I'm dissatisfied with the title of the 2nd comic, but I can't come up with the right saying...
IsaacWinds said:
How about something about an ostrich? it could work, and maybe a pun involving the fact that Catherine is part bird?
You can't hit some pun out of the park every time. If you can't come up with a pun at all, maybe it's best to just go the direct route, and make the title something that at least conveys the meaning, even if it fails to convey the joke.
I.E. "To expose one's weakness for no reason"
Or, just make up a new pun/reference wholecloth that has the same meaning, if it has to be a reference. Like, "why does the boss open its glowing red eye if it is invincible if it doesn't?" Or "Stomping on thin ice."
Or, just make up a new pun/reference wholecloth that has the same meaning, if it has to be a reference. Like, "why does the boss open its glowing red eye if it is invincible if it doesn't?" Or "Stomping on thin ice."
You can't hit some pun out of the park every time. If you can't come up with a pun at all, maybe it's best to just go the direct route, and make the title something that at least conveys the meaning, even if it fails to convey the joke.
I.E. "To expose one's weakness for no reason"
Or, just make up a new pun/reference wholecloth that has the same meaning, if it has to be a reference. Like, "why does the boss open its glowing red eye if it is invincible if it doesn't?" Or "Stomping on thin ice."
I take it my attempted revision isn't satisfactory?
My point is, you don't always get an easy way to be a fairly close translation that keeps the original joke AND the original meaning. Hence, either focus on the original meaning and shove the joke overboard, or shove staying close to the original overboard to make a joke with the original meaning.
It's why I gave two options: Go for the boring thing if you don't want to deviate too far in the translation, and the radically different joke if you're fine with that kind of localization.
Moonspeaker said:
I take it my attempted revision isn't satisfactory?
The TL notes explain the joke, which is good for knowing what the original joke was. However, the revision you did on its own doesn't really convey the notion that it's exposing oneself. (That is, the original meaning of the joke isn't clear until you read the translation notes.) It hurts that "sticking one's head in the sand" doesn't mean the same thing here as it apparently does in Japan - "head in the sand" just means "denying reality", not "exposing your weakness", hence that joke isn't really going to fly without explanation.
It's probably the best that could be done without making a sacrifice of being very loose with the translation, I just don't think this one has a good analogue.
I just realized the form of the saying in English should be something like:
"Doing _____, but not _____" or "Doing ____, but forgetting to do ____"
(ie by not doing the 2nd thing, the 1st thing was made useless)
So then, the title of the comic should be something like "Not doing ____ or ____"
...I don't know what goes in the blanks though...
Something like, "Locking your back door, but leaving the front door open," then?
Or, I guess, to make the joke in the title, "Forgetting to close your front door, much less lock it." Or, "Forgetting to turn the car off, much less locking the keys in."
Ya know, I wonder-does the last panel of the second comic qualify this for Digging Your Own Grave?
Not Even Burying Her Head in the Sand Normally, it's 頭隠して尻隠さず ("hide one's head but expose one's bottom"—i.e., protect oneself but expose a weakness) not 頭隠さず尻も隠さない ("Hide neither one's head nor one's bottom").My fork~My ___You too Catherine?H-Hey, Catherine...!My chopsticks~My darlingHow did you!?And the all-important my aftermeal snack♪Hehe~... Actually, I also brought some too~Wait, I mean, you brought a bottle of soy sauce!?Nagasaki CastellaEh, what?My spoon & fork~Because I don't have chopsticks!...Is there any point in bringing those to school?See?Why do we always get sporks with the meal, no matter what it is?So today's school lunch is mazekomi rice, huh~I see, I could do that....You're that thorough?My soy sauce~Yeah, yeah, I've had enough.If you don't like that, you can always bring one of these.Does everyone bring them?It's basically a spoon.That's bad!I'm surprised, you've got some nerve, huh...?