EOE OST Title Translations

[thedarkorb]

I have found alteast three different translations of the music titles from this ost. Has anyone been able to find what is deemed to be the correct titles? For example, track 14 has been listed as -

A Hole in the Dream
Gap of Dream
Opening of a Dream

If anyone has any ideas on what the correct translation are-

[Clover]

A Hole in the Dream.
You could also get technical and call it "A - 4 Piano, rough version."
A-4 was the code for Borderline Case.

Or you could go with the engrish version.

[thedarkorb]

Found this

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=980102

[Reichu]

thedarkorb: That's the domestic release, but I doubt the translations are "official" in the sense that Pioneer/Geneon's translator worked with Anno on them. A translator worked directly with Anno to produce the non-Engrishy-sounding titles for the other soundtracks, but we don't see that here.

I don't particularly like the domestic release titles. They're generally non-fluent and amateurish -- i.e., not terribly professional. For example, "Opening of Dream" doesn't convey an appropriate contextual sense (might as well be "opening" in the sense of "beginning" or "start", not "space" or "gap"). "Substitute Invasion" brings something like "invasion of the substitute teachers" to mind. "False Regeneration" doesn't sound nearly as good as "False Rebirth". "Expansion of Blockade"... okay, that always was a tough one to translate, but a pro would be able to muster better than such literal awfulness.

[Sailor Star Dust]

FWIW, Opening Of A Dream is how Pioneer/Geneon translated the song for the Refrain of Evangelion CD. Amazon has the tracklisting order screwed up...

[ReiAyanami25]

[ "Expansion of Blockade"... okay, that always was a tough one to translate, but a pro would be able to muster better than such literal awfulness.

I agree. I had a fair amount of trouble with that one, but I tried to make it sound less literal.

The copy of the EoE OST (Geneon) that I own has strange, fairly incomplete translations of the track names on the back, for example:'Opening of dream.' Well, they appear as incomplete to those who are fluent in the English language (most of us). Some of the titles could also have, as Reichu said, multiple meanings which could be avoided. The correct translation of the word 'Sukima' can mean: crack, crevice, gap or opening. Naturally, there are a number of accurate translations of 'Yume no Sukima', but none of them, I find, sound appealing when translated into English. 'A hole in the dream' may not be correct, as 'hole' is not a definition of the word 'Sukima' in my dictionary, (I checked) nor is it a definition I learnt.
I have translated the Japanese track titles of the entire OST:

Track 1: ‘Tanin no Kansho’ (他人の干渉): ‘The Interference of other people’
Track 2: ‘Manatsu no shuen’ (真夏の終演): ‘ The End of Midsummer’
Track 3: ‘Taiko he no Kinkyuhinan’ (退行への緊急避難) : ‘Emergency Evacuation to Regression’
Track 4: ‘Itsuwari no, Saisei’ (偽りの、再生): ‘False Rebirth’
Track 5: ‘Migawari no Shinnyu’ (身代わりの侵入): ‘A Substitute Invasion’
Track 7: ‘Munashiki Nagare’ (空しき流れ ): ‘The Flow of Emptiness’
Track 9: ‘Hajimari he no Tohi’ (始まりへの逃避): ‘Escape to the Beginning’
Track 10: ‘Fuan to no Mitsugetsu’ (不安との密月): ‘ A Honeymoon with Anxiety’
Track 13: ‘Heisoku no Kakudai’ (閉塞の拡大): ‘ The Expansion of a Closure’
Track 14: ‘Yume no Sukima’ (夢のスキマ): ‘A Gap in the Dream’

Notes: Interestingly, the definition my dictionary has given for’Shuen’ (see track 2) is ‘End of a performance’, rather than simply ‘end.’ I wonder if any additional meaning was implied by this.

[Reichu]

A weird thing about 閉塞の拡大 (heisoku no kakudai) is that it sounds very... medical. Heisoku can be "blockage" or "obstruction" as in "arterial blockage". Kakudai refers to the condition "expanding" or "spreading". So the visual is along the lines of a clot that's getting bigger, far as I can tell. Why in the world was this chosen as a title? What does it have to do with the scene the music accompanies?

I also wonder if "The Occlusion's Growth" might work as a reasonable English equivalent.

[ReiAyanami25]

A weird thing about 閉塞の拡大 (heisoku no kakudai) is that it sounds very... medical. Heisoku can be "blockage" or "obstruction" as in "arterial blockage". Kakudai refers to the condition "expanding" or "spreading". So the visual is along the lines of a clot that's getting bigger, far as I can tell. Why in the world was this chosen as a title? What does it have to do with the scene the music accompanies?

I also wonder if "The Occlusion's Growth" might work as a reasonable English equivalent.

It is strange, yes. Perhaps it is symbolically referring to an unpleasant or hostile element/feeling that is growing larger or more ominous over time.

