Monogatari Series - Volume 28 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Like most people, I used to hold the opinion of, “What use will any of these subjects I study in school have for my future?” but thinking about it now, it’s true that they’ve been quite useful. For example, if it weren’t for literature, I probably wouldn’t be reading books anymore, and if it weren’t for mathematics, perhaps I would have been much more careless with my shopping. However, if someone answered my question in such a way, I would have surely gone, “That’s not what I’m looking for,” with a hazy feeling in my chest. Perhaps rather than wanting to know “What use will they be?” I simply did not want to study at all. Though I wonder what would have happened if someone told me, “You’d be worthless even if you did study”... In actuality, rather than whether or not they’ll be useful, it’s really more about viewing things with the angle of how you can meaningfully apply what you know, so in that sense, studying at school is kind of like training your muscles. Physical education is a clear representative example, because regardless of whether or not you become an athlete, your body will soon start to weaken if you don’t exercise, and your muscles will quickly atrophy… The exercise done by astronauts on spaceships may not have a direct use for their space travel, but that doesn’t mean they can just avoid doing it. Similarly, studying in school is like exercising your brain, or like going for a run every morning. Saying that surely won’t give anyone the motivation to study harder, but in a way, thinking about what use studying might have can also be a form of training that builds the habit of thinking.

As such, I have finally managed to finish writing Araragi-kun’s university chapter. In the first place, when I began the series, I hadn’t even planned for him to take entrance exams, but on that front, none of it had really been planned at all, so I could say it was a very Araragi-kun-like life to have lived. Going forward, I’m sure he will continue to live an unplanned life. Incidentally, at the preview stage, the titles had been “Episode Eight: Deathtopia Destiny”, “Episode Nine: Deathtopia Destination”, and “Final Episode: Deathtopia Death Education”, but I have put it all together into “Episode Eight: Shinobu Suicide”, so I hope you’ll receive it favorably. With the feeling of it being impossible to make use of something if you can’t think of how it could be useful, this was a novel written 100 percent to the death as a hobby,140 the fifth volume of the Monogatari series’s Monster Season, “Shinomonogatari (1)”.

The thirteen-year-old version of Oshino Shinobu was drawn for the front cover. VOFAN-san, thank you very much. In terms of the content, there is almost no link to Volume 1, but please enjoy Volume 2 in which Sengoku Nadeko plays a great role (?), the conclusion of Monster Season, “Final Episode: Nadeko Around”.

NISIOISIN

Translator’s Afterword

The Monogatari series has never been particularly shy about including references to whatever media the author is interested in at the moment or whatever news has happened to catch his eye, but this novel feels unique in that so many references are localized to a specific time and place, that being the COVID-19 pandemic as seen by Japan. It’s briefly alluded to in the text itself, but this novel did really feel like modern historical fiction of sorts, an attempt to capture the brief explosion of pandemic-related culture that was once universally known (by the Japanese people, anyway) but is soon to be forgotten. Of course, if there are to be any anthropologists researching changes in culture as a result of the pandemic, it’s hard to believe that they’ll start with the twenty-seventh novel in a series to source their information.

Generally, a novel’s author has an audience in mind, whether consciously or unconsciously, and in the case of this novel, I could imagine that the various references to the pandemic were written for an audience already familiar with those references. It puts me in an interesting position as a translator, as the act of translation involves exposing the story, and the culture embedded within it, to a wider range of people, beyond the audience that was likely intended. I’m not sure if I was ever consciously aware of it, but it really makes me realize that a novel is more than just its plot and characters (though that sounds really obvious when I put it like that). Hopefully I’ve managed to convey the novel’s little slice of the pandemic life accurately. If you were present for the COVID-19 pandemic (assuming you were not stranded on a deserted island somewhere), perhaps you enjoyed comparing with your own experiences and seeing where they differed. Or perhaps they were so utterly the same to the point of being uninteresting, but then again, perhaps the fact that pandemic culture was so similar across different countries is interesting in its own right.

Of course, I’m not trying to claim that I played a particularly large role in translating this novel (though I will admit it was a large amount of work for me). A novel may begin with its writer, but it can only be truly completed by the reader—you could say the translator is but a layover on its trip to the destination that is you (yes, you!). So, while you’re feeling a sense of appreciation for the author for writing this novel (and I wouldn’t mind getting some appreciation myself), why not take some time to give thanks to yourself for picking up this novel and reading it?

