  | Fatal Frame I and II use a lot of special words, some of which were left untranslated for a reason. Other words had a particular cultural connotation that was hard to translate in the space provided or wasn't really necessary to understand the game. (No, I'm not slamming the translation at ALL, as far as I can tell it was excellent.) But, while I'm at it - here, have a brief glossary of special terms used in the games, if you're curious what the original Japanese words were.  The Hellish Abyss ( 虚 - utsuro - void/abyss): Interestingly, this is also the kanji for "a lie." The earthquakes before the Repentance were the rumblings of the Abyss. The Remaining (鬼隻 - kiseki - "demon + half of a pair") The Camera Obscura (射影機 - shaeiki - shadow projection machine) : Actually, this is the same word for the camera used in the first game, with the English translation only changed slightly. Although a regular "camera" and a "camera obscura" (Latin: dark room) are very closely related - the first modern cameras were based on the camera obscura - a camera obscura is more like the pinhole cameras you may have learned about in grade school. It uses the refractive properties of light passing through a small hole to project an upside-down image on a far screen (or inside the camera, where it can be recorded if there's photosensitive material inside.) But it's an interesting choice of re-translation, from Camera to the Camera Obscura. Crimson Sacrifice (赤贄祭 - akaniesai - Crimson Sacrifice Ritual) Mourners (忌人 - imibito - literally "mourning-person", but also could be interpreted as "the Forbidden" or the "the Taboo ones" since it doesn't seem to be the usual word used for a mourner at a funeral.) The Repentance (大償 - ootsugunai - the Great Repentance) The Hidden Ceremony (陰祭 - kagematsuri - the Shadow/Hidden Ceremony): As trivia, the word for "shadow" is the same as the one for "yin" in the concept of yin and yang. So if the regular ceremony is the Yang one, this is the Yin one, if that makes any sense. Kusabi (楔 - the wedge): I suppose they are called this because they're stop-gap measures (like a wedge) until a real Ritual can be performed. The Passageway (深道 - fukamichi - the deep path) Twin Buddhas (双子地蔵 - futagojizou - twin Jizou): The "Jizou" is a statue of Ksitigarba Bodhisattva, who is the special protector of children, travellers, and is called the Bodhisattva of Hell because of his vow not to achieve Buddha-hood until Hell is empty. It's not uncommon to find these statues in forests or along roads and pathways, but they're usually single and, uh, not beheaded. Twin Shrine Maidens / Altar Twins (双子巫女 - futago miko - twin miko, which is a type of Shrine Maiden, and 双子御子 - futago miko - Twin Consecrated Children.) : You may notice that the two words are said the same way and have very similar meanings. The "miko" used to Itsuki and Mutsuki is not as gender-specific as the other "miko" used for Yae and Sae. So when you were speaking, you'd be saying the same words, and only context would tell you which kind of Twins you were talking about. All God's Village (皆神村 - minakamimura - literal.) Twin Doll (躯 - mukuro - "body" or "corpse"): This is an interesting word; I'm interpreting this as meaning that the doll that Yoshitatsu Kiryuu made was sort of an empty shell, a body without a soul. That interesting reference is lost in English, but hell, it makes a lot more sense and requires less explanation. Besides, "mukuro" is one character, and "Homunculus-like empty body" is...a lot. Hell (黄泉 - Yomi - the Shinto underworld, which means "the Yellow Fountain" or "the Yellow Spring"): A place where the souls of the dead reside and are purified before they can move onto Heaven, filled with the gods of disease and other evils. Under Buddhist influence, it also became a place where the dead were punished for their sins. In the Japanese creation myth, the First God entered Yomi to retrieve his dead wife, the first goddess, but when he broke the rules and looked directly at her decaying corpse, he was so horrified that he fled, and she angrily pursued him. Spirit Stone Radio - 霊石ラジオ - reisekiRAJIO - literal [ home :: characters :: spirits :: fanworks :: links :: secrets ] |