“Cantonese is a difficult language to learn — not because of its sounds or syntax, but because it’s hard to find good learning resources”

– Eldon

Well, let’s remedy that one mini-transcript at a time, as has been the custom established by Edwin and CanteHK!

白卜庭議長: 要派Jedi{絕地}去救Jabba{賈霸}個仔
baak buk ting yi jeung: yiu paai Jedi {jyut dei} heui gau Jabba {ga ba} go jai
[We] need to send Jedi Knights to rescue Jabba’s son

魅使·雲度: 嗯 其實我真係 好唔想同呢個壞蛋打交道
mei si wan dou: ng kei sat ngo jan hai hou m seung tung ni go waai daan da gaau dou
Hmmm…I’d really rather not deal with that ruffian.

• Audio

Note: I’ve never seen Star Wars: Clone Wars in English, so…I don’t know what the original lines were. These are my re-translation back into English from Cantonese.

『宇宙，人類的終極邊疆。這就是星艦「企業」號的旅程。
它的任務是探索全新的世界，挖掘新的物種和文明，勇敢的前往沒有人去過的地方。』
[Audio file]

Shortest AJATT post ever…

早上好。
再過一小時，
這裡的飛機將與世界各地的盟友並肩戰鬥。
你們將參與人類歷史上最大的空戰。

人類。這個詞今天對於我們所有人將有新的意義。
我們不能再為小小的分歧而內耗。
我們將為共同的利益團結起來。

也許是上帝的安排，今天是獨立日。
你們將再一次為自由而戰。
不是為了反抗暴政、壓迫和迫害。
而是免遭毀滅。
是為生存的權力而戰鬥。

如果我們今天能夠勝利，
七月四日將不僅只是美國人民的假日，
而且將使全世界人民發出同樣的吶喊：

“我們不會默默地走向黑暗！”
“我們不會就這樣坐以待斃！”
“我們要生活下去！”
“我們一定要生存！”

今天我們要慶祝自己的獨立日！

Today the objet of our adulation is that space-themed romantic comedy romp, Crimson Tide, starring Denzel Washington and Aragorn.

Gene Hackman’s Captain Ramsey gives that speech early on in the film before they board the U-boat. It’s one of my favorites, so I went ahead and transcribed it. Don’t ever say I never did nothing for the peoples!

Anyway, enjoy, and here’s the text of the original speech. Also, here’s a link to the Japanese audio for the little speech.

『全員整列致しました！

家鴨共よ！
露西亜でトラブルだ！
それで呼ばれた。
だから我々は行く（ﾕｸ）！
但し、最も凶悪な殺しのマシーンに乗って、だ。

その気に成れば、
戦争の歴史を塗り替える程の、強力な兵器を発射出来るのだ。
目的は唯一つ！祖国を護る為だ！
我々は国防の最前線に就き、
同時に最後の防衛線と成る。

諸君に望む事は、
最善の努力だ。
それが出来ない者は、空軍に入って貰いたい！
最高司令官は大統領であるが、
これは私の艦(ﾌﾈ)だ。
それに乗る以上は、私に従って貰いたい。
それが出来ない者は、ケツの辺りに刺激的な感覚を覚えるであろう。
私の蹴りが入るからだ！

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ミスター＝コッブ！

はい、艦長！

この艦(ﾌﾈ)の名前を知っておるか？

よく知って居ります！

それは誇り高い名前であるか？

誇り高い名前であります！

乗組員は優秀であるか？

極めて優秀であります！

偉大なる国に住む者か？

偉大なる国の者であります！

其処は世界に冠たる国であるか？

世界に冠たる国であります！

この艦(ﾌﾈ)の名は何だ？

「アラバマ」であります！

気合を入れろ！
行け(ｺﾞｰ)　「バマ」！

行け(ｺﾞｰ)　「バマ」！

艇長！　乗組員解散！

乗組員　解散！了解しました！
乗組員！これより解散して、銘々の部署に就く！
解散！』

As much as it pains me to admit fallibility, there are two words there’s a bit at the very end that I just couldn’t make out clearly. I think #1 is 「以上」 and #2 is…#2 I just have no freaking idea: it sounds like 「命令」, but that doesn’t seem like it would make much sense.

Anyone with a clearer idea…feel free to share .

[Big thanks to KREVA for totally wiping up my mess! I mean covering me!  I mean...yes!]. By way of more late-breaking news — it turns out there at least two other people online who’ve already transcribed this, so check them out here, and here.

I think maybe I’ll do the “you can’t handle the truth” exchange from A Few Good Men next…if I feel like it . Not feeling like it yet…

Transcribed all of 攻殼機動隊/Ghost in the Shell (GITS)! That’s right! All the movies [except Solid State Society] and of course all episodes of Stand Alone Complex. The dialog, baby. All of it. In Japanese! Exactly as spoken on-screen.

Those who have looked will know that Japanese/East Asian movies and TV shows that have same-language subs at all, let alone subs that exactly match dialog, are a rare and precious thing indeed. Like, I bet you’ll practically watch a mediocre show just because it has subs (depending on the language, I know I would). Some of the reasons for this are pretty decently summed up here.

GITS notably has no Japanese subs on any of its present DVD releases, despite easily being one of the densest, most literary (is that even the right word?) programs of any kind ever made. Japanese subs for GITS would have been nice. But, whatever, now we have this website — with copy-and-pastable text to boot! W00t.

So, yeah, enjoy. By the way, I would definitely recommend this kind of thing for sentence-picking. And if any of you are inclined to make sentence packs or SRS files for people, this kind of thing, i.e. Japanese by and for native speakers, would IMHO be the best for, like, the health of the world, and in terms of source material [since, as we all know, material made for learners often tends to be some combination of boring and unrealistic].

As an aside, let it also be noted that Ghibli’s 物の怪姫/Princess Mononoke also has exact subs on its Japanese DVD release. Just FYI.

And we’re done! Enjoy!

• Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG on YouTube.
• Script thereof