
                                   Two notes
                                     on the
                                  translation
                                       of
                                RUDORA NO HIHOU


                                  - Haeleth -


CONTENTS:

1. Introduction
2. Summary of conclusions
3. Detailed arguments
   3.1 ɥ
      a. Transliteration of ɥ
      b. Translation of the title
   3.2 
      a. Meaning of ; contrast with ˡ
      b. Difficulty of translation
      c. A tentative solution
   References
   Contact details
   Copyright notice

================================================================================
1   INTRODUCTION

When the old Square Translations "Rudra" project was adopted by J2E, I noted
that they seemed also to have adopted several of the problems with this project:
one unwarranted normalisation, and one simple translation error.  
While neither would have prevented the project from producing excellent results,
it seemed to me that any improvement, however small, was worthwhile.

This document was written to draw attention to these issues, and with the
intention of contributing solutions, rather than simply criticising.  The debate
has moved on, and the document remains available only for interest value - for
Rudra no Hihou is certainly an interesting game.

N.B. Japanese text in this document is in EUC format.  Romaji is given only in a 
few cases, such as in direct quotations.

================================================================================
2   SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

(The translations suggested here are in the public domain.  See copyright notice 
for details.)

- The title of the game should be translated "Treasure of the Rudras".

-  should not be rendered "magic".  A tentative translation, "charm[s]", is
  proposed, or (in certain contexts) "incantation"; for the dependent compounds 
   and , "enchanter" and "Mountain of Charms" are suggested.  For a
  full discussion refer to 3.2c.iii.

{NB. In response to this latter conclusion, Zatos proposed as an alternative
 "mantra", which, as he pointed out, is a pretty good synonym for "kotodama",
 but without the weak modern connotations of "charm".  This strikes me as quite
 convincing.  In my argument below, I claimed that a proper translation ought
 not to suggest exotic Eastern religion, but that claim is debatable.}

================================================================================
3   DETAILED ARGUMENTS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3.1 ɥ (Rudora no Hihou)

 (a) Transliteration of ɥ

i. ɥ is usually transliterated "Rudra".  In previous discussions I have 
held the position, based on phonological evidence, that "Rudora" would be more 
accurate; this view, however, was based on a mistaken idea that the word was 
unique to the game, and that therefore the Japanese pronunciation was 
authoritative.

ii. It was brought to my attention, by several respondants to a post on the
Whirlpool in which I presented that view, that Rudra is a term from Hindu 
mythology.  I have checked this fact in various sources, and can confirm it; I
shall say more on this below, but for now it is sufficient to observe that this
is obviously the word intended, and therefore the correct transliteration.

iii. It is the usual practice, when speaking of Japanese games, to use foreign
forms instead of their kana equivalents: it would look very strange to refer to
"Bishoujo senshi seeraa muun", instead of "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon".  I will
concede, therefore (in a startling retraction of a firm opinion) that it is 
reasonable to refer to the game as "Rudra no hihou".

 (b) Translation of the title

i. The title as a whole is generally rendered "Rudra's [secret] treasure".
While this is an accurate translation taken out of context, it will not do in
the context of the game.  "Rudra's treasure" implies a character called Rudra.
This is incorrect, as I shall demonstrate.

ii. In as much as anything can be said for certain about a religion so ancient,
vast, and varied as Hinduism, Rudra (Sanskrit, possibly = "Thunderer") seems to
have been the name of a god of storms and destruction; he had a number of 
offspring, called Rudras after him.  One of Rudra's other names was Siva, "the
auspicious one", and eventually this was reversed; so that the modern Hindu god 
is called Siva, though the epithet Rudra can be used of him in his aspect of the 
destroyer.  The Rudras, however, remain, as a group of 11 beings (33 in some
traditions), occasionally identified as aspects of Siva.

iii. "Rudra", within the game, is drawn from this latter concept of the Rudras,
not from the god himself.  The Rudras of the game are "destroyer-gods", one of 
which appears every 4000 years to overthrow the dominant species.  They have
their own, individual names - Rudra is the name of their type.

iv. It is clear, therefore, that the translation must not imply a personal name.
While "Rudra's" of a plural noun is possible, it is deceptive in this case since
it is not obvious that "Rudra" is plural; moreover, it is usual, when referring
to the Hindu beings, to use the inflected plural "Rudras".  There are several 
other possible translations which do not have this ambiguity:

 - "Rudras' treasure", on the analogy of "Pirates' treasure"; but this implies
that there are many "Rudras", all of which commonly own treasure, and that no
specific example is meant.  Since there are only four or five, it will not do.

