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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Your Treacle Affects at Night GN
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I'm so relieved that even a native speaker went "wuh?" at that.  I like to think that my English is fairly good, so I had a moment of meltdown at not understanding the title at all - not even after checking the Japanese title. Looking up "treacle" kind of clued me in on what the translator probably meant, but only a little. I wonder if the title was the work of the English translator/editor/publisher, or someone on the Japanese side, it really feels like the latter case.
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skemono
Posts: 75 |
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Bingo. Here's the Japanese version on Amazon. If you click the preview you can see "Your Treacle Affects At Night" printed in English on the cover. |
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harminia
 Posts: 2004 Location: australia |
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Yep, the title definitely had "non English speaker made it up" vibes, so this doesn't surprise me at all. Part of why I even read this review was because the name confused me so much I was hoping there'd be something about it in the review (and it didn't disappoint). Such a bizarre title.......even knowing the Japanese and how they're related it's such an odd choice. Affects?? Should it be affections? Anyway... A shame the rest of the series isn't translated. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11392 |
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I'm also kind of curious if they meant "effects" rather than "affects." Both can be either a noun or a verb, but which you choose changes the meaning.
Assuming "treacle" just means "sweet" or "sweetness" like "amai," then are they trying to say 1) "your sweetness affects (v.) me at night" (as opposed to daytime) 2) "(I'm thinking about) that sweet affect (n.) (you show me) at night" 3) "your sweet effects (n.) (work on me) at night" 4) "your sweetness effects (v.) (the response you want from me) at night"? Given that most commonly "affect" is used as a verb while "effect" is used as a noun, if they were looking it up in a dictionary, then 1 and 3 seem most probable, but still could be either. Or any.  We will never know...
While I think they should've just stuck with "your sweet voice at night," that's still open to some interpretation. Is his voice only sweet at night, does it only work on the speaker at night, or does the speaker only have the opportunity to hear his voice at night? |
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1581 |
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Very weird that they'd decide to license the middle of a series, though maybe it's a publisher issue or something like that
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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This is what happens when someone who 1. doesn't know a language very well and 2. doesn't have much of a "thing" for languages, tries to sound fancy on that language - they hit up a dictionary/thesaurus and look for words that seem fancy and literary, and since they don't know the language well and have no "language instinct" sounding alarm bells in their mind, they won't stop and think about how the end result sounds. (Also, as far as Japanese readers go, they don't really care, honestly.  The English translation of the title is more often than not just a sort of decoration, which is why it's a bad idea to use it.)
You're looking it from an English speaker's perspective. I haven't read this manga, but going by experience, in such context "amai koe" is usually just fancy-talk for 1. sex sounds, specifically the sounds the ahem, receiving partner makes (regardless of gender); and in a larger context it's an allusion to that person being in the ahem, throes of passion; or 2. the other partner's hot and sexy, seductive words and behavior that induces the abovementioned throes of passion. So yes, you can translate it directly as "your sweet voice at night" but that's not the intended meaning, the full image/mood it's trying to conjure. The trick here is that the Japanese title uses a well-used, easy to understand phrase as allusion, and the English version is supposed to add another layer that makes it sounds hotter and fancier. If I had to guess the Japanese translator's (mangaka's)? mental process, it probably went something like this: 1. So I have this title and I want to convey its meaning in English in a fancy way. 2. Let's see, I'll just put "甘い声" into the dictionary.... oh! Here's a result! (I don't have any commonly used JP/EN dictionaries at hand, but whatever they used I'd assume it had similar results) Hm, I recognize "sugary" but "treacle"? let's check... Oh, something to do with honey, I think? Great, great! 3. OK, now I have "sweet" but I need something for the rest. Let's see, voice, sounds, behavior... [goes down the dictionary/thesaurus rabbit hole] hm, it says there's something like "affectation", that sounds nice, but I think that has negative overtones? let's see, related words... what does "affect" mean? Bingo. 4. Your Treacle Affects at Night
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wolf10
 Posts: 906 |
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I believe the author and/or editor was looking for the word "dulcet," which is derived from the Latin "dulcem," meaning sweet, but can be used to describe sounds and voices as well. Not sure of any ideal synonyms for "voice," but anything is better than leaving me wondering what exactly the treacle tart is affecting in the twilight hours. (And it's not even a food manga?)
Shame the volume itself seems to be mid (in more ways than one), but the title sure sparked a conversation. |
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