Baki Dou - Vol. 21 Ch. 181 - In For A Penny

[MangaDex]

 

[vTool]

I SMELL PENNIES

A cream palace? What could that mean?
Thanks for your work!

 

[Bobbleknob]

Baki the kinda guy to look at the deadliest swordsman and see a cream palace

 

[Bullza]

Please keep up this pace.

 

[HDMI1]

@vTool In Japanese the word for both sweet and soft is "Amai", so by saying that Miyamoto is too sweet he may mean that the swordsman is too soft; that he seeks glory instead of actually perfecting his martial arts.

 

[toastedguy]

I have no idea what the fuck is going on

 

[pdonk]

what was the original Japanese expression Miyamoto used when he says "in for a penny in for a pound"? I liked the way it escalates up to "in for your whole life" but I'm just curious if there's an equivalent JPN expression or what.

 

[applechair]

Even translated it’s like reading a different language. What the hell are they talking about.

 

[vTool]

@HDMI1
thanks for explaining!

 

[Kireato]

@HDMI1

Thanks for the explanation. I honestly had no idea what was meant either.

 

[Garnt69]

Damn, a perfect meal~

 

[onepenguin0]

@pdonk
In short, what is written there is my favourite achievement in J->E translation.

Musashi begins by using the Japanese idiom 毒を食らわば皿まで. Somewhat literally, the Japanese phrase is 'If you are to eat poisoned food, then you might as well lick the plate clean'. The 'licking' is implicit rather than explicit. On its own, this fairly simply translates to "in for a penny, in for a pound".
But, then, Musashi begins to coin variations for the purpose of word play, modifying and extending that same idiom: next, he says 皿を食らわば盆までも. The literal Japanese could be translated as "If you are to eat the plate, then you might as well eat the tray on which the plate is served."
Musashi continues: 盆を食らわば人までも - "If you are to eat the tray, then you might as well eat the man who brought it to you."

Musashi is manipulating the idiom both to make reference to the fact that Baki appeared to him as a banquet and to indicate that, despite Baki no longer registering as a 'banquet', he still plans to kill him. I spent a very long time coming up with what I wrote on those pages. I think (hope) I got it just right.

 

[pdonk]

@onepenguin0 wow, that's pretty cool! maybe you could have left the idioms as-is, since they're straightforward enough, but taking the localization job a step further and elaborating on an existing English idioms is really clever. Especially the way you connected "in for a pound" to the "pound of flesh". Well done!