Translations of Ultimatums

I find translations of cards fascinating. The thing is, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Card names and flavour texts might sound cool in English, but don’t always in the target language. So sometimes words have to be bent, twisted or replaced altogether to get a good translation.

A post at r/LearnJapanese was made today about a translation of a card, which made me think that I’m not the only one that goes through new sets reading translations. This post is about an older cycle, and I hope by reading it you can understand some of the challenges that face translators.

[[Cruel Ultimatum]] [[Clarion Ultimatum]] [[Titanic Ultimatum]] [[Violent Ultimatum]] [[Brilliant Ultimatum]]

The Ultimatums are a cycle of huge spells from Shards of Alara. Big, three color casting costs, big effects. But what exactly is an ultimatum, outside the magic world? Google tells me it’s “a final demand or statement of terms, the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a breakdown in relations”.

This is something of a flavour fail though; these spells seem like a reaction to a breakdown in relations, not a final demand. I can imagine a mage’s ultimatum being “Do what I say, or I’ll Destroy three target permanents”, whereas Violent Ultimatum suggests that the ultimatum itself is the destruction, and not the threat of it. But that doesn’t matter so much, since the word just sounds cool.

But that’s a problem when translating though, because there might not be an equivalent word in the language you’re translating to. The target language probably has a way of expressing that meaning, but not of making it sound cool. The European languages all have an equivalent (I say this because they all look pretty similar: Ultimatum, Ultimatum, Ultimatum, Ultimatum with an accent on the “a”, and Ultimatumo) which I assume sounds just as cool (I’m happy to be set straight if I’m wrong though). But for Asian languages that might not have an equivalent, what to do?

The Japanese translation is quite clever. Instead of using a word that means something similar to “a final demand or statement of terms (…)” they’ve gone for something completely different. The translator has had a look at the flavour text of each of the cards and gone with 根本原理 which my dictionary translates as is “fundamental truth”. Why did they go with that?

Like I said, look at the flavour text. They are all mentioning a fundamental truth. Tezzeret discovers the truth, the others are describing one. To save you having to look them up:

Revealing the truth only deepened Tezzeret's curiosity for the secrets still buried.

Be worthy of a single blessing, and many more will follow.

There is always a greater power.

• “Retribution is best delivered by claws and rage, with both magnified."
—Ajani*

"Words are a waste of time. Destruction is a language everyone understands." —Sarkhan Vol

Magic players love solving puzzles, and the translation of the English card names to Japanese was a puzzle quite cleverly solved. I love how the Japanese kinda makes more sense than the English; it always bothered me that an ultimatum is a statement of demand, where Cruel Ultimatum seems more like a reaction to a demand, the carrying out of a threat that was contained in an ultimatum. And I love seeing how others solve puzzles, which is why I watch more magic than I play, and do stupid things like reading the card names and flavour texts on spoilers before I bother with the rules text or casting cost.

There’s more to this puzzle though, how about the adjectives used in each card to describe the ultimatum? Well, “Cruel” and “Violent” are the easy ones. The Asian languages have words that are quite equivalent and probably didn’t take a lot of thought. But “Clarion”? That belongs in the basket of “sounds-cool-but-I-don’t-really-know-what-it-means.” I’ve heard of a “clarion call” but that’s a call that is really clear and audible. Google tells me that clarion means “a shrill narrow-tubed war trumpet” or “loud and clear”. A loud and clear ultimatum? As opposed to what, an ultimatum that is muffled because its speaker was mumbling? ‘Clarion Ultimatum’ sounds cool, but that quality of sounding cool but not having a clear meaning is hard to duplicate. You might get the meaning in the target language, but it would sound awkward. The alternative is just thinking of a cool name that has a different meaning.

The Chinese translator went with the cool name. But what to go with? You can’t just make something up. It has to fit with the card. The Chinese translation is “号召通牒“. The third and fourth characters mean “Ultimatum”, but don’t sound as cool as the English (to me) but preserves the meaning of being a final demand. The first and second mean “to call for” or “to appeal to” or “to rally together”. Obviously the translator has had a look at what the card actually does (your dudes call out for help from other dudes with the same name who are chilling in your library) and gone from there. Clever.

The other interesting thing is how different languages have taken different meanings from the original English. Brilliant can mean “intelligent” (A brilliant math prodigy) or “shining brightly” (brilliant lighting). The Chinese went with the first, the Japanese with the second. I assume Spanish and Portuguese don’t have to choose, because they have equivalents, Brilhante and brilliante (side note: why isn’t everything Capitalised in Spanish or French?) And Titanic can be the adjective for Titan (a kind of Giant, see Primeval ~, Inferno ~ and friends from M11) or can mean just strong in an abstract sense. Japanese went with the first, Chinese with the second. And again, all the European languages (the ones that use Roman letters, at least) don’t have to make such decisions, since they already have an equivalent (Titanisches, titanesque, Titanic, titanico (various versions which have accents on vowels, which I can’t type)).

THat’s it for now. Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Really. I've always wanted to contribute something for the community but hate limited, can't brew like SaffronOlive, can't cosplay, alter cards, or make money trading them, so maybe this is my niche!