From: e_witness	Date: March 26th, 2008 06:24 am (UTC)		(Link)
	<3

But I have found that using babelfish to translate, while referring to some of the summaries of that arc which have been written by sargraf, I can pretty much figure out what's going on most of the time.

I don't even need to be a fan of Mirage of Blaze with a reasonable understanding of Naoe Nobutsuna's character to recognize obsession when I see it. XD I was picturing Naoe in a fanfiction recently (while working on a biology assignment), and the phrase "panting for scraps" came to mind. And then I realized that was pretty much what I was doing with MoB myself and was frightened.

That said, Thank You So Much for the links and the information! Will be making the rounds soon enough.

	From: lady_nara	Date: March 26th, 2008 08:27 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: <3

Oh dear, I've been found out. Well, I guess I was being a tad obvious, eh?

When I think of Naoe, weird phrases come to my mind, as well, although perhaps lacking more in dignity than yours. I get stuff like: "Naoe Nobutsuna- being an obsessive stalker never looked so good!" and "#1 Kagetora Fanboy!"
*snicker*

Hm...I think I may be working too hard on this thesis. I'm obviously losing brain cells.

No problem! I was enjoying the arc and suddenly thought "gosh, I wonder if anyone else has noticed this yet?"
There's also some damn fine fanart up on the russian community...I may have to link it eventually.

	From: e_witness	Date: April 5th, 2008 06:52 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: <3

"#1 Kagetora Fanboy!" XDDDD An icon of that needs to exist. Speaking of icons, I have a theory that yours is why everyone believes you to be a Naoe-fan. Or is it just that Kagetora doesn't wear sunglasses?

Ahh, that Russian site that you've been trying to send me for weeks! I was stunned Babelfish could translate an ENTIRE WEBPAGE directly. O.o And oh why must Naoe wear a suit, why? If only he wore a toga or ...nothing at all, I think I'd be able to bear not jumping him. Naoe-in-a-suit ruins my life. XD Hotaka Ran does gorgeous work, and E Millian's sketch nearly makes me want to write Naoe/Kotarou.

I don't know if you use DeviantArt or not, but there's a Chinese artist on DA who goes by the penname Heise. She does some stunning CG fantasy characters, and I just had the random thought that it'd be awesome if she could be persuaded to illustrate for MoB. Unlikely as it is. T.T

PS: Sargraf is hilarious and Mizuna Kuwabara is brilliant and I'm currently floundering in their combined hilarious brilliance.

	From: lady_nara	Date: April 5th, 2008 08:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: <3

Oh, man, if I knew how to make icons, there are a lot I would love to see. I've been thinking that someone needs to take advantage of all the hilarious MoB comics on Hotaka Ran's site and make some icons with them. Those expressions...XD

Ha! Maybe so. Although I actually only started using this icon fairly recently. Before that I had a Takaya icon. I WANT a prequel-Kagetora icon so much. Someday.

Srsly, Hotaka Ran=awesome.
Hm, I don't know. Naoe in a suit is sexy (as is Naoe in a military uniform) but Naoe in nothing would be pretty nice, too. *drool*

Naoe/Kotarou? I could see it, somewhat. I had an interesting conversation with Kazuza once about the way Kotarou's stuck between Naoe and Kagetora. He seems to be in much the same position as Naoe- block of ice discovering inspiration and passion and such- but instead of centering all his feelings on Kagetora, he sort of splits between the two of them. He seems to want to BE Naoe (even before he started subbing for him the implication is felt) but he wants to be WITH Kagetora. And it's anyone's guess how those two desires play off of each other. He wants to be Naoe even down to his obsession; he wants Kagetora to the point where he desperately longs to replace what Naoe is to him...it's all very interesting, and honestly, tragic. Poor ninja. ;_;

E Millian's sketch, though- which one was that? *tries to remember* Don't have the time or brainpower to go check, but now I'm curious. So...little...sleep...
I will be so very, very happy when my thesis is done.

Oh, I browse around DA every once in a while. Heise, you say? I will have to go check her out. Do you have some reason for thinking she would do MoB on request other than wishful thinking? :) Does she often do requests? Do you think she would like the series? When I get a minute, I would be happy to go over and beg, if you think she might be amenable.

YES Sargraf is wonderful! Are you reading her english translations? Or wading through the google-translation to get more? You know someone is a great writer if even a crappy translation of their work is amazing.

Oh, Kuwabara-sensei...yes, she cracks me up, too. I was re-reading some of the earlier novels a while ago and rediscovering what a wicked sense of humor Naoe has. It's easy to forget, because he just seems to give off this air of maturity. But actually he is incredibly sarcastic and fiendish in his own smooth whatever-do-you-mean? kind of way. It's hilarious to watch the way he messes with Takaya, especially, and see Takaya thinking things like "Oh, crap. He's got that smile again. What's up his sleeve this time? That man's got a surprisingly malicious streak..."