And, while this should have no bearing on you being thankful to yourself, on behalf of the author, I would like to thank you for reading “Shinomonogatari (1)”—and I would also like to thank you for reading my translation.

Polaris

Updated May 14, 2024

Notes

[←1]

 我が世の春 wa ga yo no haru “heyday”, literally “the spring of my world”.

[←2]

 小春日和 koharubiyori “Indian summer”, literally “small spring weather”. Indian summer refers to the period of unseasonal warm weather in autumn. While English considers this a mini-summer, Japanese considers this a mini-spring.

[←3]

 間 aida “between” (in the context of 間を取る aida o toru “take the middle ground”), 闇 yami “darkness”.

[←4]

 アウトロー autoroo means “outlaw”, but it can also mean “out low” as in “down-and-away” in baseball.

[←5]

 転機 tenki “turning point”, 転落 tenraku “plunge, dive” (translated as “downturn”). 堕落 daraku “corruption”.

[←6]

 落 ochi “fall”, オチ ochi “punch line”.

[←7]

 懲りる koriru “to learn from experience”, 懲らしめる korashimeru “to discipline”.

[←8]

 枕 makura, literally “pillow”. It’s a term in rakugo referring to the lead-in before the actual story, but it gets interpreted literally in the next line.

[←9]

 事情 jijou “circumstances”, 情事 jouji “love affair”.

[←10]

 巧み takumi “skillful”, 匠 takumi “workman, artisan”.

[←11]

 テレホーダイ TeleHodai is a service that offers (or offered) reduced prices for calls during off-peak hours. The name derives from テレホン terehon “telephone” and 放題 houdai “doing as much as one pleases”. In the Japanese, Koyomi uses TeleHodai as an adjective to describe Meniko, so it’s less about the actual usage of the service and more about the impression that the name gives off.

[←12]

 心配 shinpai “concern” shares kanji with 心を配りる kokoro o kubaru “to pay attention, to show concern”.

[←13]

 浮き彫りになる ukibori ni naru “to make distinct”, 浮き沈み ukishizumi “ups and downs”.

[←14]

 アマビエ Amabie. A legendary creature said to ward off disease. Gained meme status during the COVID-19 pandemic as a “coronavirus countermeasure”.

[←15]

 The Takamatsu-Kotohira Railroad Co., Ltd., aka Kotoden, has a dolphin mascot named Koto-chan whose favorite food is udon.

[←16]

 いただきます itadakimasu, a phrase said before a meal, with マスク masuku “mask”.

[←17]

 絶賛 zessan “great acclaim”, 絶縁 zetsuen “cutting ties”.

[←18]

 三度目 sandome “third time”, 死に目 shinime “facing death”.

[←19]

 噛みしめる kamishimeru “to savor”, 噛み合う kamiau “to mesh together”.

[←20]

 保護者 hogosha “guardian”, 保育 hoiku “day care, nursing”.

[←21]

 デカメロン dekameron “Decameron”, can be read as デカ deka (short for デカい dekai “massive”) メロン meron “melons”.

[←22]

 品のない hin no nai “vulgar”, 品性 hinsei “character”. The final line uses 下品性 gehinsei, which is a portmanteau of 下品 gehin “vulgar” and 品性 hinsei “character”.

[←23]

 李も桃も桃のうち sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi. A Japanese tongue twister that literally means “Both plums and peaches are in the peach family.”

[←24]

 Shinobu originally said 海の藻屑 umi no mokuzu “(send you to) a watery grave”, before following up with ももももも屑 momomomomokuzu, referencing the previous tongue twister.

[←25]

 亡命 boumei “exile”. The kanji can be interpreted to mean “loss of life”, though there is no real linguistic connection to death.

[←26]

 からがら karagara “barely”, 亡骸 nakigara “corpse”, 抜け殻 nukegara “empty shell”.

[←27]

 国名 kokumei “country name”, 克明 kokumei “careful”.

[←28]

 Referencing a haiku by Matsuo Bashō, a part of Oku no Hosomichi.

[←29]

 虫の知らせ mushi no shirase “premonition”, literally “warning of a bug” (the “bug” in this case refers to bad things in general). Shinobu amends this to 鬼の知らせ oni no shirase, “warning of a demon”.