 - "The Rudras' treasure" is more satisfactory, since it correctly implies that
"the Rudras" are a small group, and identifies a specific treasure.

 - "The treasure of the Rudras" is substantially the same, but the word order is
more elegant.

v. The last of these is preferable.  It may be concluded that ɥ 
should be translated "Treasure of the Rudras".  (The first "the", superfluous 
in a title, should obviously be retained if the phrase is encountered in
dialogue.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3.2  (Kotodama)

 (a) Meaning of ; contrast with ˡ

i. This is the game's (very innovative) 'magic system'.  As such one might think
that "magic" would be the best translation, being a familiar term.

ii. However, "magic" is used elsewhere - in most RPGs, in fact, and notably the
Final Fantasies - as a translation of ˡ.  Now, there is clearly a huge
difference between ˡ and  - one doesn't even need to know kanji to see
that much.  ˡ, in an RPG context, definitely 'means' magic in the usual RPG
sense.  The word used in Rudora is slightly different.

iii. The origin of the term  is significant.  First I must make mention of
the 'name list' which used to be on the 'Rudra' page at Square Translations' old
site, which listed and glossed the many mythological allusions in the game.
It was certainly interesting reading, if somewhat inaccurate in places (for
example, the city destroyed along with Sodom was listed as "Gomora").  If I
recall correctly, its entry for  translated the term "word essence" and
commented that it was 'from Jewish sources'.

Raffaele Traini, the author of the list, has contacted me to defend these.  The
translation "word essence", which I described rather unfairly as "utterly
incorrect", is in fact a reasonable translation of the compound out of context,
and was apparently taken from the WIP translation.  Regarding the Jewish link,
Raffaele says,
  'in the Jewish religion, exists the "branch" of the Kabbalah.
According to Kabbalists, God created the world with His Word, and therefore
they believe that word has a special value. The Kabbalist, through meditation
and linking the alphabet letters, claims to be able to achieve "magical
formulas" (to say it in a simple way); I think that it's VERY close to Rudra's
Kodotama, in this way.'
  I can but agree that this is strikingly similar to the kotodama system.

iv. , 'Tama', the second half of this compound, is usually translated 'soul,
spirit', but this is deceptive.  Its meaning is by no means equivalent to the
Western concept of the soul; rather it is more a power or consciousness found in
all things, closer to 'mana' in South Pacific tradition.   is, as the word
suggests, a specific instance of : to quote Plutschow, "Words and language
could engender their own _tama_, when used in a ... symbolic context" (156).  He
explains, "_Kotodama_ is associated primarily with ritual efforts to control a
potentially hostile environment" (157).  These "symbolic contexts" were often
short poems, a point which will be important later.  The concept was an
essential part of the folk-religion: for example, to reveal one's true name was
to give him to whom it was revealed its , that is, to give him control over
oneself.  (This is why Japanese given names are so notoriously hard to read:
their pronunciation used to be taboo.)

v. The working of the system in the game (as I understand it) is thus quite
appropriate: the player creates new  by spelling their names out in kana.
The effect of each depends entirely on its name - it is the word itself that
creates the power.

vi. This is completely different from most RPG 'magic systems'.  Compare some
representative examples - in FF6, the power comes from , 'phantom beasts'; 
in Dark Law, it comes from the combination of , 'magic stones'; in both
these cases, the result is called ˡ.  (In many games the origin of the power
is not made clear.  Other cases where it is are FFs 5, 7, and 8 [crystals,
materia, GF]; ToP, SD2&3 [mana from Yggdrasil or the Mana Tree]; Terranigma 
[Magirock].)

 (b) Difficulty of translation

i. How, then should it be translated?  If the concept is so different from ˡ,
then "magic" will obviously not do; the choice of the different term cannot have
been accidental.  Likewise one should probably not translate it, in a denotative
context, as "spell".  Yet it is hard to find better forms.

ii. It should be noted in this respect that , as a mystical concept, was not
limited to pre-modern times.  More recently, it has been invoked as the spirit
of the Japanese language, that strange aspect which supposedly made Japanese
unique among the languages of the world, and - significantly - impossible to
translate adequately (see Miller, pp.137ff, for a discussion of this thankfully
defunct theory).  In this case one would be forgiven for believing it; English
has no equivalent concept, and an adequate translation is hard to find.