	From: lady_nara	Date: May 2nd, 2008 03:11 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: <3

Whoa...I was just looking over some old stuff, and noticed that at the time I wrote that response to you, in my sleep-deprived dementia I was thinking that "Sargraf" was "Karura" for some reason (um...I was REALLY tired?) and started babbling about Karura's fanfiction, which wasn't what you were talking about at all! I thought I'd better apologize and clear that up, in case you had been confused.

Sargraf is wonderful, and it just kills me that so much of her writing is locked and she herself is unavailable to give permission to view it. I, um, I kind of really hope something awful didn't happen and that's why she's disappeared from her journal for so long...

	From: labingi	Date: March 26th, 2008 09:03 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Man, I took a stab at translating a bit of her work when I was half-heartedly attempting Russian. But I only got a few paragraphs in. Each sentence took me about 5 minutes, and there were some I just couldn't get even after I tracked down all the vocab.

Would you be willing to cross-post this to mirage_trans? Maybe we can pick up someone who actually knows how to translate Russian to English.

	From: lady_nara	Date: March 27th, 2008 09:12 am (UTC)		(Link)

Sure thing! I considered doing that before, but wasn't sure if it was translated enough to count. ^^;

	From: labingi	Date: March 28th, 2008 06:34 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It definitely is. I think that's how we got quaint_twilight doing all those wonderful translations: someone posted about the Chinese version.

From: meganinhiding	Date: March 26th, 2008 09:42 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Tnaks for the tip though now I feel a little guilty about ever having said anything bad about the google translation of Karura's fic! It was also nice to find out that some of the fanart on the sestri section of the galleries were illustrations of book ten. Incidentally asphodel has posted new doujinshi scanlations.

	From: lady_nara	Date: March 27th, 2008 09:10 am (UTC)		(Link)

Yeah, I KNOW. Apparently french translates into english a lot easier than Russian.

Ooh, thanks for letting me know about the doujinshi! *runs off to read*

	From: balisarde	Date: April 8th, 2008 08:12 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Why use babelfish? As far as I can see, the summary is pretty good. All important points were mentioned.

	From: lady_nara	Date: May 2nd, 2008 03:02 am (UTC)		(Link)

Well, yes, the summary is great and all, but I want to read the actual novels! A lot was mentioned, but way more was left out. The bittersweet time that Takaya spent with Yuzuru, reflecting on the way that things change. The gradual way that Naoe realizes he's lost his powers, and how scared he is that Kagetora will send him away. The field trip to the Hiroshima memorial. Nobunaga's reunion with his retainers. The conversations that Kotarou and Naoe have. So much great stuff! I love Mirage way too much to be satisfied with less than all of it. And the messed-up babelfish translation is currently as close as I can get to that. T_T

You know...you're Russian...and you know english...
...
Have you considered doing any translations, yourself? Or do you have any friends who might consider doing so? *_*

Oh dear, forgive my impudence in asking straight out like this!! *blush*

	From: balisarde	Date: May 3rd, 2008 04:53 pm (UTC)		(Link)

>>how scared he is that Kagetora will send him away
Huh? I can't recollect that part.

No, it's OK! :) I understand how you feel, because russian fans, who cannot speak english and read quant-twilight's lj feel the same. :) Unfortunately, my english sucks and vocabularly is a bit poor. But the main problem is the site owner (kat_tyan), who hates double translations. I mean not japanese -> english, but japanese -> russian -> english. I'm not sure she will EVER permit it.

Though if you need translation of some short paragraphs, you're always welcome.)

	From: lady_nara	Date: May 25th, 2008 08:12 am (UTC)		(Link)

Ah, yes, there are a number of times before the first big blow-up when Kagetora finds out that Naoe's lost his powers that other people (like Kousaka) needle Naoe about what Kagetora will do when he finds out, i.e., send him away. This seems to touch a nerve in Naoe big-time. Which makes it very painful when Kagetora actually does threaten to send him packing.

Jeez, I really feel bad for the Russian fans, now! That must be so frustrating!

Hm, I'd have to dig around to remember where, but I seem to recall seeing a conversation some time ago wherein Labingi requested that kat_tyan do an english translation, kat_tyan politely turned her down, stating that it was too big a job for her, but told her that she was free to try and do translations from the Russian herself. In which case, perhaps she might have relaxed her policy about double translations? Now, where did I read that....*searches*
I'll ask Labingi.

Believe me, no translation that you could give could possibly be less than wonderful when compared with the one currently available via Babelfish. Though I understand completely if you feel like it's too much work, or too embarrassing.

Thank you so much for the kind offer of paragraph translations! I just may take you up on that at some point. ^^

	From: balisarde	Date: May 30th, 2008 09:51 am (UTC)		(Link)

Right, she relaxed her polices a bit, because she gave the permission to.. err.. czech? I don't remember, who was the translator, but I remember the way she made a mock of him in her personal russian journal. *_* Every poor translator is under strict observation )))