[Dream]

^ I supposse it would be either that or as a contrast to the rather hopeful feeling/message of the heisoku no kakudai scene (And combining it with the final scene, i guess it could leave a pretty pessimistic outlook, if memory doesn't fail me Anno was quite deppressed during the making of EoE after all) Basically, irony.

Or probably also the new "vitality" or resolution/hope of Shinji (And to a lesser extent, of humanity) Not being possibly "held" anymore by any sort of jail or blockage, unlike their previous life.

[1731298478]

A weird thing about 閉塞の拡大 (heisoku no kakudai) is that it sounds very... medical. Heisoku can be "blockage" or "obstruction" as in "arterial blockage". Kakudai refers to the condition "expanding" or "spreading". So the visual is along the lines of a clot that's getting bigger, far as I can tell. Why in the world was this chosen as a title? What does it have to do with the scene the music accompanies?

I've been thinking about this, as it's quite an interesting question.

I think there are two primarily meanings heisoku can have here (which may be related to one another). One is the sense in which it is used in the film itself:

SPOILER: Show

The line in Bochan_bird's translation reads:

SEELE 12: It is merely a rite of passage... To bring about the rebirth in those who are imprisoned.

The original line uses heisoku shita:

０１２「これは通過儀式なのだ。閉塞した人類が再生するための」

This concept is related to Misato's comment just prior, which uses ikidumatta instead of heisoku. From Bochan_bird's translation:

Misato (to herself): Having reached its limit as a colony of flawed and separate entities, Humankind is to be artificially evolved into a perfect single being.

ミサト「できそこないの群体としてすでに行きづまった人類を、完全な単体としての生物へと人工進化させる補完計画。

So the phrase heisoku no kakudai could be seen as related to the failure of instrumentality as an attempt to clear away a "blockage."

The other is the sense in which Anno habitually uses it in interviews and comments: to describe a kind of feeling of an impasse facing contemporary Japan. It is referred to in the Refrain of Evangelion booklet's commentary on the song (utilizing here the transcript of the English translation that has been posted on the board):

Director Anno previously made a comment that he wanted to “break down the blockage” in his TV anime making. He thinks that one of the reasons why EVANGELION had such a huge success is that this blockage that he talked about synchronized with general society’s own blockage.

I have tried to translate a number of examples with context from johakyu, which will give a sense of how he uses the term. The comment of Anno's that the booklet quotes is "閉塞感を打破したい" in the Japanese. I don't know the exact sources of the booklet, but the second-to-last article here uses "閉塞を打破したい". The "mission statement" of the new Evangelion films uses the phrase "閉塞感を打破したい" exactly.

SPOILER: Show

Please forgive in advance any inaccuracies in the translation. Usages of the term heisoku are rendered as "blockage" in quotation marks.

An excerpt from the September 1997 issue of Monthly Newtype magazine:

―「エヴァ」はいままでの監督の作品と比べても、監督自身の考えが強く投影された作品になりましたね。

- Compared with your [other] works thus far, Eva was a work where your own thoughts were strongly projected onto it.

庵野 「自分を押し殺して他人を描くことをよしとする人たちから見れば、僕の行為は愚の骨頂以外の何物でもないと思います。ただ、10年、20年、30年とあいまいな閉塞感の中で生きてきた僕らは、自分を叫ぶしかなかった。個の存在を他者に認識してもらうしか、自己の存在が認識できない、寂しい世代なんだと思います。」

Anno: I think that, seen from the perspective of those who value suppressing one's self and depicting other people, there is nothing more foolish than what I have done. But, we who have lived in the midst of a vague feeling of "blockage" for ten, twenty, or thirty years, can do nothing but call attention to ourselves. I think we are a lonely generation who can do nothing but get others to recognize [our?] individual existences, being unable to recognize our own existences.

An excerpt from the postscript to Love and Pop, dated 1997:

ただ私は、
虚構の中の現実
閉塞の中の希望、つまり
夢
と、同じ感覚を捜し求めて
いるに過ぎなかったのだ。

The reality within the fiction
The hope within the "blockage"
In short, the dream
All I was doing was searching
For something with the same feeling.

An excerpt from a conversation with Nagisa Oshima, director of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and In the Realm of the Senses. This is from the January 2001 issue of the magazine Eureka.

庵野 [中略] 僕は現代の日本にこだわりたいんです。戦後も何も僕らにはないので、今しかないんですよ。ロクな過去が僕らの原体験にないので、過去をベースにしても、より希薄になるだけなんです。かといって未来を描くほど、楽観主義じゃない。未来をやると、今は必ず悲観的にしかならないので。だとすると、目の前にあるものと向かい合いたいんですけど、そうすると、何もない自分というのが浮き彫りになって、戸惑うばかりなんです。『エヴァンゲリオン』の場合は、何もないというのを提示しちゃったんで、今度はその先の、何もないからどうすればいいのか、というのをやらなくちゃいけないんですけど、それはなかなか見つからなくて、立ち往生してるんです。そういうときに『御法度』を観るとですね、「わっ、おやじは頑張ってるのに……」。

