Twitter in Translation - Transgender Edition
General Hirasawa Vocabulary Notes:
- あんどう蒼 = Andou Soh = a Japanese author with a good sense of observation and a wicked sense of humor. She is also very open about her life as a male-to-female transgender woman. She seems to be a friend of Mr. Hirasawa and he reviewed a book of hers on his blog. He imitates her mannerisms and emoticons on Twitter a lot and usually writes "(c) Andou Soh" afterwards. :D (Ms. Andou has her own blog here.)
- "SP-2" = Hirasawa's abbreviation of a Thai word for male-to-female transgender people.
- "New half" = a Japanese term for male-to-female transgender people, along the lines of "ladyboy" in other countries. You can find "New Half Bars" in big Japanese cities and whatnot. Not that I would know, um.
- "MTF" = Male-to-female
- "GID" = Gender Identity Disorder
- "馬の骨" = uma no hone = horse bone = person of doubtful origin, nobody = what Hirasawa calls his fans. I can't make up my mind how to best translate this, but I think I'll go with "horse bones" since he occasionally makes bone-related jokes. But whenever you see "horse bones" here, just remember that it is mildly insulting. XD
11 Oct. 2009:
昨日はあんどう蒼講師からいろいろとレクチャーを受けていたのだ。長年の胸のつかえが 取れた。公衆の面前で笑うヒラサワ。見られたらたいへん
"Yesterday I received several lectures from Ms. Andoh Soh. The pressure that had been weighing on my heart for many years is gone. A Hirasawa who smiles in public--it'd be awful if someone saw me like that."
Whatever it was that she talked to him about, it's cute to imagine him smiling. And nice to know that he has friends whose opinion he respects like that. :)
8 Nov. 2009:
失われたプラグインを求めてスタジオ内を旅している。ここには魔境がいくつもあるので危険だ。たとえば15年前のSP-2生写真アルバムとか
"I am currently traversing my studio on a quest for a lost plug-in. But this place is dangerously full of demon-infested traps. For example, there's an album full of SP-2 photos from 15 years ago."
...you are now imagining Mr. Hirasawa sitting in his messy studio, surrounded by old CDs and floppy disks, with a photo album of beautiful Thai women in his hands. And a smile on his face.
14 Dec. 2009:
海外の某フォーラムやネットショップで私は性同一性障害だと思われていると思う。それで私が抱く感覚の理由は釈然としないが、とにかく誇らしく思う.
"In certain foreign forums and online stores I think I'm thought of as having Gender Identity Disorder. That alone doesn't satisfactorily explain my feelings on the matter, but at any rate I am proud of this."
...make of this statement what you will. I'm curious about what stores and forums he's referring to, though!
8 Nov. 2009, while working on the remake of "Solid Air," he tweeted the following anecdote:
ドラムを８０年代風池袋雑居ビルの踊り場録音風にしてみた。そのビルの前で初めて私はMTFのGIDに足首をつかまれた。言っておくが「ニューハーフ」という言葉は完全に間違っているし何も意味していない。わかったか？馬の骨。
あのアルバムを作った時には、本当に池袋雑居ビル8階の階段踊り場にドラムをセットした。エレベーターのまん前だ。
エレベーターの扉が開くたびに中から出てくる人に謝っていたのは私だ。
勿論エレベーターが来るたびに録音は中断だ。あの時代はそのようにして個性的な音を作るのに苦労した。頭の悪いエンジニアとはいつもケンカだ。
それがどうだ？今じゃ似たような音はコンピューターで数回処理すれば出来てしまう。あの時代にこれが可能なら「謝り」もしなかったし、エンジニアともケンカしなくて済んだのに。
しかし、私は足首をつかまれていなかっただろう。いったい何が大事か分かったもんじゃない。
あの時足首をつかまれていなければ、「ミサイル」の「Sitthida Rakchatkul」も存在しない。ああ、目が回る。
"I tried making the drums [for 'Solid Air'] sound like they were recorded in the stairwell of a multi-tenant building in Ikebukuro in the 1980s. In front of that building was where I had my ankle grabbed by a MTF GID for the very first time. I'll tell you now, the word 'new half' is entirely incorrect and has no meaning. Got it, you horse bones?"
"Back when we made that album, we actually set up drums on the landing of the stairwell on the 8th floor of that building in Ikebukuro. Right in front of the elevator."
"I was the one who kept apologizing to everyone who came out when the elevator doors opened."
"Of course our sound recording was interrupted every time someone came out of the elevator. Back then we worked hard like that to create a unique sound. And I always got into fights with a stupid engineer."
"What's the point? Nowadays you can get that kind of sound just by processing it with the computer a few times. If that had been possible back then, I wouldn't have apologized to people and wouldn't have had to fight with the engineer."
"However, I probably would not have had my ankle grabbed. You never can tell what'll be important."
"If my ankle hadn't been grabbed then, the character Sitthida Rakchatkul in 'Missile' would not exist. Ah, it makes my head spin."
Even young Mr. Hirasawa magically attracts MTF transgender people. I believe this is a magic power at this point. This entry was originally posted at http://phonon-belt.dreamwidth.org/8954.html.