[←30]

 デス desu, shortened from デストピア desutopia “Deathtopia”. Technically the nickname would simply be “Death”, but I think “Deathy” keeps it affectionate while not overlapping with, like, the personification of death.

[←31]

 Reference to the poem 小景異情 shoukei ijou by Saisei Murou. (There’s no English source to give a proper English title for the poem, but if I were to translate it myself, it would be “Fine Scenery, Odd Feelings”.)

[←32]

 Reference to a line from the Analects of Confucius. 

[←33]

 The original pun is 案 an “plan” and 不安 fuan “unease”.

[←34]

 Kagenui’s name (影縫) is itself a reference to 影縫い kagenui or “shadow sewing”, a technique from ninja legends that could supposedly immobilize an opponent by pinning their shadow to the ground with a kunai.

[←35]

 三密 san-mitsu is a slogan made by the Japanese government to combat the pandemic, referring to three factors that can contribute to infection: 密閉 “closed spaces”, 密集 “crowded places”, and 密接 “close-contact settings”, all starting with the kanji 密, which means “close” or “dense”. It’s often translated as “Three Cs”, but there’s a prevalence of 密 used throughout the story which had me translate it as “Three Closes” for a clearer association.

[←36]

 In Japanese, Romania is written as ルーマニア ruumania, which can be parsed as “roux mania” (roux being an important component of Japanese curry).

[←37]

 She says 甘い amai here, meaning “naive” in context, but literally meaning “sweet”. She then alludes to the sweet flavor of Japanese curry.

[←38]

 渡りに船 watarinifune. The figurative meaning is “godsend” or “timely offer”, but it literally means “a boat for crossing”. I preserved the literal meaning in the translation for Koyomi’s extended metaphor.

[←39]

 難航 nankou “rough going”, 難破 nanpa “shipwreck”.

[←40]

 綿密 menmitsu “detailed, scrupulous”. Containing 密 mitsu from the aforementioned 三密 san mitsu “Three Closes”.

[←41]

 余計 yokei “superfluous”, 余接 “Yotsugi”.

[←42]

 The term used here is 徐行 jokou “slow-moving”, which is usually used to describe cars or trains.

[←43]

 Instead of using the kanji 影縫 for Kagenui, Shinobu refers to her using the katakana カゲヌイ. It suggests that she’s using the name in a somewhat affected manner.

[←44]

 必要普及 hitsuyou fukyuu “essential diffusion” is basically a made up phrase that puns on 不要不急 fuyou fukyuu “non-essential and non-urgent”, a term that saw more use during the pandemic.

[←45]

 Yotsugi’s previous two usages of “fine” came from 結構 kekkou, which can mean “sufficient” and can be used to imply “no thank you”. In this line, she actually says 決行 kekkou, meaning “to carry out”, as though she was trying to refuse but her true feelings slipped through. I translated this as “fine” with the meaning of refusing as well as the meaning of positively responding to the suggestion of ice cream.

[←46]

 Yotsugi puns 本 hon “books” with 本気を出す honki o dasu “to get serious”. I tried my best with “read” and “carried away”.

[←47]

 Koyomi uses 信憑性 shinpyousei “credibility”, and follows up with 憑喪神 tsukumogami. Note that tsukumogami is usually written as 付喪神, but the first kanji is replaced with the older variant 憑 for the wordplay. (憑 also appears in the title 憑物語 Tsukimonogatari.)

[←48]

 令和 Reiwa is the name of the current era of Japan’s official calendar (with respect to the publication date).

[←49]

 Koyomi puns 令和 Reiwa (see note 48) with 零和 rei wa, where 零 rei can mean “zero” and 和 wa can mean “sum”.

[←50]

 本読み hon’yomi “reading”, 棒読み bouyomi “monotone”.

[←51]

 The word for “acquaintance” (知人 chijin) contains the kanji for “person” (人).

[←52]

 ハシブトガラス hashibudo garasu “jungle crow”, ハシボソガラス hashiboso garasu “carrion crow”.

[←53]

 Koyomi combines 先達 sendatsu “leader, senior figure” with 達観 takkan “philosophical view” to make 先達観 (not a real word).

