Just saw Chinese translation of Crab King

[goatt]

帝王蟹, can be directly translate back as king crab, sounds like a food rather than an intimidating boss. I guess in the same sense as king lobster (jumbo lobster)? I will still consider lobster king as some sort of king, but I’ll eat king lobster.

 

I ate 帝王蟹 before, and it actually sounds weirdly yum.

Maybe my English is just bad.

 

蟹 - crab

王 - king

帝 - emperor 

But my Chinese tells me it should be translated as 蟹王 or 蟹帝

[Nicolas Liu]

Not really. Maybe food lovers would think it is a delicious dish. But I think it is quite a thing as it is 帝王 (king). Not bad.

[goatt]

2 hours ago, Nicolas Liu said:

Not really. Maybe food lovers would think it is a delicious dish. But I think it is quite a thing as it is 帝王 (king). Not bad.

I’m not using the Chinese version, but I look up other translation on wiki fandom:

- merm king 鱼人之王

- pig king 猪猪国王

They both end with 王

 

Then we have the famous Monkey King (美)猴王, dragon king 龙王

 

帝王蟹 is not only a bad translation, but also a wrong translation according to the precedents.

[minespatch]

6 hours ago, goatt said:

sounds like a food rather than an intimidating boss

Poor Pearl.

[Cassielu]

To me, this Chinese name is a bit like the English pun Klei often uses when naming mobs. (like dragonfly) It conveys two meanings at once.

Also, there are two Chinese names that have bothered me for a long time: Cookie Cutter 饼干切割机 and Celestial Champion 天体英雄. I just really don't get it. 

[Nicolas Liu]

7 hours ago, goatt said:

I’m not using the Chinese version, but I look up other translation on wiki fandom:

- merm king 鱼人之王

- pig king 猪猪国王

They both end with 王

 

Then we have the famous Monkey King (美)猴王, dragon king 龙王

 

帝王蟹 is not only a bad translation, but also a wrong translation according to the precedents.

Not wrong. The position of Chinese characters is quite flexible. In many situations you can change the position without changing the meaning. So here, it doesn't matter if “帝王” is an attribute or an object. They may differ in syntactic structure and have different emphases but basically mean the same thing.

[goatt]

5 hours ago, Nicolas Liu said:

So here, it doesn't matter if “帝王” is an attribute or an object.

Actually, it matters. It doesn't matter when you don't treat it seriously, such as a typo, or as in a casual conversation, then you let it slide without having to worry about them.

When "flexibility" introduce confusion and weirdness because it's contradictory to convention, I think this "flexibility" should be removed.

In this particular case, 帝王蟹 is a food crab in real life, which makes it worse and hilarious.

The grammar is pretty basic and straight forward, and the related naming convention is well known, plus other Chinese translation in the same game, it's safe to say the order of the characters is a mistake.

 

5 hours ago, Nicolas Liu said:

In many situations you can change the position without changing the meaning.

But here is not such a situation. It does change the meaning. Plus the name is taken by a real life object, it's worse.

 

5 hours ago, Nicolas Liu said:

but basically mean the same thing.

You understand it because you also know the English term crab king, and you can sort of get it. It would give you a different perception of the NPC if you didn't.

[Nicolas Liu]

4 minutes ago, goatt said:

Actually, it matters. It doesn't matter when you don't treat it seriously, such as a typo, or as in a casual conversation, then you let it slide without having to worry about them.

When "flexibility" introduce confusion and weirdness because it's contradictory to convention, I think this "flexibility" should be removed.

In this particular case, 帝王蟹 is a food crab in real life, which makes it worse and hilarious.

The grammar is pretty basic and straight forward, and the related naming convention is well known, plus other Chinese translation in the same game, it's safe to say the order of the characters is a mistake.

 

But here is not such a situation. It doesn't change the meaning. Plus the name is taken by a real life object, it's worse.

 

You understand it because you also know the English term crab king, and you can sort of get it. It would give you a different perception of the NPC if you didn't.

No offense but you don't really know much about Chinese. In terms of Chinese translation, actually, “帝王蟹” is quite exact. And not only that, but it is elegant as well.

[Fufuji]

23 minutes ago, goatt said:

But here is not such a situation. It doesn't change the meaning. Plus the name is taken by a real life object, it's worse.

In fact translating something into an existing word or phrase while conveying it's original meaning is considered great translation in Chinese, because that utilising a real-life word which everyone knows instantly makes people understand at the first glance. For example "Turn of Tides" is translated into "改潮换代", one word different from the phrase "改朝换代". This is an elegant Chinese pun which inspires people that this is an important turing point of DST and is related to ocean. "帝王蟹" is a common word in Chinese, and carries the meaning "a king-like crab". The catchy phrase itself is easy to read and we will realize that this creature is the king of crabs. These translations are considered perfect and can barely find a better one to describe "Crab King".

For artistic effects' sake some of the original meaning can be abandoned. "A king-like crab" doesn't make great difference to "king of crabs", however "帝王蟹" is much more elegant than straightly "蟹王", and is also a pun. "帝王" contains more impressiveness than "王" and is more related to literature. So it's simply a better translation.

[Francis2000]

36 minutes ago, Nicolas Liu said:

No offense but you don't really know much about Chinese. In terms of Chinese translation, actually, “帝王蟹” is quite exact. And not only that, but it is elegant as well.

