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First Volume of Manga Adaptation of Steve Jobs' Biography Launches in Japan

Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,614
7,793
yusukeaoki said:
Mm, the part where issacson said "this is what you wanted to talk about all the way from colorado!"
would be the appropriate translation.

Your translation for "So this was what made you come all the way to Colorado to talk to me."
would rather be a question


コロラドまで来て君が僕と話したかったのはそのことなのか！
with your translation, it would sound like "this is not a big deal and you came all the way?"
Mine would be like a excitement about the topic.
Click to expand...

Sorry, your translation of the Colorado sentence isn't grammatically correct English. That phrasing would only make sense if Jobs is in Colorado, and Issacson is somewhere far away.

I think there is both a sense of question and excitement in the Colorado sentence. If you want to emphasize the excitement, I suggest using szw-mapple fan's translation and adding a ! at the end.

Or how about:
You came all the way to Colorado to talk to me about that?

Hmmm, I like it better to start with "This is what..." or "That is what...'"
 
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szw-mapple fan

szw-mapple fan

macrumors 68040
Jul 28, 2012
3,481
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yusukeaoki said:
Mm, the part where issacson said "this is what you wanted to talk about all the way from colorado!"
would be the appropriate translation.

Your translation for "So this was what made you come all the way to Colorado to talk to me."
would rather be a question


コロラドまで来て君が僕と話したかったのはそのことなのか！
with your translation, it would sound like "this is not a big deal and you came all the way?"
Mine would be like a excitement about the topic.
Click to expand...


Your translation would indicate that Jobs is in Colorado while Isaacson is somewhere else by using"all the way from Colorado" without "come"

Would this be better?:D

"So this was what made you come all the way to Colorado to talk to me!"

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Renzatic said:
A little stereotypical? Yeah. Racist? Not really.
Click to expand...

Well, perhaps. But some people think that all Japanese are all Ninjas while all Chinese are Kungfu warriors.

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Night Spring said:
Agree that this translation is better.

Also, the original Japanese in the last sentence is striking me as a bit weird. Doesn't 被写体 mean the subject of a photograph? Not sure what the word would be for a subject of a biography...
Click to expand...

Well, 被写体 means the subject. Just the subject. It doesn't have to be a photograph.

Not sure if you can read Japanese but this is from Mac's built-in Japanese/English dictionary.

ひしゃたい【被写体】
【対象】an object; 【対象として選ばれた物[人]】a subject.
 
yusukeaoki

yusukeaoki

macrumors 68030
Mar 22, 2011
2,550
6
Tokyo, Japan
All right, considering from all the translation Ive got here it is!
 

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yusukeaoki

yusukeaoki

macrumors 68030
Mar 22, 2011
2,550
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Tokyo, Japan
szw-mapple fan said:
Your translation would indicate that Jobs is in Colorado while Isaacson is somewhere else by using"all the way from Colorado" without "come"

Would this be better?:D

"So this was what made you come all the way to Colorado to talk to me!"

----------



Well, perhaps. But some people think that all Japanese are all Ninjas while all Chinese are Kungfu warriors.

----------



Well, 被写体 means the subject. Just the subject. It doesn't have to be a photograph.

Not sure if you can read Japanese but this is from Mac's built-in Japanese/English dictionary.

ひしゃたい【被写体】
【対象】an object; 【対象として選ばれた物[人]】a subject.
Click to expand...

被写体 would mean 2 things in Japan.
1. an object to be taken as a photo/drawn.
2. A subject or a theme

As "被写体" has the word "写" which is taking pictures of or drawing and not common but to pretend what others do.

So technically you both are correct.
But in this comic, it would mean as the subject of the book.
 
J

Judas1

macrumors 6502a
Aug 4, 2011
794
42
szw-mapple fan said:
Tell me 3 things:

-The reason so many people are buying Apple products.
-Why Apple became so big.
-tell me of another CEO who has changed our lives so much

;)
Click to expand...
Are you for real? Changed our lives? How? Look back at any other technology and see things that actually changed lives. Apple made consumer electronics, ie. modern toys.
 
