(Once again, the pic to the left has nothing to do with the article...)
Alrighty, then, let's get down to business. Everybody out there in translation land knows that the dream job is something like movie scripts, novels, or comics! Well, not really. I like contracts best, cuz they pay nice and are, frankly, pretty easy to understand on the whole. But enough with the money... the real meat that spurs most junior Japanese language students on is the idea that one day, they might be entrusted with the chance to actually translate a Japanese comic for a living! Hey, well, after six years of professional translation in the freelance world (and a short, what, six month stint at a translation company years ago?), I finally got that chance! The pay is lower than minimum wage in even the poorest countries, but I'm having a blast!
So, today I compiled a list of the sound effects that I had some problems with translating. And for the benefit of cyber translation land, I now present that list here. It represents about fifty pages of comic book ism.
But beware! This is not some end all dictionary or glossary! Not only are most of these terms highly subjective to begin with, but they are also highly situation dependant --- that is to say, the explanations and translations do not cover every possible meaning of each sound, but only the meaning as it appears in the context of the story I am translating. Some, like "pori pori," pretty much always mean the same thing (scratch scratch). Others, like はっ have a variety of meanings, tho I only list the one relevant to my translation. In other words, you should think of the English listings as POSSIBLE translations, and not RESTRICTIVE DEFINITIONS.
The first line of each listing is the sound effect written in katakana. Then follows an explanation in English and a tentative translation. Sometimes only an explanation or only a tentative translation is given.... Hope this is not too difficult of a format to understand!
Ok, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines...
(in the mean time I am going to go work on a sample translation for some client interested in giving me work doing academic texts related to art... and try to get done before the sun goes down tonight!!)
----------
ポリポリ
sound of scratching an itch
scratch scratch
----------
ベキッ
pow!
----------
フフン
sound of laughing proudly/having confidence
yep!
----------
プッ
sound of starting to laugh, kind of sound that looks down on people
heh!
----------
ピョン
sound of someone jumping
hop
----------
ヒュ
sound of something flying through the air
whoosh!
----------
ピッ
Sound of someone moving fast to get to something
swish!
----------
ピッ
Sound of someone holding up a knife
----------
ビクッ ビクッ
sound of a wound
drip, drip
----------
ピク
body moving just a little bit in pain after getting beat up or injured
shudder or twitch
----------
ピク
Sound of gripping hand tight in preparation for a fight
grip!
----------
はっ
Sound of noticing something
huh? または ah?!
----------
ニャ ニャ
sound of smiling, smirking, or an evil grin
smirk
----------
ドン
sound of a body falling/hitting on something
thump! or slam!
----------
ドガバ
hitting/kicking in a fight
pow!
----------
だっ
Sound of walking away fast
----------
ズル
sound of dragging something
scrape... scrape... Or slide...
----------
ズッ
Getting angry
grumble
----------
ジリ
sound of stepping forward
shuffle
----------
シュッ
sound of someone's leg moving/flying (when kicking/fighting)
swish!
----------
ジャリ
shuffle
----------
ザッ
sound of getting ready to fight, the foot staying firm in the position to fight
stomp
----------
クル
turning around to look at something
----------
グッ
sound of someone tightening a knot or rope
----------
グッ
sound of trying to grab someone's clothes (grabbing someone by the lapel, etc.)
grab!
----------
グチョ
Sound of pencil going under the skin, bloody sound...
----------
グシュ
Sound of pencil going under the skin, bloody sound...
----------
クイ クイッ
sound of someone tightening a rope to a bar
----------
ギッ
angry staring
----------
ギシッ
old, heavy door opening
creak
----------
ガラ
sliding door opening
clack
----------
ガバッ
sound of a guy popping up in front of somebody
pop!
----------
カッ
The sound of the guy stopping in his tracks.
Chkk
----------
ガシ
Sound of someone grabbing someone's clothes with desperation
grab
----------
ガガン
Sound of falling on the floor
Thump!
----------
ガア
Sound of an automatic door opening
swish!
----------
うーん
sound of thinking
hmm...