Anno: [...] I want to focus on contemporary Japan. Since we [my generation] doesn't have the post-war period or anything else, there is nothing but the present. The worthy past was outside of our formative experiences, so even if we base something on the past, it only becomes more deficient. On the other hand, to the extent we depict the future, it is without optimism. If we depict the future, today it will surely only be in a pessimistic way. This being the case, I want to confront what is right before my eyes, but when I do so, my empty self comes into sharp relief, and I merely become perplexed. In the case of Evangelion, I thoroughly presented this emptiness, but now beyond that - I am empty, so what should I do? - that's what I have to do, but I've been struggling to find [what that is], and so come to a standstill. At such a time I saw "Taboo," [and thought,] "Ah, this old man is giving his all, [but I] ...."

大島 (笑)。

Oshima: (Laughing)

庵野 という感じがして追い詰められるんです。出口がなかなか見つかりません。それは僕らに共通するところだと思います。今の四〇くらいの人以降は、全共闘も安保もないですから、それをテレビで見てて、否定的な気分、「やっても仕方がない」といういわゆるシラケのムードが根付いちゃってますよね。そういう子供のころから閉塞しちゃってる自分たちは、どうすれば先にいけるんだろうか、これからもずーっと付きまとうんじゃないかと思います。

Anno: Feeling this way, I have been driven into a corner. I am struggling to find an exit. I think that is common to [my generation]. For people now in their forties and below, since there is no joint struggle or anpo [toso], seeing those things on television, a negative feeling, a so-called "shirake mood" [feeling of apathy] like, "even if I do something it won't make any difference," has taken root. I think that we who have been "blocked" since the time we were children will always be haunted by [the question of] what we should do in order to be able to move forwards.

This is a comment by Anno from the outside wrapping of D[di:]'s Kigurumi. An example of the book's style is here.

閉塞の中の異体。文字と画とコマ割の融合。
この世界観は、言葉に出来ません。ただ、奇妙で面白いのです。

Another body [?] within the "blockage." A fusion of words and images and koma-wari [i.e., sections with panels like a manga].
I cannot put this worldview into words. But it is strange and interesting.

This is from the August 2001 issue of Eureka, dealing specially with Miyazaki's Spirited Away:

庵野 「ただ、アニメの技術だけで言えば、どんどん落ちていると思います。二〇年前、三〇年前のアニメのほうが圧倒的に良かったと思います。[中略] もちろんいまでも、うまい人はいますけど、往年のアニメの動きにはまだまだかなわない感じがします。」

Anno: However, if I was to speak just of anime as an artform, I believe it is rapidly declining. I find the anime of twenty or thirty years ago to be overwhelmingly better [than today's]. [...] Of course, even now, although we have skillful people, I feel we have a ways to go before we match the movement of the older anime.

―その原因というのはどういうことなんでしょう？

- What is the cause of that?

庵野 「日本人のそのものの質の問題じゃないですか。司馬遼太郎風に言うと、日本の電圧が下がっているという」それはアニメだけじゃなく、小説にしても映画にしても漫画にしても、どの文化も確実に下がっていると思います。単に昔が良かったというわけでもないですが。それはもう、僕ら以降はコピー文化なので、しょうがないところがあります。コピーにコピーを重ねるとどんどん歪んで薄くなっていきますから。[中略] この状況は、なかなか改善できないんじゃないですかね。難しいと思います。日本はこの先、どんどん行き詰まっていくんでしょうね。で、何年先、あるいはもっと先に、誰かが何とかするかもしれないし、このまま衰退していくだけかもしれません。また日本という国では、文化はもう閉塞して、韓国とか中国とか東南アジアで突出したいいものが出来て、日本のものを駆逐する日が来るかもしれません。閉塞を打破したいという意志が必要だと思います。

Anno: It's a problem of the quality of the Japanese people themselves. To express it in the style of Shiba Ryotaro, the voltage of Japan is decreasing. It's not just anime; novels, films, manga, no matter the kind of culture, they are all surely declining, I believe. It's not simply a matter of the old times being good. We[, my generation,] and those after are already a "copy culture," so there's nothing else we can do. As copy piles upon copy, they quickly become distorted and diluted. [...] In this situation, things can hardly be improved. It's difficult, I think. From here, Japan will probably rapidly reach an impasse. Perhaps years from now, or perhaps longer, someone will figure out something, and perhaps things will just keep declining. In Japan as a country, culture has already become "blocked." Korea, China, and South Asia have been able to produce exemplary works, and the day may arrive when they do away with Japanese things. I believe the intention to break down this "blockage" is essential.

From the statement released before the new films, "我々は再び、何を作ろうとしているのか":

蔓延する閉塞感を打破したいという願い。

The desire to break down the feeling of "blockage" which is spreading.

[gwern]

As usual, thanks for the translations Numbers-kun; many of those excerpts are from previously unrepresented works.

Incidentally, am I imagining it or is Johakyu.net now dead and gone? When did that happen?