Khartarum Zogretes Rosa: Resetting a Manga in Ancient Rome By Olivia Gandee
Introduction My greatest passion is the study of languages, in particular the study of Latin, which I began learning in eighth grade and by which I have been thoroughly captivated ever since. As such, one of my favorite pursuits is translation between languages, in particular from Latin to English, though I soon discovered an additional language from which to translate: Japanese. In ninth grade, I was introduced to the English translation of a Japanese graphic novel series (manga) by a good friend of mine. Something interesting about the English translation of this series is that it would sometimes leave the original Japanese text next to its translated equivalent. As I read this series, I started to notice that certain lines that were translated to English in the same words were not using the same characters in Japanese. This piqued my interest, and I as a result began to listen more intently to the Japanese when I watched the anime adaptation of these scenes. This combination of hearing the words in the anime and seeing their written counterparts in the manga allowed me to (at first completely unintentionally) develop the ability to read the two Japanese phonetic alphabets. When I realized that I was beginning to be able to read, at least phonetically, this language, I purchased the series in its original Japanese form and began to focus more on intentional learning, though I was determined to do so entirely on my own and without the help of dictionaries or online lessons. I was able to decipher common vocabulary words through context, but I found that even the grammar was coming inexplicably easily to me, despite being a completely foreign system. That was when I realized—Japanese grammar made so much sense to me because it felt like reading Latin. Because learning Latin had taught me so many intricacies of grammar (most of which are not expressed in English), it had enabled me to understand a system as complex as that of Japanese.
In addition, both Latin and Japanese are synthetic languages—languages that express the syntactical functions of the words in a sentence through inflecting said words—as opposed to analytic languages, which express such functions through the use of multiple separate strings of words in a highly structured word order. For example, in an analytic language such as English, sentences have entirely different meanings purely based on the order of the words within them: “the woman pets the cat” and “the cat pets the woman” could certainly not be said to have the same meaning. However, in synthetic languages, a sentence meaning “the woman pets the cat” could be written “the cat pets the woman,” “pets the cat the woman,” “the woman the cat pets,” or with any other order of words, and it would retain its original meaning due to the fact that the functions of the words (for example, the fact that “the woman” is the subject) are shown not through word order, but through a certain ending added to the noun that identifies its function (for example, a “subject” ending), with the result that word order in synthetic languages is highly fluid and can be manipulated in order to place emphasis on different words and phrases, such as by intentionally bringing a particular word to the beginning or end of the sentence in order to accentuate it. Because of this, I have found in my readings of both Japanese and Latin texts that English translations tend to be highly unsatisfying, as many of the nuances and emphases granted by fluid word order and high syntheticity are lost when translated to such an analytic language. As such, when I would encounter while reading or watching a piece of Japanese media a sentence that would not translate well to English, I would often for fun translate it into Latin in my head. This would then sometimes lead to my imagining how the plot and even cultural significance of stories would change if they were reset in Ancient Rome. For my senior project, I decided to translate selections from a manga series from its original Japanese directly into Latin and to adapt it to make sense to a theoretical Ancient Roman audience. I have chosen to translate the manga I used to teach myself the Japanese language in the first place: the seriesカードキャプターさくら (Kâdokyaputâ Sakura, commonly known as Cardcaptor Sakura), which was written by the authorial group known as CLAMP and published from 1996 to 2000. This series depicts a young Japanese girl named 木之本さくら (Kinomoto Sakura) who enters into a contract with the magician クロウ・リード (Clow Read) and can now wield a staff using a combination of ancient Eastern and Western magic to capture the magical cards that are terrorizing her city. My translated and localized version of the story, Khartarum Zogretes Rosa, attempts to mirror in as exact a manner as possible the precise word order and nuances of the original text and generally follows the same plot, except for the fact that I have not only reset the story in Ancient Rome, but have also attempted to localize to the best of my abilities the various cultural references and significance into that of Ancient Roman culture.
