Talk:Virgo Shaka

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[edit] The Man Closest To What?

• The accepted translation for Shaka's moniker is "The Man Closest To God", and not "The Man Closest To be a God". This is the way various official and unofficial distributors have translated this line as, and is thus the accepted translation among the fans.

It doesn't matter, this is a mistranslation. The correct form is "the man closest to be a god." We can use this spance to eradicate the misinformation.Guinsberg 05:59, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

A mistranslation according to whom, though? There's a big difference between "The Man Closest To God", and "The Man Closest To Be A God". Like I've mentioned, the former is the universally accepted translation among official and unofficial sources. The ADV release (both subtitled and dubbed) even translated it to "The Closest Man To God", as opposed to, say, "The Closest Man To Be A God". If anything, that's the translation we should use, and will for the time being. Also, please keep notes regarding mistranslations or other similar items right here in the discussion page; we gotta keep the Shaka wiki as clean and uncluttered as possible. Thanks. -Tragic Taco

I got the information from here: [1]

The Portuguese-language and the English-language publications I have known refer to Shaka as "the man closest to god", or "o mais próximo de deus". In some Spanish-language publications, however, Shaka is reffered as "el mas cercano al gran maesto". This doesn't match the English and Portuguese translations, and we all know this is a mistranslation, but still this is the way Shaka's epithet is officially translated in Spanish-spoken Latin America. But it is still wrong. So the "the man closest to god", as well as "o homem mais próximo de deus", can also be wrong, though these are the officially recognized translations.Guinsberg 22:48, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, here's the problem: You're proposing that we use the official Spanish language translation over the official English language translation in an English language Wikipedia. Don't get me wrong; you could very well be correct about the Spanish and Portuguese translations (I wouldn't know; don't speak either), but according to ADV, the official English distributors of the anime series, Shaka's moniker is "The Closest Man To God". I'm more inclined to accept their translation over any other's, be it Spanish, Portuguese, French, whatever. The one exception is, of course, the original Japanese; I'm checking my manga right now, and it seems to support the "The Closest Man To God" translation over "The Closest Man To Be A God" variety. Perhaps we could use a third opinion to settle this matter?

Last thing to add: Editing the article back and forth with each additional discussion is a bit silly. Let's make the next edit count; for now, we'll slide the wiki back to the original translation until this issue is settled. Thanks. - Tragic Taco

That was not my point. I don't mean to value the Spanish and Portuguese translations more than the English one. Your point is that we should keep the translation the man closest to god because the official English distributors use it. But just because this is the official or most used translation, it doesn't mean it is the correct. I cited the Spanish translation because in Latin America the epithet's official translation is el mas cercano al gran maestro or the closest to the Pope. It is undoubtly incorrect, and does not reflect the other translations I've known (the English and the Portuguese), but just because the distributors use it, they should keep spreading the misinformation? Guinsberg 12:21, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, I understand where you're coming from; however, how do you figure that the existing translations have been incorrect thus far? Are you basing this off of the Spanish translation alone, or is there a bigger source that I'm not seeing? The link [2] that you gave me earlier basically took their info from the Gemini Saga wiki page (which I myself actually created and worked on with many other users), so I'm not sure how credible it is.

I also have the original Japanese language manga and it leans more towards "The Closest Man To God" than "The Closest Man To Be A God" -- granted, it doesn't spell out "The Closest Man To God" with 100% precise exaction, but "The Closest Man To Be A God" gives off a completely different meaning than what the manga is directing. -Tragic Taco

最も神に近い男, Motomo kami ni chikai otoko.

最も (motomo) = The most

神に (kami ni) = to God

近い (chikai) = close

男 (otoko) = man

"The man closest to God". Period.

Besides, I can't understand Guinsberg's point. Because the spanish translation is wrong, the correct english translation also becomes wrong ? How so ? Folken de Fanel 10:59, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I didn't say that. Taco argued that e should keep the traditional translation because it is the one which the official distributors of manga and anime use it. And I said that, just because that was the official translation, it doesn't mean it the correct one, and used the Spanish translation to illustrate my point. BTW, many translations of the EpisodeG use now the translation "the closest to be a god".201.50.178.21 21:51, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

No, you said it was a mistranslation, which it is not.

The traditional translation isn't kept only because it's the official one, it's because it's the most accurate one, that's all. Folken de Fanel 08:54, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Whatever. The point is that somebody said the translation "the man closest to god" should be kept because it is the official translation. Even if it is the correct one, the "official" argument was not coherent.201.50.230.235 23:49, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I did say that. However, my argument was that official translations tend to have more merit than the words of a fan. Your proposal that every translation should be more or less thrown out the window because of one or two mistranslations is much less coherent, to be honest. Tragic Taco 08:38, 24 September 2006 (UTC)