On a Wing and a Prayer

Ahldfoet

Ahoy, adventurer. My tub sails soon and I have to have me a little something for the journey. The dusk bats are flying─think yerself lightsome enough to bring me five wings? Four won't do and six is no good, mind ye.

• DE Ich wette, du bist die Nummer 1 im Monsterjagen! ‘I bet you're number one at monster hunting!’ English says his ship sails soon and he needs something for the trip; German bets you're number one at monster hunting.
• DE Dafür musst du nur ein paar ... warte, jetzt kommt's ... erlegen. ‘For that you just have to slay a few ... wait, here it comes ... .’ English insists on exactly five wings; German builds up to a punchline before naming what you must slay.
• JA ちょっと「」を狩ってだな、「」を5枚ほど届けてくれないか？ ‘Go and hunt a few and bring me five or so, would you?’ Japanese asks for "about five"; English insists on exactly five — four won't do, six is no good.

Welcome you are to keep any surfeits, 'slong as ye know what to do with 'em. You'll bring me the wings?

• DE Deine gute Tat des Tages, sozusagen. ‘Your good deed for the day, so to speak.’ English lets you keep any extra wings; German calls the errand your good deed of the day.
• JA 人助けだと思ってさぁ、頼むぜ……なぁ？ ‘Think of it as helping somebody out, please... eh?’ English lets you keep any extra wings; Japanese asks you to think of it as helping someone.
• JA オジサンにとっちゃ、そいつはお守りなんだよ。 ‘To this old man, that thing is a lucky charm, you see.’ Japanese: he says outright the wings are his lucky charm and begs a favour; no offer of extras.

Ahldfoet

Ahoy there. Keep your voice down, nobody's business but ours, innit? You got what I asked for?

Them's the ones, and that's as pretty a job as I've seen. Know your way 'round a battle, eh? Well, that's just fine, thank ye.

• JA ありがとな、嬢ちゃん/兄ちゃん姉さん/兄さん小さいの子猫ちゃん/ミコ兄さん姐さん/兄弟嬢ちゃん/兄ちゃん兄ちゃん姉さん/兄さん。 ‘Thanks, missy (or lad, sis, bro, little one, kitty, Miqo bro, brother).’ Ahldfoet's thank-you changes with your race and sex, and 'kitty' is for a Miqo'te woman. The English thanks everyone alike.
• DE Du bist ein gutes Mädchen/ein guter Junge. ‘You're a good girl/a good boy.’ English praises your skill in battle; German pats you on the head as a good girl or boy.

Why? We sailors can be a superstitious lot, ye know. Some of the crew might look at me odd-like for carrying bat parts. When the wind's done died and the water casks are dry, it's odd one day, overboard the next.

• DE Für mich sind Fledermäuse besondere Tiere ... weder Vögel noch Vierbeiner, sondern irgendetwas dazwischen. ‘For me, bats are special animals ... neither birds nor four-legged beasts, but something in between.’ English says sailors are superstitious and might shun him; German says bats are special, neither bird nor beast.
• JA だから、どっちつかずな半端者みたいに思われがちなんだけど、実は違うんだよねぇ。 ‘So people tend to see them as in-between misfits, but actually that's not so.’ English says crewmates might eye him oddly for carrying bat parts; Japanese says bats are wrongly seen as in-between misfits.

What? No superstition about that. The dusker's been my luck since I was a boy. Survived more'n two weeks once on three bats I caught, trapped at the top of an abandoned watchtower. Even ate a wing off one afore I made up my mind to climb down the wall.

• FR J'ai même dévoré l'aile d'une quatrième avant de me décider à descendre la paroi. ‘I even devoured the wing of a fourth before deciding to climb down the wall.’ English says he ate a wing off one of the bats; French says off a fourth one.
• DE Sie sind Meister der Anpassung. ‘They are masters of adaptation.’ English says dusk bats have been his luck since boyhood; German says bats are masters of adaptation.
• DE Ursprünglich Waldtiere, die nun in den verschiedensten Landschaften anzutreffen sind. ‘Originally forest animals, which are now found in the most varied landscapes.’ English tells how he survived two weeks in a watchtower on bats; German says bats spread from forests everywhere.
• JA 臨機応変、状況に応じてどっちにでも豹変できるんだ。 ‘Adaptable: they can switch to either side as the situation demands.’ English says dusk bats have been his luck since boyhood; Japanese says bats adapt to any situation.
• JA オジサンにとっちゃね……その判断力と決断力ってのは見習うべきものなのさ。 ‘For me, you see... that judgment and decisiveness of theirs is something to learn from.’ English tells how he survived two weeks in a watchtower on bats; Japanese praises bats' judgment and decisiveness.

This journey, we'll be sailing past the Isles of Umbra and I can feel the sea honing those reefs. The lights at Pharos Sirius burn dim since the Calamity, and I've always found it a mite too much like that old watchtower for comfort.

• DE Es ist nicht leicht, das Schiff von den Riffen fernzuhalten. werden gute Talismane abgeben und mich genau wie eine Fledermaus sicher um die heimtückischen Felsen navigieren lassen. ‘(They) will make good talismans and let me navigate safely around the treacherous rocks, just like a bat.’ English says Pharos Sirius uncomfortably recalls the old watchtower; German says the talismans will steer him past rocks like a bat.
• DE Ich fahre oft des Nachts raus zu den Phantominseln. ‘I often sail out at night to the Phantom Isles.’ German names them the Phantom Isles; English calls them the Isles of Umbra.
• JA ここの近海には「幻影諸島」があるから、岩礁が多い。 ‘In the waters near here lie the Phantom Isles, so there are many reefs.’ Japanese names them the Phantom Isles; English calls them the Isles of Umbra.

I ain't been that affrighted boy for a long time─ill-used, starved, and more'n half-mad, inching down that sandstone wall on handholds no bigger than a fingertip. But I'll have me five bat wings on every journey, just the same as that boy had.

• DE Besonders jetzt, da das Leuchtfeuer des Pharos Sirius erloschen ist. ‘Especially now that the beacon of Pharos Sirius has gone out.’ English says he hasn't been that frightened boy in a long time; German says the Pharos Sirius beacon has gone out.
• DE Da darf ich mir keinen Fehler erlauben, sonst lerne ich das Meer schnell von unten kennen. ‘I can't afford a single mistake, or I'll soon get to know the sea from below.’ English says he still carries five bat wings each journey like that boy; German says one mistake would sink him.
• JA 海の上では一瞬の判断が生死を分ける。 ‘At sea, a split-second judgment separates life and death.’ English says he hasn't been that frightened boy in a long time; Japanese says at sea one quick judgment decides life or death.
• JA ……一瞬の判断ミスで、転覆しちゃった船をオジサンはいっぱい知ってるんだよ。 ‘...I know plenty of ships that capsized from one moment's misjudgment.’ English says he still carries five bat wings each journey like that boy; Japanese says he knows many ships sunk by one misjudgment.