I began first with deciding which modern civilizations present in the story I would replace with which ancient civilizations. In the original version of the series, three countries in particular are focused upon: Japan, where the story is set and whence the protagonist Sakura is; Great Britain, whence are certain characters and some forms of magic used in the series; and China, whence are other characters and other forms of magic used in the series. Japan understandably became Rome, and as I had long ago recognized in my readings of the original version of the story clear references to Ancient Greek religion and to Taoism in the magic used by the characters, I decided to change Great Britain to Ancient Greece and modern China to ancient China. My next step was figuring out at what time period my translation could take place in order that the various different elements of the story, such as these three civilizations, be able to exist at one time. After some research, I found that this already gave me a rather narroweddown time frame with which to work: the story needed to take place at some point after 206 BC, when it is theorized that Taoism first became an organized religion (“Taoism”), and before 146 BC, when Greece officially became a part of Rome as opposed to its own nation (“Battle of Corinth (146 BC)”). I finally decided to set the story in 195 BC, as this was one year after Rome granted Greece its independence from Macedonian rule (“196 BC”), as well as the year in which the Lex Oppia, a law preventing women from possessing more than half an ounce of gold, was repealed (“Lex Oppia”). This choice in turn also affected the specifics of the settings I had chosen: my translation would now take place specifically in the Roman Republic. In addition, as the Ancient Romans mistakenly believed that the people inhabiting the two areas of China with which they conducted trade were of two separate nations, I had to do quite a bit of examining of ancient maps, both of China as it looked at the time I was setting the story, as well as of the contemporaneous Roman trading routes, and I eventually came to the conclusion that my translation should feature the section of China the Romans called the Seres, as opposed to the Sinae. With my setting selected and expanded upon, I finally moved on to my translation, which begins on the following page. If you are going to read my translation, please review the included translation notes, in addition to keeping in mind that the speech bubbles in Japanese manga are read from right to left, not left to right. If you would prefer to skip my Latin translation and go directly to my analysis (which is in English), you can skip to it by going to page 329. The analysis will also point you to the page numbers of the more significant parts of my translation, should you prefer to focus on those sections alone.
Chapter 1
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 20
Chapter 23
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 32
Chapter 41
Analysis In this analysis, I will examine the original text, Cardcaptor Sakura, and my translation, Khartarum Zogretes Rosa, as cultural products of modern Japan and Ancient Rome, respectively, in terms of their significance, progressiveness, and overall nuances based on the cultures whence they, whether truly or theoretically, have come. I will perform this analysis through the form of literary criticism known as Cultural Theory, which posits that literary texts are not “self-sufficient art objects that transcend the time and place in which they were written” (Tyson 291), but rather that they “are shaped by…the culture in which they emerge” (Tyson 284). Cultural Theory is also notable for its intersectional usage of several different forms of literary criticism, such as Feminist Theory, Gender Theory, Gay/Lesbian/Queer Theory, and various other political theories, as these all seek to explore the underlying meanings and agendas present within literary texts in relation to the various aspects of the cultures whence they are produced (Tyson 295). In addition, it is of particular importance in the use of any of these literary criticisms to apply aspects of Cultural Theory, as definitions of right and wrong, normal and abnormal, appropriate and inappropriate, admirable and shameful, etc. differ greatly among time periods and cultures and thereby provide very distinct contexts for the interpretation of texts (Tyson 285). Another aspect of Cultural Theory of particular significance is that of bricolage—the notion that the meaning of a text is in reality constructed not by the creator, but rather by each viewer individually based on their own culture, opinions, and experiences (Sturken 64). Viewers of one culture will likely find highly differing meanings in a text than will viewers of another culture, as the individual has a tendency to project their own culture and experiences upon the works they consume, regardless of the original context surrounding the text itself. This is a concept highly significant to this analysis, in that it allows one to examine a localized translation as if it were a product of the culture for which it has been adapted, as, had the Ancient Romans had the chance to read this translation, they would in accordance with the theory of bricolage presumably have been easily and readily able to assimilate the story into their culture and to apply their own societal standards and values in their interpretations and judgements of the text. As a cultural product of Japan, Cardcaptor Sakura is said to be a “radical text” in its tackling of the “political concerns of gender, queerness, and sexuality” (Fraser and Monden 2). Traditional Japanese culture values highly the ideal of a homogeneous society, causing those who are seen as not conforming properly to this vision, such as ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who does not submit to the enforced sexist and patriarchal gender norms, to be ostracized and vilified on account of their identities (McLelland 17). The series Cardcaptor Sakura, in contrast, portrays such identities as not only completely normal but even worthy of kindness and respect, which upon its release in Japan made it highly controversial and led to many of these aspects needing to be significantly censored when it was adapted into an anime television series.
