xxxHOLiC 181 translation

[starlady]

Announcement: I will be attending Otakon 2009 in Baltimore this July! Anyone else? What parts of the con do you like best besides the dealers' room? It's been four years since I attended, and I'm looking to get a deeper/more rounded appreciation of the con as a con. This will be the first time I attend for longer than a day, too. Does anyone know any good restaurants that aren't in the Inner Harbor/are close to the hotel?

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!!! page 01
Watanuki: I see...

Is this
A dream again?
-----------------------------
!!! page 02
Watanuki: Ha ha!
I see.

So that's it.

I fell asleep at some time.

I hope I'm not on the side of the road or something.
At least let me be somewhere in the store.

But, since it's a dream at last, why is it pitch black?

Couldn't it be a prettier place or something?
Couldn't I be in some sort of interesting
situation?
-----------------------------
!!! page 03
Watanuki: But, compared with the earlier truth,
this is much better.

No one knowing

About Yuuko-san...

Because it's all a dream.

Yuuko: ...No.
-----------------------------
!!! page 04-05
Yuuko: It's not a dream.
-----------------------------
!!! page 06
 Watanuki: Yuuko-san!!

Why
won't I move!

FX: Slurping sound

Watanuki: Yuuko-san!!

FX: Slurping
-----------------------------
!!! page 07
Yuuko: This is real, this is now. [TN: Real written "reality," now written to emphasize the present-ness of it.]

Stopped time has merely started to move.
-----------------------------
!!! page 08
Watanuki: ...Wha--what are you saying!?

No, before that, why
Is that!?

Shit!
Why can't I move?

Yuuko: ...Because it's not the time for you to move. [TN: Time written "moment."]

Watanuki: ...Yuuko-san.
-----------------------------
!!! page 09
Yuuko: A person wished
That he only wanted me to be here.

That wish was too strong,
A thing that did not disappear. [TN: Thing written "existence."]

By rights I don't exist,
Since I should already not be here.

But
-----------------------------
!!! page 10
Yuuko: By the force of that wish, time stopped,

And I was fixed in that stopped time.

Two worlds,

For the sake of two futures.

Watanuki: Yuuko...san.

Yuuko: Now, the choice is made, and time moved.
So, I will proceed.
-----------------------------
!!! page 11
Watanuki: Please wait!!

I don't understand at all!

What is that, all of it!?
Another world!? Two of them!?
That doesn't follow what I know!
-----------------------------
!!! page 12
Watanuki: To me, the world is

The one that's before my eyes!!
-----------------------------
!!! page 13
Watanuki: What choice do you mean!?

I haven't decided anything!

Why, because of something I haven't decided,

Is my

My...!
-----------------------------
!!! page 14
Watanuki: Will something be decided about the person I care about!?
-----------------------------
!!! page 15
Yuuko: ...You're right.

But,
Before you were born,

I was dead.
-----------------------------
!!! page 16
Watanuki: Wha--
at do you mean?

That--

I,
I,

I met you, Yuuko-san,
And various things,

I met various people and things that weren't people--
-----------------------------
!!! page 17
Watanuki: I met plenty of good things and bad things,
I changed various things--

But that was all because you were there from the start, Yuuko-san!
-----------------------------
!!! page 18
Yuuko: ...Thank you.

Comments

[mikayukixx.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the translation!
This chapter was soo sadd .. POOR WATANUKI ;___;

My first time here

[(Anonymous)]

My name is Gladys and I really love your translations... Even when I'm in third year at university my written english still being very poor, so I'm glad to read your amazing work...

Certainly, this chapter is too sad, poor Watanuki-kun, this is Yuuko-san farewell... That depresses me a lot...

Well, thank you again... Keep doing this work, you're the best!!

Re: My first time here

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Hi, and welcome, and thanks for your kind words! ^_^

It was really sad; we're getting down to the end...

[selenityshiroi.livejournal.com]

Yuuuukkkkoooooo-saaaaannnnnnnnnnn!!!

*sob*

The 'Thank You' was the only thing I could read from the raws, but even that tore me up!

I knew this chapter was going to make me cry.

Thank you for the translation!

[hobbit-hunter.livejournal.com]

... ...

/sobs

thank you for the translation.

[lilac-ayame.livejournal.com]

It's one of the saddest chapters of xxxHolic...

T___________T

I wonder whether Watanuki will come to understand everything... and of his own existence...

[thomas51.livejournal.com]

Yuuko-san. .__.

Thanks for the translation.

[thousandbirds.livejournal.com]

Gosh! This is so sad.I am almost scared to know what is going to happen in xxxHolic.

Thanks for the upload.

[outou.livejournal.com]

Seeing Yuuko strung up like that was disturbing--she's been such a strong, stable character, and to see her rendered entirely helpless is a horrible shock.

Coupling that with Watanuki's reaction...this is a remarkably moving manga. I hope everything turns out well for the characters.

By the way, do you mind if I add you to my friends list? I really enjoy reading your translations, even though I can't be a proper judge of them (I haven't started studying Japanese yet).

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Add away!

And yes, I agree about it being shocking and painful to see Yuuko strung up like that--pinned like a butterfly in a case. She's been the authority in both series, and now she's helpless.

[ariadnechan.livejournal.com]

poor Watanuki!!!!!!

Thanks for the translation

[tiljaunique.livejournal.com]

Thank you again for the translation!

It is a very sad chapter and disturbing to see Yuuko tangled up and being eaten away by that darkness, but we already knew she was going away. Even so, poor Yuuko! TT____TT And poor Watanuki when he looses her.

I think I'm the only one seeing a deeper meaning in Watanuki's strong words for Yuuko. I don't know, it just sounded like that to me, like he was loosing something too important. More so than Himawari. I know I'm crazy and I don't really believe that could be at all like that. Unless Watanuki was really exactly like Clow when he was young... I haven't forgotten that statement made by FWR. Who knows?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Watanuki's words are strong, and I waffled about how exactly to translate them--cnet went with "a person I care about", while I chose to go for a slightly less literal version (me being un-literal!). In the past I've often translated this particular phrase as "an important person", which seems a bit sophomoric in retrospect. I do think, though, that it's a clear sign that Watanuki does care very deeply about Yuuko--more, perhaps, than I might have thought, though as to the nature of that affection, ?? If forced to bet, I'd say he sees her as a mother figure.

[tiljaunique.livejournal.com]

vickyyunkamiya told me the same, that it was because she's all Watanuki has for a family. But that had me thinking about FWR's words as to the resemblance with Clow. I wonder if there isn't something else hidden in Watanuki.

And one more important thing. Where's black mokona?

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Damn, that's an excellent question about Mokona. I don't think anyone knows, either.

Good point about what FWR said about Watanuki, too. Maybe he cares for Yuuko in the same way that Clow did?