[←54]

 コビッド kobiddo “COVID”, こびと kobito “dwarfs”.

[←55]

 陽性 yousei “positive”, 太陽 taiyou “sun”.

[←56]

 裏目 urame “back” (as in “backfire”), punned with 弱り目に祟り目 yowari-me ni tatari-me, a figure of speech that often gets translated as “misfortunes never come singly”. The wordplay comes from the repetition of 目 me.

[←57]

 おののく ononoku means “to tremble”, punning with the name Ononoki.

[←58]

 向こう見ず mukou mizu “recklessness”, 向こう傷 mukou kizu “frontal wound”.

[←59]

 A reference to kibori kuma from Hokkaido.

[←60]

 滅多斬り mettagiri “hacking to pieces”, 滅多 metta “thoughtless, careless”.

[←61]

 A spin on 死人に口なし shinin ni kuchi nashi “Dead men tell no tales”, with 不死 fushi “immortal”.

[←62]

 力押し chikara-oshi “brute force”, punning with 忍野 Oshino.

[←63]

 The original phrase for “Three heads are better than two” was 三人寄れば文もん殊じゅの知恵 sannin yoreba monju no chie, which means something along the lines of “If you put three people together, you can achieve the wisdom of Manjushri.” The follow-up is just Koyomi ruminating on the counter for “three people” (三人 sannin) uses the kanji for “person, human” (人).

[←64]

 沽券 koken “reputation”, ずっこけん zukkoken, a conjugation of ずっこける zukkokeru “to make a fool of oneself”.

[←65]

 色濃い irokoi “marked, pronounced” shares kanji with 敗色濃厚 haishoku noukou “probable defeat”.

[←66]

 The joke here is that Koyomi says 映える haeru “to look attractive”, and follows up with 映える baeru, using the same kanji with a different pronunciation. The latter means something along the lines of “to look good in photos” (or “photogenic”) and is a neologism that has come into usage particularly because of social media like Instagram.

[←67]

 擬態 gitai “camouflage”, 擬死 gishi “playing dead”.

[←68]

 鯖を読む saba o yomu is idiomatic for “inflating or deflating one’s age” (or more broadly, “manipulating figures to one’s advantage”), but literally means “to read mackerel”, referring to when fish dealers would arbitrarily rate the freshness of mackerel in order to sell it. Koyomi amends the aquatic metaphor with 赤潮 akashio “red tide”, also known as “harmful algal bloom”.

[←69]

 From earlier in the series, ぱないの panaino is a variation of 半端ない hanpa nai “impressive”, but can literally mean “not half-baked”.

[←70]

 ごちそうさま gochisousama, a phrase said after a meal, with マスク masuku “mask”. See footnote 16.

[←71]

 死体 shitai “corpse”, 姿勢 shisei “attitude”.

[←72]

 Koyomi says ぐうの音も出ない guu no ne mo denai “being lost for words”, though the literal meaning is something like “can’t even make a forced sound”. Yotsugi says 断末魔の音が出るかも danmatsuma no ne ga deru kamo, which is something like “maybe you can make the sound of your death throes”.

[←73]

 The context is basically as described, but for reference, the words used were 伝染病 densenbyou “contagious disease” and 感染症 kansenbyou “infectious disease”.

[←74]

 A reference to “Go To” campaigns started by Japan in the second half of the year 2020 to boost industries affected by the coronavirus, such as “Go To Travel” and “Go To Eat”.

[←75]

 切り出す kiridasu “to begin talking”, but can literally mean “to cut out”. 切りつける kiritsukeru, “to cut at”. 

[←76]

 密 mitsu “close”, 罪 tsumi “crime”.

[←77]

 懐柔 kaijuu “winning over” shares kanji with 懐 futokoro “bosom” and 柔らかい yawarakai “soft”.

[←78]

 風景 fuukei “sight, scenery”, 殺風景 sappuukei “dreary, bleak”.

[←79]

 植民 shokumin “colonization”, 植樹 shokuju “tree-planting”.

[←80]

 植える ueru “to grow”, 飢える ueru “to starve”.

[←81]

 傾物語 Kabukimonogatari refers to the eighth novel of the Monogatari series, with the title having been translated as “Dandy Tale”. The literal translation could be something like “Tilted Tale”, as it shares kanji with 傾く katamuku “to slant, to tilt”.