iii. During the brief period when I worked on Rudora myself (the project lasted
only a short time, was never announced, and no patch was released), I attempted
to solve the problem by returning to Germanic word-formation principles to coin
an equivalent compound.  I came up with two possibilities - "Withsay" and
"Orsay" - the latter of which, though incredibly obscure, I adopted for the
simple reason that I needed to translate  in eight letters.  The former is
a bit better: "with", meaning "against", though no longer a productive prefix,
is clearly the same as in "withstand", or Old English "withceosan" (ceosan "to
choose") meaning "to reject".  But one can hardly suggest that such a coinage is
adopted for a mainstream translation.

iv. If coinage is out of the question, a term must be found within the modern
vocabulary which adequately conveys the concept of "a word or phrase with
magical power".  There are plenty of these; indeed one, "spell", I have rejected
already, for being the standard term, too closely associated with "magic".  But
our word must have another aspect: to be equivalent to Japanese  it must
connote folklore, rather than witchcraft; traditional religion, rather than
anything exotic (for the English-speaking world that means some form of
Christianity or Judaism, as opposed to Eastern religions or the reconstructed
paganisms with which 'spells', 'magic', 'runes' and so forth are associated).

 (c) A tentative solution

i. A suitable choice might be something like "charm": while in common usage
nowadays it means "attractiveness", its older meaning is "the chanting of a
verse having magical power; incantation; hence, a magic spell" (SOED 'charm'
sb.1, sense 1).  More fully, a charm is a short incantation, often in verse,
believed to have magical power (often through the ritual invocation of names,
including but not restricted to the various Christian terms for the Deity), and
connected inseperably with English folklore.  It is derived from the medieval
prestige language, Latin (carmen, "song"), just as the characters with which the
Japanese word Ȥ is written are derived from the corresponding Oriental
language, Chinese.  It is thus a very good equivalent for  in every way:
semantically, connotatively, and etymologically.  It is also conveniently short.

ii. The one disadvantage with "charm" is the modern sense, which is rather weak.
However, this is not as problematic as it may seem.  Firstly, "magic" also has
a weak modern sense - but no-one would argue that players of the Final Fantasy
games are likely to associate the Ultima spell with card tricks.  Also, it is
quite acceptable for RPGs in particular to use slightly archaic language.  This
includes using words in older senses; and this older sense is still current in
the modern language, though less common.

iii. What would conventionally be a "spell", therefore, may be better named a
"charm"; the entry Ȥ on the various menus could be rendered "charms".
, as a system, would most logically be "charming", but "incantation" might
be preferred, since the modern meaning of "charming" is much stronger.  For the
compound  either the old "charmer" or an equivalent such as "enchanter"
(i.e. "chanter of charms") could be used.  As for the location , it could
be translated in a variety of ways.  If the eight-character limit for location
names is not circumvented then "Mt.Charm" or "MtCharms" would fit; if it is, but
the twelve-byte limit for table entries remains, then "Mt. Charms", "Mt.of
Charms", or some formation from "incantation" would obviously be better.  If the
table space has been expanded, then the possibilities are endless: the ideal
form (and that to use in dialogue) would be something like "Mountain of Charms".

================================================================================
 REFERENCES:

Miller, R A: "Japan's Modern Myth: the language and beyond" (New York: 1982)

Plutschow, H: 'Towards a Definition of _Tama_', in Boscaro, Gatti, and Raveri
        (eds.), "Rethinking Japan" (Folkestone: 1991), vol.I pp.146-161

SOED: The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed., rev. 1973)

================================================================================
 CONTACT DETAILS:

Haeleth's email: haeleth@hotmail.com
          _
Haelethes awendende: http://haeleth.port5.com/

================================================================================
  COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
This document and its contents are copyright (c) 2001 Haeleth.  You may
distribute it freely, provided that you make neither modifications nor profit.
The arguments herein are protected by copyright law and international treaties,
and plagiarism, impersonation, unattributed quotation, etc., are prohibited. 
The conclusions, however, are placed in the public domain: you may adopt the
translations proposed, or other forms first suggested here, for any purpose,
without necessarily giving me credit, tho' it'd be a nice thought, and I won't
too fond of anyone who presents them as their own.

All trademarks or proprietary names mentioned in the above document are hereby
acknowledged to be the property of their respective owners.
----------------------------------EXPLICIT, &c.---------------------------------