D

darknyght00

macrumors newbie
Mar 25, 2013
2
0
Registered to make this comment. Not sure if it's already in here somewhere but:

I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going!

...ok, carry on.
 
A

Albright

macrumors regular
Aug 23, 2011
130
299
Let's translate the other pages. (As mentioned before, Japanese comics are read "backwards," right to left, and pages flip from left to right.)

Page 1:

Jobs: "Hey, Walter."

Isaacson: "Yeah?"

Jobs: "Do you want to write a biography? … Mine." (Kind of hard to put that in natural-sounding English… maybe someone can do better. But the "Mine" part is separate from the main question.)

Pages 2 & 3: Title pages

Page 4: As translated and discussed before

Page 5:

Isaacson (thinking): He's this young and he wants a biography…?

Jobs: "About Steve Jobs!" (I think… kind of strange… correct me please.)

Isaacson (thinking): Could it be… I've recently written biographies of Franklin and Einstein… Steve is thinking he is among people like them?

Isaacson: "You're still young! Wouldn't after ten or twenty years be better?"

Isaacson: "It can be written when you retire!"

Page 6

Caption: After that, I talked with that man so many times… Collecting documents for the biography I'd write ten years later…

Caption: And later, at publishing company parties and such, he'd take me to the corner of a room…

Jobs: So, are you ready to start writing my biography?

Isaacson, thinking: Again with that talk…

Caption: He kept urging me on so casually…

Caption: Steve protected his privacy so strongly… Why was he this enthusiastic? I had no idea…

Afraid that's all I have time for now. Hopefully someone faster and smarter can correct me and continue; otherwise I'll take it up when I have time.
 
Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,614
7,793
Albright said:
Jobs: "About Steve Jobs!" (I think… kind of strange… correct me please.)
Click to expand...

Look at it as continuing the sentiment from the last frame in the previous page:
"Wouldn't I make a good subject for a biography? It would be the Steve Jobs Story!"

First sentence is from last frame of page 4, and next sentence is the top frame of page 5, but they make sense if you think of them as a two-sentence paragraph.

Page 7

Caption: However, not long after that...

Issacson: Hello

Laurene: Hi, it's Laurene... Steve's wife.

Issacson: Laurene! It's been a while!

Laurene: Um... About Steve's book... If you mean to write it, you should do it now. Thing is... Steve has cancer

Page 8

Issacson: Cancer?

Laurene: Very few people know.
When he went to see you in Colorado, he was already sick.
Tomorrow he's having the operation to remove the tumor.

Caption: I remembered my conversation with Steve at the party...

Page 9

Jobs: When you start writing my biography, I won't interfere at all. You don't have to show it to me to review, either.

Jobs: It would be your book. I won't even read what you write.

Page 10

Caption: Steve's illness was more serious than we thought. Even the work on the biography was suspended for a while...

Caption: New Year's Eve, 2009

Jobs: Hi, Walter. Been a while. Thought I'd say my New Year's greetings now...

Issacson: Steve!?

Jobs: The wife and kids went skiing... I don't have the strength...

Issacson: Steve... You okay?

Jobs: Yeah... It's just, I remembered something...

Page 11

Jobs: I want to tell you these things, while I can...

Issacson: ...I'm listening.

Jobs: When I was a kid, I thought of myself as a humanities person. But I fell in love with electronics. Even though I was so into Shakespeare and Dylan Thomas... You know Edwin Land, of Polaroid, right?

Issacson: Yeah...

Page 12

Jobs: So Edwin Land once said, "It's people who can stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences that's important"

Jobs: ...and I decided I wanted to be that kind of person.

Issacson (writing): Intersection of humanities and sciences...
 
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A

ahltorp

macrumors newbie
Jul 16, 2002
5
0
Stockholm, Sweden
The Verge said:
The first thing you'll notice in these opening pages is that Yamazaki has pulled off the artwork beautifully; far from the spiky-haired caricatures that may come to mind when you think of manga, Jobs has been brought to life in a semi-realistic monochrome style that is never off-putting, but stays in the Japanese manga tradition.
Click to expand...