- あんどう蒼 = Andou Soh = a Japanese author with a good sense of observation and a wicked sense of humor. She is also very open about her life as a male-to-female transgender woman. She seems to be a friend of Mr. Hirasawa and he reviewed a book of hers on his blog. He imitates her mannerisms and emoticons on Twitter a lot and usually writes "(c) Andou Soh" afterwards. :D (Ms. Andou has her own blog here.)
- "SP-2" = Hirasawa's abbreviation of a Thai word for male-to-female transgender people.
- "New half" = a Japanese term for male-to-female transgender people, along the lines of "ladyboy" in other countries. You can find "New Half Bars" in big Japanese cities and whatnot. Not that I would know, um.
- "MTF" = Male-to-female
- "GID" = Gender Identity Disorder
- "馬の骨" = uma no hone = horse bone = person of doubtful origin, nobody = what Hirasawa calls his fans. I can't make up my mind how to best translate this, but I think I'll go with "horse bones" since he occasionally makes bone-related jokes. But whenever you see "horse bones" here, just remember that it is mildly insulting. XD
11 Oct. 2009:
昨日はあんどう蒼講師からいろいろとレクチャーを受けていたのだ。長年の胸のつかえが 取れた。公衆の面前で笑うヒラサワ。見られたらたいへん
"Yesterday I received several lectures from Ms. Andoh Soh. The pressure that had been weighing on my heart for many years is gone. A Hirasawa who smiles in public--it'd be awful if someone saw me like that."
Whatever it was that she talked to him about, it's cute to imagine him smiling. And nice to know that he has friends whose opinion he respects like that. :)
8 Nov. 2009:
失われたプラグインを求めてスタジオ内を旅している。ここには魔境がいくつもあるので危険だ。たとえば15年前のSP-2生写真アルバムとか
"I am currently traversing my studio on a quest for a lost plug-in. But this place is dangerously full of demon-infested traps. For example, there's an album full of SP-2 photos from 15 years ago."
...you are now imagining Mr. Hirasawa sitting in his messy studio, surrounded by old CDs and floppy disks, with a photo album of beautiful Thai women in his hands. And a smile on his face.
14 Dec. 2009:
海外の某フォーラムやネットショップで私は性同一性障害だと思われていると思う。それで私が抱く感覚の理由は釈然としないが、とにかく誇らしく思う.
"In certain foreign forums and online stores I think I'm thought of as having Gender Identity Disorder. That alone doesn't satisfactorily explain my feelings on the matter, but at any rate I am proud of this."
...make of this statement what you will. I'm curious about what stores and forums he's referring to, though!
8 Nov. 2009, while working on the remake of "Solid Air," he tweeted the following anecdote:
ドラムを８０年代風池袋雑居ビルの踊り場録音風にしてみた。そのビルの前で初めて私はMTFのGIDに足首をつかまれた。言っておくが「ニューハーフ」という言葉は完全に間違っているし何も意味していない。わかったか？馬の骨。
あのアルバムを作った時には、本当に池袋雑居ビル8階の階段踊り場にドラムをセットした。エレベーターのまん前だ。
エレベーターの扉が開くたびに中から出てくる人に謝っていたのは私だ。
勿論エレベーターが来るたびに録音は中断だ。あの時代はそのようにして個性的な音を作るのに苦労した。頭の悪いエンジニアとはいつもケンカだ。
それがどうだ？今じゃ似たような音はコンピューターで数回処理すれば出来てしまう。あの時代にこれが可能なら「謝り」もしなかったし、エンジニアともケンカしなくて済んだのに。
しかし、私は足首をつかまれていなかっただろう。いったい何が大事か分かったもんじゃない。
あの時足首をつかまれていなければ、「ミサイル」の「Sitthida Rakchatkul」も存在しない。ああ、目が回る。
"I tried making the drums [for 'Solid Air'] sound like they were recorded in the stairwell of a multi-tenant building in Ikebukuro in the 1980s. In front of that building was where I had my ankle grabbed by a MTF GID for the very first time. I'll tell you now, the word 'new half' is entirely incorrect and has no meaning. Got it, you horse bones?"
"Back when we made that album, we actually set up drums on the landing of the stairwell on the 8th floor of that building in Ikebukuro. Right in front of the elevator."
"I was the one who kept apologizing to everyone who came out when the elevator doors opened."
"Of course our sound recording was interrupted every time someone came out of the elevator. Back then we worked hard like that to create a unique sound. And I always got into fights with a stupid engineer."
"What's the point? Nowadays you can get that kind of sound just by processing it with the computer a few times. If that had been possible back then, I wouldn't have apologized to people and wouldn't have had to fight with the engineer."
"However, I probably would not have had my ankle grabbed. You never can tell what'll be important."
"If my ankle hadn't been grabbed then, the character Sitthida Rakchatkul in 'Missile' would not exist. Ah, it makes my head spin."
Even young Mr. Hirasawa magically attracts MTF transgender people. I believe this is a magic power at this point. This entry was originally posted at http://phonon-belt.dreamwidth.org/8954.html.