As a theoretical cultural product of Ancient Rome, Khartarum Zogretes Rosa would likely be met with much of the same hostility as its original version. In Ancient Rome, too, sexism, racism, homophobia, and a strict gender binary and gender roles prevailed. The Romans would likely find very threatening the female characters, many of whom defy gender norms and lead powerful lives without the help of men and are portrayed as highly admirable for doing so. For example, Rosa is intelligent, strong, and begins to use her own magic as opposed to that of Ater and thereby becomes more powerful (page 293-296, 299-300). Aula’s mother is the founder and owner of a large wine company and thereby very rich, and she lives and works by herself without support from Aula’s father (page 56-57). Helena is a teacher of mathematics at the ludus and is pursuing studies in philosophy, a very advanced discipline traditionally offered only to men (page 164-165). The Romans would likewise presumably find the many characters who openly display same-sex attraction to be rather appalling. For example, Aula displays attraction to Rosa (page 60-61), Aula’s mother to Rosa’s mother (page 59), and Siaulang to Niveus (page 129-132), and the attractions of these characters are not portrayed as shameful or threatening (page 189-192). The Romans would also likely find intolerable the acceptance into Roman culture of ethnic minorities (or “barbarians,” as they would refer to them), such as Siaulang, a Serican character who is welcomed and even given a toga, the traditional Roman garment forbidden to foreigners, to wear (page 319-327). The series is thus quite progressive in both cultures, and would likely receive similarly hostile (though likely more aggressively in Ancient Rome) reactions in each. Another significant aspect of the original Japanese story is its interesting depictions of gendered language. In English, one’s gender is for the most part only able to be expressed through the use of third-person pronouns—i.e., by other people, not oneself. In Japanese, however, very rarely is one’s gender even mentioned by others (gendered thirdperson pronouns exist but are hardly ever used)—the vast majority of one’s gender identity is expressed by oneself through the use of gendered first-person pronouns and through gendered particles (short sounds appended to the end of a sentence). This allows for many interesting expressions of gender, as first-person pronouns of one gender can be juxtaposed with particles of a different gender in order to produce unique nuances of identity. For example, the protagonist of the story (Sakura in Japanese) uses a female first-person pronoun along with a mix of feminine and masculine particles, displaying a mainly feminine identity with a slight masculine tone. These nuances can understandably not be translated to English, and this is one instance as well in which the translation to Latin is also incapable of maintaining said nuances. As is standard for most Romance languages, in Latin, all nouns are strictly and inherently gendered, and most adjectives and certain verb forms used must agree in gender accordingly, with the result that there is little one can do to express an identity outside of purely male or female, nor to express any identity at all in sentences that do not happen to contain a word such as an adjective with which gender can be expressed in the first place. Two particularly interesting depictions of gender lie in the Japanese version of the characters Iue and
Rubea. The Japanese version of the character Iue’s speech is quite unique, in that this character uses archaic Japanese and makes little to no use of gendered particles. In Japanese, the archaic first-person pronoun 我 (ware), the pronoun used by this character, is the only gender neutral pronoun, and as such it is often used despite being archaic by those who identify as neither male nor female or who simply wish to conceal their gender. It is both for these reasons and because the character’s gender is never stated that it can be reasonably assumed that this character identifies outside of the gender binary. In the strict grammar system of Latin, all nouns are one of three genders: male, female, or neuter. The neuter gender is neither male nor female, though it is not used to refer to people, as people could only be either male or female in the opinion of the Romans. However, as the achievement of a gender neutral identity in Japanese requires a bit of bending of traditional grammar rules, I decided to do this as well and had the character Iue refer to themselves with neuter