Well, cannot find my Japanese-English dictionary, and went to see what Babel fish would do with what I wanted. A Chinese translation would be acceptable, too
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I have two things that would be handy. This first scene in this Nuala short piece requires a Reader of Time or a Time Reader. They are people with a touch of the psychic who may have shamanic training, or may be more oracular (cards, coins, runes, palms.) People think they tell the future, but the readers believe they read the present -- by looking at things in ways others do not. This could be in Japanese or Chinese, because this future colony/government is Asian and the readers embrace both languages, just as they use whatever works for them personally for divination.
The other thing it would be handy to start thinking about is a phrase that means essentially "Walking Dragon" or "the Walking Dragon." This is for an urban fantasy. The phrase could be easily 300 years old, and could come from either community, as the dragon has lived among the Japanese (500-400 years ago) and more recently floating through some Chinese/Asian communities.
He has mostly hidden away from Asian communities, but they are aware that he exists, as a myth that might have teeth.
Babel fish used to translate pages for me into English -- and I could see the metaphor that is Japanese, written in English. Now it shows me tiles. *Sigh.*
I wanted to tidy these stories up before showing them to anyone who spoke the languages. May have to use minimal Asian language in the stories. Better none than wrong.
Huh. So I don't thinking translating it literally as “reader" is going to be the right idiom. Though for a future piece I guess it could be, as there's likely to be some idiomatic cross fertilization. A literal translation could be something like 时念 (shi nian - though nian has a sense of reading something outloud, or perhaps studying that thing). But something like "shi cai" (expert of time) might be a little closer to what you're aiming for. Cai is used in other contexts to denote expertise in specific magical arts (like 鬼才which is sometimes translated as wizard, but I'd call demonologist - or perhaps necromancer. Gui are ghosts or demons.) I'd definitely lean this way. (And amusingly, you could translate it as "Time Master" - though in terms of conventional translations you'd be stretching the point, as there are several other Chinese terms that are better translated as Master.)
There's a lot of room for traditional honorifics in here, too, it occurs to me.
For the walking dragon - what part of walking are you trying to get across? 走龙 (zou long) literally means walking dragon, but I kind of wonder if 步龙 （bu long) stepping dragon might better convey the sense that we're talking about a dragon that is *walking on the ground*. (I'm not sure of that. Zou sounds a little less specific to me, whereas bu has this really stepping with your feet feel to it... but I might be over interpreting there.)
Oh, and just to confuse things, IIRC, in really old usage, zou meant run.
(BTW, all characters that have more than one version are here put in their jiantizi - simplified - version. Which is kind of lame, but it's how I have my computer set up right now. My old conversion tool let me flip between them easily, haven't figured out to replicate that, and I'm more likely to be writing letters in jianti.)
Well, the time readers are reading -- stones, coins, cards, etc. -- occasionally they get flashes of something, but they like to confirm it with a physical tool, unless it's really overwhelming and they're not sure they will get a shot at reporting the vision if they don't move fast. (As in space traders passing through the tavern for that night only, for example.) I could see a case for Shi Cai or Shi Nian. And honorifics definitely might play in here, if only young men showing courtesy to an elderly woman. They chose her table because they actually think she predicts the future.
Occasionally she "sees" the future. She reads the present in ways others do not.
I know a bit about Japanese honorifics, from anime. Chinese, not so much.
At the risk of giving too much away (nobody is paying attention to us, are they?!) in my contemporary fantasy I have a wizard who is over 500 years old. He has no idea why he is still alive, because he was born of dragons. At the point of what was considered maturity for humans (if he wasn't going to change, since most humans didn't live past 30, 15 was considered adult) his people would force him to shift or die. But he was precocious for magic, and managed to get away, ending up on coastal Japan.
He lived there 100 years, in various disguises, learning magic, and trying to figure out why he was still alive. It was believed that the changing of form was what slowed aging. Without that shift, he should be dead.
Finally his children were grown and had children, his warlord was dead, his wives were dead, and it was time to move on. Now that he knew there were other places to go, he kept moving across the sea. So -- he spent 400 years running from the Chinese dragons, occasionally injuring or crippling the ones who came after him to kill him, learning magic and trying to find his wings. Then something happened that caused the dragons to stop going after him.
So -- he walks because he cannot fly. At some points he has been on the run. But he has become a very dangerous man. "The Walking Dragon" or Lord Dragon is said in fear and respect, not contemptuously. He has very scary weather magic, among other things.
Some idiots occasionally try to kill him, but most people stay out of his way.
The other thing it would be handy to start thinking about is a phrase that means essentially "Walking Dragon" or "the Walking Dragon." This is for an urban fantasy. The phrase could be easily 300 years old, and could come from either community, as the dragon has lived among the Japanese (500-400 years ago) and more recently floating through some Chinese/Asian communities.
He has mostly hidden away from Asian communities, but they are aware that he exists, as a myth that might have teeth.
Babel fish used to translate pages for me into English -- and I could see the metaphor that is Japanese, written in English. Now it shows me tiles. *Sigh.*
I wanted to tidy these stories up before showing them to anyone who spoke the languages. May have to use minimal Asian language in the stories. Better none than wrong.
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There's a lot of room for traditional honorifics in here, too, it occurs to me.
For the walking dragon - what part of walking are you trying to get across? 走龙 (zou long) literally means walking dragon, but I kind of wonder if 步龙 （bu long) stepping dragon might better convey the sense that we're talking about a dragon that is *walking on the ground*. (I'm not sure of that. Zou sounds a little less specific to me, whereas bu has this really stepping with your feet feel to it... but I might be over interpreting there.)
Oh, and just to confuse things, IIRC, in really old usage, zou meant run.
(BTW, all characters that have more than one version are here put in their jiantizi - simplified - version. Which is kind of lame, but it's how I have my computer set up right now. My old conversion tool let me flip between them easily, haven't figured out to replicate that, and I'm more likely to be writing letters in jianti.)
Reply
Occasionally she "sees" the future. She reads the present in ways others do not.
I know a bit about Japanese honorifics, from anime. Chinese, not so much.
At the risk of giving too much away (nobody is paying attention to us, are they?!) in my contemporary fantasy I have a wizard who is over 500 years old. He has no idea why he is still alive, because he was born of dragons. At the point of what was considered maturity for humans (if he wasn't going to change, since most humans didn't live past 30, 15 was considered adult) his people would force him to shift or die. But he was precocious for magic, and managed to get away, ending up on coastal Japan.
He lived there 100 years, in various disguises, learning magic, and trying to figure out why he was still alive. It was believed that the changing of form was what slowed aging. Without that shift, he should be dead.
Finally his children were grown and had children, his warlord was dead, his wives were dead, and it was time to move on. Now that he knew there were other places to go, he kept moving across the sea. So -- he spent 400 years running from the Chinese dragons, occasionally injuring or crippling the ones who came after him to kill him, learning magic and trying to find his wings. Then something happened that caused the dragons to stop going after him.
So -- he walks because he cannot fly. At some points he has been on the run. But he has become a very dangerous man. "The Walking Dragon" or Lord Dragon is said in fear and respect, not contemptuously. He has very scary weather magic, among other things.
Some idiots occasionally try to kill him, but most people stay out of his way.
Reply
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