help Translation help required

[Some1]

Hello guys! I'm representing the Russian community of this great game.

From time to time we are perplexed by translation issues about how to translate one or another of game item names. As a result, we're having fearsome debates, and they are appear to be endless, unless someone doesn't came up with idea to ask here

So now we're arguing about two things.

The first one is the "Iron Wind" item.

We're divided to two groups: the first one is thinking, that "iron" here means something heavy, like, you know, a raw iron, and it emphasizes the heaviness of this item to make a pun over this, so basically it's a kind of joke like "swim like an iron" The second one asserts, that iron here should be translated as "steel", because it accentuates the strength and lightness of this item, like a "steel muscles" or "steel sword". So who of us is more correct?

The second one is the "Howling Conch" item.

Could you explain the meaning of "howling" in this case? This word has different meaning depending on the context. So we can translate it like "crying" or like "screaming" if it means something continuous and loud, or like "whispering", "singing", maybe "humming", if it means that it emits soft sound of wind when it held. There also is an option to translate it with Russian analogue of "resounding, booming, hollow, resonant", which has more property descriptive meaning, rather than action. So the main problem here is to know, what type of sound it emits and in what circumstances.

 

To Russian speaking: Прошу не голосовать для чистоты результатов.

[Hugeisno1]

The Iron in Iron Wind can mean many things at the same time.  It is a play on words. It can mean  'strong' because it is the fastest sail and 'durable' because it lasts for 4 days. 

It also refers to the Iron it is made of. Like cloth sail is made of cloth and snakeskin sail is made of snake skin.

 

Here are phrases that use iron to mean strong or durable.

The phrase "He has an iron constitution." meaning he does not get sick easily or "His word is iron." meaning he will not break a promise.

I think the steel option is good but it is still not completely right.

 

The howling in "howling conch" refers to the "howling wind" (means the same as loud and powerful winds) that comes when you use it.  Howling is used here because it is like the wind in a big storm. It's a descriptive property of the wind, the sound it makes and danger it could be. Again a play on words or simply a poetic description.

 

It is also possible that Iron Wind refers to the Iron Winds boat dealership but I think that is just a coincidence.

[Some1]

Interesting, thanks.

So can anybody figure out, what the difference would be between "iron wind" and "steel wind" from the point of view of native Eglish speaker?

I'm asking myself, why Klei chose iron but not steel...

[Hugeisno1]

It seems that Iron Wind is a sailor's term for an inboard engine. (an engine built into a ship's haul)

 

[Maris]

It's very important theme because we have tons of flood on our wiki in the topic about how to translate this stuff.

[Hugeisno1]

Dont be afraid to ask for assistance whenever you need it. Feel free to message me as well if you want.

[Some1]

Yes, thanks, but now I'm expecting for other opinions and more reliable vote statistics.

[Some1]

Hey, guys, could you clarify one more thing:

Is "wind" in "iron wind" means actually the wind, which is blows and fill sails with air (so it is used here in figurative meaning), or is it a thing, which performs some winding action, like a windlass, winch or reel?

[Hugeisno1]

1 hour ago, Some1 said:

Hey, guys, could you clarify one more thing:

Is "wind" in "iron wind" means actually the wind, which is blows and fill sails with air (so it is used here in figurative meaning), or is it a thing, which performs some winding action, like a windlass, winch or reel?

It's the actual wind used in a figuratively.

[SapphireBullets]

I didn't know if it was a sailor's term, but I think the intended meaning is that it's an artificial form of wind. Like an "Iron Lung" isn't describing something as a figurative quality (Like "Heart of Stone") but because it is literally a breathing device made of metal.

Of the two, I'd go with "Steel" since it seems more descriptive of it's usefulness, but you could look into Russian sailing terms to see if there's any history of a similar term.

And it's "Wind" because you're using the motor instead of the weather kind of wind. It's not the verb "wind" in either of it's possible meanings.

"Howling" in this case refers to the noise a strong wind makes. Like this.

It could be interpreted as either relating to the way the wind howls (over a long period of time) or that you can produce a howl by using the conch.

[Some1]

Up, please, vote more. We need your opinion.