout of the book; everyone is in the same building and pretty much fighting everyone else. Here, Luck intervenes before Gustavo can break little Eve Genoard into a million pieces.
Eve'd curled in on herself out of sheer terror. She wanted to run, but it was as though her legs were frozen stiff. Seeing her like that, Gustavo sneered and said, 'Oh, looks like you're not a monster like those Gandors. I guess I can relax, then.'
Though it'd be nice to just blow your head off, I think that would be going a bit too easy on you.
I want to kill you in front of the members of the Gandor family.
Actually, I don't care – I just want to kill everyone here. I've had enough of the bastards who plotted against me; I want them all dead, I want those useless underlings of mine dead, I want that bastard Begg dead, I even want Baltoro Runorata dead.
In order to prevent her from running away, Gustavo raised his foot in preparation to break the bones of Eve's leg.
'That was for the speakeasies you took out.'
An attack came as suddenly as that proclamation. Gustavo felt something slam into the back of his head, and it caused his entire body to shake.
'And that was for the bookies.' A second attack followed; it felt like he was being hit with some blunt object. Worse than the intense pain was the feeling as though he was being beaten by a hot metal rod. The handgun dropped from his nerveless fingers. It went off as it clattered down onto the floor; the bullet went through Gustavo's hand. Through the searing pain, he felt the flesh of his hand rip and come exposed. 'That was for the horse races.'
Gustavo lurched towards the source of the sound, which made him an easy target for his attacker. The man swung a fist at him, and then that cruel blunt instrument came at Gustavo again. It turned out to be a wooden chair. His face was being beaten in by it, and Gustavo knew that his cheekbones had been shattered. He couldn't control any part of his upper body, and could only rely on his lower half to keep him standing. The chair came at his face and eye sockets again and again. 'That was for Nicholas, whom you injured.'
Luck made one final attack on Gustavo, who'd been beaten practically onto the floor. Grasping the leg of the chair with two hands and raising it above his head, Luck brought it slamming down onto the almost senseless Gustavo. 'Go to hell. That one was for me.'
Keith and Claire
Background: Wow, where to even start. Uh. Gustavo hired a lot of assassins to help him out. Mexican Girl and Old Man are two of them, and the are particularly good ones. Everyone wants a piece of Claire, because Vino is the most amazing assassin in the universe, or something. They try to pull rank on him, though -- and Claire proceeds to stomp all over them. Until Keith, well, read it for yourself.
"Don't you understand, kid, that to be a killer, you need pride an--"
Upon hearing the old man's reply, Vino burst out laughing. "Hahahahahahahaha! That's bizarre! You're one intriguing old gramps, you know that?"
"What are you finding so funny?" The old man's face darkened as he produced a knife from his shirt pocket.
Vino continued to laugh racuously. "What pride? What respect!? Killers like you and me, talking about such things? That's hilarious, I tell you!" Vino glanced at the old man and the Mexican girl, snorting in derision. The Mexican girl tried to get out of his line of sight.
Vino's eyes were burning with an manic light, as if he were on the brink of starting a war. His bright glare seemed capable of drawing not only the darkness, but even the souls of men into it, as if he were some malevolent demonic entity.
"From the moment you took on murder as your occupation, you forsook pride! Wake up, you fool! Do you believe that society will fear you just because you kill one man? Do you believe that killing will earn you an award? I am the strongest amongst us. So you believe that killing "Vino" will raise your reputation, don't you? But it's more than just that, isn't it! You even think betraying an employer will tarnish that reputation! Wake up! This sort of thing never existed in the first place. A killer is a killer. A killer who believes in pride and respect does not deserve to exist."
On hearing from the mouth of the strongest assassin words that denied the whole idea of what an assassin should be, the old man and the Mexican girl were too stunned to reply.
"If you think that what I've just said is rubbish and you don't want to believe it -- that's fine with me. Then from this point on, we're enemies. If you think I'm wrong, prove it with your strength. Prove your 'pride'. A loser is a loser after all! Think about it!"
The battle came to an sudden, abrupt end.
Pointed directly at Vino's skull was a black handgun. Feeling the barrel resting against his skull, Vino calmly acknowledged its wielder: "Keith."
From behind him came some brotherly advice: "Don't taunt the living."
In response to Keith's words, the world's most fearsome killer merely closed his eyes and sighed. "Completely unlike you, trash like us..."
"...never ever change." Keith chose his words carefully, not giving Vino an opportunity to retort. "We are all the same -- evil men."
Vino, uncaring of the gun pointed at him, shook his head and turned around. His eyes, as he looked at Keith, no longer held the fearsome, violent quality they had before. "I know, I'm sorry. I'm just as ensnared by respect and pride, aren't I?"
And whether it was within Vino's -- Claire's --- heart, or in the tone he used, there was never a single moment where he took those words lightly.
[[Uh, apologies if some of this makes no sense whatsoever; it's so late right now that I'm about to fall asleep at my keyboard. Cookies are appreciated - leave 'em in the form of prompts in the post below! I can try and get a few more scenes out if you guys want 'em. (Anyone want stuff on Keith's wife? Why the Gandors sometimes fail at being Mafia Men? Oh, and Firo being sort of confused. But in a cute way.) But probably after some rest. xD Enjoy!]]