[←82]

 In Japanese, the term for “own goal” used to be 自殺点 jisatsuten “suicide point”. After a Colombian player scored an own goal in the 1994 FIFA World Cup and was later shot to death, the Japan Football Association officially switched from using the term “suicide point” to the English term “own goal”.

[←83]

 Apparently, girls in their early teens can be referred to as the “real-life PreCure generation” as they’re in the same age range as the PreCure characters.

[←84]

 吸血鬼 kyuuketsuki “vampire” includes the kanji for 鬼 oni. The literal translation for “vampire” could be “blood-sucking oni”.

[←85]

 修羅場 shuraba can mean “scene of carnage”, derived from 修羅 shura, which means “Asura” (in the Buddhist sense) with a second meaning of “carnage, conflict”.

[←86]

 覚悟 kakugo “resolve”, 覚醒 kakusei “awakening, alertness”.

[←87]

 打倒 datou “subversion, overthrowing”, 妥当 datou “reasonable, appropriate”.

[←88]

 風刺 fuushi “irony, sarcasm” shares kanji with 刺さる sasaru “to prick, to pierce”. I chose “biting” to the same effect, as a word more commonly paired with irony in English.

[←89]

 毒を食らわば皿まで doku o kurawaba sara made “If you eat poison, you may as well lick the plate”, a phrase meaning that if you’ve committed a crime, you may as well devote yourself to being a criminal.

[←90]

 見る影もない miru kage mo nai, literally “not even a shadow is visible”. The figurative meaning is as given, but “shadow” is the key term here with respect to vampires.

[←91]

 Appears to be a pun on 令和 Reiwa and 電話 denwa “phone”.

[←92]

 No wordplay here, just an oblique reference to the difference in sound quality between cordless and landline phones. I felt like I had to explain the joke because it seemed unfunny enough for people to wonder if there was meant to be wordplay here.

[←93]

 実りある minori aru “fruitful”, 実現 jitsugen “realization, actualization”. They share the kanji 実, which can mean “fruit” or “truth”.

[←94]

 御簾 misu, also known as 簾 sudare.

[←95]

 悔い kui “regret”, 食い残し kuinokoshi “leftovers”.

[←96]

 万死 banshi “certain death”, translated as “death-certain” in Deathtopia’s alias, can literally mean “ten thousand deaths”.

[←97]

 Like Shinobu, Deathtopia refers to Kagenui using the katakana カゲヌイ.

[←98]

 密 mitsu “closeness” (referring to the “Three Closes”), and 秘密 himitsu “secret”.

[←99]

 生態系 seitaikei “ecosystem”. 生態 seitai, which means “mode of life”, is replaced with 死体 shitai, or “corpse”.

[←100]

 証人 shounin “witness” contains the kanji for 人 “person”.

[←101]

 Shinobu says ベルベット berubetto “velvet” when she means モルモット morumotto “guinea pig”, with Kagenui’s next line actually being “Velvet is more like the curtain surrounding the throne”. “Canopy bed” and “guinea pig” are a stretch, but passable for the extended joke.

[←102]

 Yotsugi refers to them using お前達 omae-tachi “you (plural)”. お前 omae is a word for “you” with a very casual (and potentially disrespectful) vibe.

[←103]

 想い omoi “thoughts, feelings”, 重い omoi “heavy, weighty”.

[←104]

 中止 chuushi “discontinuance”, 注視 chuushi “keeping watch over”.

[←105]

 風が吹けば桶屋が儲かる kaze ga fukeba okeya ga moukaru “If the wind blows, the bucket makers prosper”. An idiom meaning any event can have unexpected consequences.

[←106]

 Originally a one-and-a-half-character response that read りょ ryo, which is Internet slang for 了解 ryoukai “OK, understood”.

[←107]

 余技 yogi “hobby”, 余接 Yotsugi. There’s also あまりにも amari ni mo “too much”, which could have been written as 余りにも, containing the same kanji for 余.

[←108]

 Koyomi uses 余 yo here, which is an outdated first-person pronoun.

[←109]

 童話 douwa “fairy tale”, 童女 doujo “tween girl”.

[←110]

 のろける norokeru “to boast about”, 呪う norou “to curse”.

[←111]

 エモい emoi “emotional”, キモい kimoi “creepy”.