grammar. This would be a very interesting aspect of the story to show to the Romans, both because they would see their grammar system being used in a different way than it was designed, and because they would be forced to view this character as neither male nor female. The gender identity expressed by the Japanese version of the character Rubea is also quite interesting. This character presents as female and uses female pronouns and particles, though there is a scene in which a character who knew her previously is surprised that she is not presenting as male, implying that she is perhaps biologically male or previously identified as male and is therefore transgender (page 297). While as previously mentioned Latin cannot accurately depict all expressions of gender present in Japanese, I attempted to convey this character’s identity by having her have changed her name from Rubeus to Rubea in order to keep the significance of having changed from masculine to feminine grammar (page 302). The Romans would likely also treat this character with great hostility, as identifying with a gender other than one’s biological sex was rather appalling. In short, as much of the fluid and unique forms of gender expression in Japanese are lost when translated to Latin, the Romans would not be able to experience this aspect of the story in the same way, though they would likely still be outraged by those aspects which could be translated.
Another aspect of the story that I believe would be of particular interest and speculation to the Ancient Romans is the portrayal of the character Ater. I believe that the Romans would very likely through the process of bricolage identify the character Ater with Dis, the Roman version of the Greek god Hades, the god of the underworld. Among numerous other examples, two ways of particular note in my translation in which this character seems to be implied to be Dis is the fact that the guardian of this character’s magical cards in both the Japanese version and my translation is a beast called Cerberus/Kerberos (page 32-33), and the fact that his name, Ater, resembles the Latin word “ater,” which means “dark” or “deadly” and was a common euphemistic epithet for Dis, as the Romans did not like to mention directly the name of a god associated with death. If the character Ater is taken as a reference to Dis, this in turn would likely affect greatly how the Romans would interpret certain key scenes featuring this character. For example, there is a scene in which Ater comes to Rosa’s aid in battle and bestows upon her a magical boon (page 287-291). While this kind of (in the Roman version, very literal) deus ex machina would to a modern audience such as the Japanese audience likely be met with criticism, ancient audiences such as the Romans tended to find such plot devices exciting and awesome, and similar scenes are very common throughout Roman literature. Rosa also eventually begins to tap into her own magical power, causing her to become more powerful than even Ater himself (whom, as previously stated, the Romans would likely view as a god), which to the Romans would likely recall the deification of heroes throughout their literature, though very rarely were female characters granted such a fate. Indeed, Rosa’s portrayal throughout the entire series is highly similar to that of the typical Roman male hero, making it fascinating to imagine how the Romans would react if shown a story so familiar to them that instead featured a female protagonist. In conclusion, while there would likely be differences in the significance and reception of the original story as a cultural product of Japan and my translation as a theoretical cultural product of Ancient Rome, there are even more similarities, making the comparison of these two versions very compelling. I would like to once again thank Kelly McDowell for all of her support and advice, in both the making of this project as well as throughout my high school career as a whole. I would like to thank Karen Johnson and Natalie Abbott for having been my Latin teachers, allowing me to discover and cultivate my passion for the language. I would also like to thank my friend Gina Galligan for her support and for having first introduced me to the manga that I went on to use in teaching myself the Japanese language. A special thanks as well to my parents for their words of encouragement and assistance in compiling the final product. I would also like to thank you, the reader, very much for taking a look at my project. I hope that you found it interesting!
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