Agree. This is even one of the few Chinese translations I like in the game.keep interesting naming conventions.

I always wish the game was translated to keep the Don't starve naming style, but no, machine translations and mistranslations are usually seen. like this↓

2 hours ago, Cassielu said:

Cookie Cutter 饼干切割机 and Celestial Champion 天体英雄. I just really don't get it. 

天體英雄? Celestial“hero”?

In short,帝王蟹 is very good, please don't change it, change the 天體英雄.

[goatt]

1 hour ago, Nicolas Liu said:

No offense but you don't really know much about Chinese.

I'm from China.

[Fufuji]

4 minutes ago, goatt said:

I'm from China.

可以直接在微信/B站/微博反馈，运营小林姐可负责汉化方面的问题

2 hours ago, Cassielu said:

To me, this Chinese name is a bit like the English pun Klei often uses when naming mobs. (like dragonfly) It conveys two meanings at once.

Also, there are two Chinese names that have bothered me for a long time: Cookie Cutter 饼干切割机 and Celestial Champion 天体英雄. I just really don't get it. 

At least better than "地獄の豚肉"(inferno pork) for Inferno Swineclops in Japanese version.

[goatt]

20 minutes ago, Fufuji said:

"帝王蟹" is a common word in Chinese, and carries the meaning "a king-like crab".

帝王蟹 is a food item. It's catchy in food market. If you've been to a seafood market in China, you should know how badly they are surviving before they are killed and eaten. 帝王蟹 quite literally give Crab King non-artistic, living as food, just a food on a plate, pathetic vibe, rather than the mighty, intimidating vibe I got when I play normally.

帝王蟹 use the term 帝王 for commercial reasons. It's to boost crab sale by giving it a catchy name. 改朝换代 is giving of a completely different vibe, something cutting edge and frontier. You wanna use a pun to lift things above its original meaning, not to hold them back.

But none of above is what I care about. I posted this topic because of 2 reasons:

1. It made me laugh unexpectedly

2. It was a mistake so I would like to point it out.

[minespatch]

Just now, goatt said:

 

2. It was a mistake so I would like to point it out.

No, I love your context! Keep explaining!

[goatt]

11 minutes ago, Fufuji said:

可以直接在微信/B站/微博反馈，运营小林姐可负责汉化方面的问题

我不玩汉化版，微信又丢了，所以没心情也没必要为这个操心。

[Fufuji]

Just now, goatt said:

我不玩汉化版，微信又丢了，所以没心情也没必要为这个操心。

可以把汉化建议告诉我，我也可以直接向汉化组反馈

[goatt]

5 minutes ago, Fufuji said:

可以把汉化建议告诉我，我也可以直接向汉化组反馈

多谢。我只有这么一个建议。我是无意中刷视频时看到得，但是笑得喷口水了。如果你有空也愿意的话，可以帮我反馈一下。我觉得这个名字取得挺丧的，一点也不霸气。而且直译的名字听着更加霸气点。当然如果有更好的也更好。但是我也看不见xD

[minespatch]

8 minutes ago, goatt said:

多谢。我只有这么一个建议。我是无意中刷视频时看到得，但是笑得喷口水了。如果你有空也愿意的话，可以帮我反馈一下。我觉得这个名字取得挺丧的，一点也不霸气。而且直译的名字听着更加霸气点。当然如果有更好的也更好。但是我也看不见xD

Quote

I think this name is quite sad, not domineering at all

 

Well, the game is sad

PEarl and Crab King are a tragic romance.

[goatt]

37 minutes ago, minespatch said:

PEarl and Crab King are a tragic romance.

For some reason, I keep mistaking him as her son ... Until people remind me.

[Francis2000]

46 minutes ago, Fufuji said:

可以把汉化建议告诉我，我也可以直接向汉化组反馈

谢谢，请帮我回报，我真的希望天体英雄有更好的名字(毕竟它是这版的尾王)…还有饼干切割机。

我认为翻成天体卫士会更好。

[minespatch]

53 minutes ago, Francis2000 said:

谢谢，请帮我回报，我真的希望天体英雄有更好的名字(毕竟它是这版的尾王)…还有饼干切割机。

我认为翻成天体卫士会更好。

Quote

Thanks, please help me return, I really wish the Celestial Hero had a better name (it's the tail king of this version after all)...and the cookie cutter. I think it would be better to turn it into Celestial Guardian.

 

[Fufuji]

2 hours ago, Francis2000 said:

谢谢，请帮我回报，我真的希望天体英雄有更好的名字(毕竟它是这版的尾王)…还有饼干切割机。

我认为翻成天体卫士会更好。

天体英雄和饼干切割机这翻译可能至少报了20次了，大概可能不会改

[Another Vena]

11 hours ago, goatt said:

12 hours ago, minespatch said:

PEarl and Crab King are a tragic romance.

For some reason, I keep mistaking him as her son ... Until people remind me.

Why not both?

[Falkenpelz]

I know zero Chinese, and hearing people explain some of the translations here, I am now really curious: Someone care to explain, what the literal translations of stuff like merms or cookie cutters mean? Or how pun names like bearger and dragonfly are translated?

[Notecja]

i think some of these might be personal interpretation. As far I know in many languages might happen regional differences, and if chinese language is as various as chinese kitchen, then both of you can be right at same time.