[←112]

 異端 itan “heresy”, punned with あ、そこにいたんだ a, soko ni itan da “Ah, so there you were”.

[←113]

 お馴染み onajimi “old acquaintance”, 涙の染み namida no shimi “tear stains”.

[←114]

 江戸の仇を長崎で討つ edo no kataki o nagasaki de utsu. Literal translation as given, but it’s an idiom that means “to take revenge on someone in an unlikely place”.

[←115]

 恐れ osore “fear”, 畏れ osore “reverence”.

[←116]

 陳謝にして感謝の吸血鬼 chinsha ni shite kansha no kyuuketsuki. It’s supposed to follow the same pattern of “iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire”, but I wasn’t sure if it was very clear, hence this footnote.

[←117]

 モルモットの考え、ハムスターに似たり morumotto no kangae, hamusutaa ni nitari. A reference to the idiom 下手の考え休むに似たり heta no kangae yasumu ni nitari, “Those with poor ideas may as well be asleep.”

[←118]

 失言 shitsugen “verbal gaffe” or “improper wording”, sharing kanji with 言葉を失っている kotoba o ushinatteiru “to be at a loss for words”.

[←119]

 いただきます itadakimasu, a phrase said before a meal. Often translated as “Thanks for the meal”, but it literally means “I receive”, with the follow-up being “I will receive this life”.

[←120]

 相談 soudan “consultation”, 怪談 kaidan “ghost story”.

[←121]

 In the Kansai dialect spoken by Kagenui, なっている natteiru “is becoming” turns into なっとう nattou.

[←122]

 Kagenui first says 優 yuu and 良 ryou, which are Japanese grades equated to the letter grades A and B in other grading systems. She then says 甲 kou and 乙 otsu, which are from an outdated grading system.

[←123]

 変異 hen’i “variation, mutation”, 怪異 kaii “oddity”.

[←124]

 伝言ゲーム dengon geemu “game of telephone”, with 伝染 densen “contagion”.

[←125]

 マリアージュ mariaaju, “mariage”, which is French for “marriage”. Japan abuses this loanword to mean “the pairing of wine with food”.

[←126]

 In Japan, these are combinations of foods known traditionally as causing problems when eaten together (such as indigestion).

[←127]

 執事 shitsuji “butler”, 執拗 shitsukou “stubborn”.

[←128]

 遺志 ishi “dying wish”, 遺伝子 idenshi “genes”.

[←129]

 お冠 o-kanmuri “bad mood”. The word 冠 kanmuri can mean “crown”, like the ones worn by royalty.

[←130]

 主と病には勝たれず shu to yamai ni wa katarezu. Not entirely idiomatic as it basically means what it says—people must submit to the unreasonable demands of their masters and diseases.

[←131]

 誤読 godoku “misread”. Yotsugi suggests that Koyomi might say it as ayama-yomi, which are alternative readings for the kanji (but incorrect in this case).

[←132]

 鬼が出るか蛇が出るか oni ga deru ka hebi ga deru ka, literal translation as given. Figuratively means “Who knows what terrifying thing might happen”.

[←133]

 何食わぬ顔 nani-kuwanu kao “nonchalant expression”. Literally means “the face of someone who hasn’t eaten”.

[←134]

 卑近 hikin “common” shares kanji with 身近 michiga “familiar”.

[←135]

 身も蓋もない mi mo futa mo nai “point-blank, unreserved”. Literally, it means something like “the container has no lid”. Koyomi then follows up with how the coffins did have lids (and contents within them).

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 幽霊の正体見たり枯尾花 yuurei no shoutai mitari kareobana. Literal translation as given. Figuratively means “Things are not as scary as they seem”.

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 むにゃむにゃ munya munya is Japanese onomatopoeia for sleep talk.

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 後日談 gojitsudan, translated as “epilogue”, literally means “the story of a few days later”.

[←139]

 歯に衣着せぬ ha ni kinu kisenu “outspoken; forthright”, literally meaning “without putting clothes on your teeth”. 奥歯にものが挟まった okuba ni mono ga hasamatta “beating around the bush”, literally meaning “something got stuck in your molars”. Both teeth-related phrases, hence the follow-up.

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 The English word DEATH is used instead of です desu, meaning “to be” or “is”.