They introduced Walter Isaacson's book like this:

The first thing you'll notice in these opening pages is that Isaacson has pulled off the phrasing beautifully; far from the dry equations that may come to mind when you think of books, Jobs has been brought to life in a semi-realistic conversational style that is never off-putting, but stays in the western literature tradition.
 
T

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
ugh ... they made a comic out of Steve Jobs .... :eek:

How many versions will there be of the truth .......
 
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T

tuyylihk

macrumors member
Aug 7, 2012
54
2
Omoshiroi
Hope I can find a translated version of this manga.

As this is Japanese, I don't believe SJ in here have no "ability":cool:
 
CodeJingle

CodeJingle

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2009
592
217
Greater Seattle, WA
phillipduran said:
Needs more action hero stuff IMO. Lightning bolts, reality distortion fields etc.

Image
Click to expand...

Your image makes me imagine Steve out to be The Emperor from Star Wars VI - "Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side".

----------

The book is huge, I've read into it quite a bit so far, but I'd love a more condensed version with some retro japanese manga art mixed in. This is perfect I think.
 
arcite

arcite

macrumors 6502a
Sep 6, 2009
901
530
Cairo, trapped in a pyramid with my iphone
Judas1 said:
I really really don't get it. There are hundreds if not thousands of successful CEO's out there with great skills and vision. Sure Steve reigned over the biggest company, and Apple's success story is amazing, but is Steve Jobs' life even remotely unique and interesting? He started a company, and it was a huge success. End of story. How is that so interesting that we have books, movies, and now a manga?
Click to expand...

Stop being a Judas. :p
 
A

Albright

macrumors regular
Aug 23, 2011
130
299
Page 13:

Isaacson: Steve, can I ask you something?

Jobs: Yeah, what's up?

Isaacson: Why do you think you wanted me to write your biography?

Jobs: Because you're great at pulling information out of people, aren't you?

Caption: Civilization and natural sciences… A mutual feeling born from an intense personality. Creativity, surely. You brought out the interest in Franklin and Einstein. (Or perhaps something closer to, "You made Franklin and Einstein interesting to me." Was kind of leaning on my dictionary too much for this last caption bit.)
 
Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,614
7,793
Albright said:
Page 13:
Caption: Civilization and natural sciences… A mutual feeling born from an intense personality. Creativity, surely. You brought out the interest in Franklin and Einstein. (Or perhaps something closer to, "You made Franklin and Einstein interesting to me." Was kind of leaning on my dictionary too much for this last caption bit.)
Click to expand...

*sigh* That caption really is a convoluted mouthful, and it's why I stopped last night, I just got too sleepy to figure that one out.

人文科学 is just another way of saying humanities.

So:
Humanities and sciences...
The creativity born from a powerful personality sensitive to both viewpoints -- that was the topic that drew me to Franklin and Einstein.
 
J

Jaimi

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2009
135
2
szw-mapple fan said:
Well, perhaps. But some people think that all Japanese are all Ninjas while all Chinese are Kungfu warriors.
Click to expand...


My wife (who is Chinese) definitely does not know Kung Fu. However, I can attest that If we ever were to get in a brawl, she would kick my ass without it.
 
H

harrisnl

macrumors newbie
Mar 27, 2013
5
0
The fact that a company decided that there was a market for this is alarming in and of itself.
 
szw-mapple fan

szw-mapple fan

macrumors 68040
Jul 28, 2012
3,481
4,342
Jaimi said:
My wife (who is Chinese) definitely does not know Kung Fu. However, I can attest that If we ever were to get in a brawl, she would kick my ass without it.
Click to expand...

Lol. Chinese and Japanese are just normal people like Americans. It's just hollywood making stereotypes.

----------
ConCat said:
So they're not? :confused:
Click to expand...

Do all Italians own pizzerias?
Are all americans gun-loving, violent people?

I think not.;)
 
A

Albright

macrumors regular
Aug 23, 2011
130
299
harrisnl said:
The fact that a company decided that there was a market for this is alarming in and of itself.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't use the word "alarming," but I am surprised that this story is appearing in a comic magazine targeted towards girls or women instead of one targeted towards businessmen or even teenaged boys. But perhaps I'm just being chauvinistic.
 
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