Wednesday, April 30, 2014

How Dare You?

Shampoo's great-grandmother has a bracelet studded with sleeping pills.



"Yes…It's very…interesting…" 

"Now that you mention it, it really seems expensive." "You stole it?" "How are you?" 

"This is a souvenir of my first love." "Oh…?"
Notes:
atreverse is a reflexive verb that means to dare.  As usual, this fan translation is missing accent marks: Cómo the atreves!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

They've Captured Chewbacca

From the surprisingly poorly-drawn manga adaptation of El Retorno del Jedi:


"Oh, no!  They've captured Chewbacca." "At last, we have the powerful Chewbacca." 

"The magnanimous and illustrious Jabba will pay you with pleasure the bounty of 25,000."  "50,000, no less."
Notes: 
When the direct object of a verb is a person, the personal a is required:
Han capturado a Chewbacca
Tenemos al (a+el) poderoso Chewbacca.

Monday, April 28, 2014

What's Happening?

From Fantastic Four #1:

"What's happening?" "Something passed in front of me, but I didn't see anything!"  "Move aside! There's no time to lose!" "I...It's a ghost!" "Just what I need…a free taxi!" "Whew, what a lousy day!" "I'll circle around a few times until someone stops me." "Thank you, I'll get out here." "Okay…Eh? What? Who said that?  What…???"
Notes:
fantasma, despite ending in an a, is a masculine noun (from Greek - c.f. sistema, problema et. al.)
Note the use of the subjunctive pare because the driver isn;t sure if this will happen.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Venom-Thor

The alien costume takes over El Dios del Trueno


"Sentimental fool!  The Asgardian struggles, but he is already mine! I have to leave, to complete the union. Later I shall return, and destroy all of you!" 

And the entity disappears into a cave! "Don't worry, Reed..."
Notes:
Tranquilo, an adjective meaning calm or quiet, is often used to calm someone who is worrying.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Iron Man Overeats

From What If…?

"Tony Stark was suffering from great stress." "Oh, no! I'm going to lose a fortune! Bacon futures are down 20 points!"  "Almost unconsciously, he started to seek relief in…food!" "Dance? No thank you.  I prefer to chew."
AND WHAT IF…Iron Man had a problem with food instead of with drink?
Notes:
bacon in Spanish is panceta or tocino depending upon the country.  I'am not sure why the English word is used here.
masticar - masticate

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

You can't run from who you are

El Ángel has been transformed into La Muerte, one of the Jinetes del Apocalipsis.  He struggles with his conscience.


"My mask, Apocalypse!" 
"Warren, you can't run from who you are!" 
"Masks don't help! Mutant, human, in a certain way, they're also masks.  What counts is what we really are."

"Some masks hide who we are, Jean.  Others reveal it!"


Notes:
Lo que is used for what in non-questions such as I like what you say →  Me gusta lo que dices.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

With His Tail Between His Legs

Thor, el Dios del Trueno, takes a break from combat.


"Coward!  I always knew you were a chicken!  Come back! Come back!  I'm going to kill you!" 

"Look!  Thor is running away!  The God of Thunder is a coward!"

 "Yes! It's incredible!  Thor has fled with his tail between his legs! And the Absorbing Man is going after him.  Let's go boys!  What a story!"



Notes:
rabo - cola de algunos animales
The expresion vaya noticia sounds very Iberian to me.

Friday, April 18, 2014

The Living Mummy

Shampoo's great-grandmother offers to teach Ryoga a special technique for exploding rocks with a single touch.

"Would you care to learn this trick?"  "And I though there was nothing that could leave me more speechless about you than your face."
Notes:
This is a fan trnaslation, so it is missing a lot of accent marks:
importaría, pensé, había
 

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

It's Han Solo's Specialty

"How wonderful.  I see that this rescue has the same planning and preparation that I already was able to admire in the one from the Death Star!" "Improvisation is the specialty of Han Solo." 

"It seems that you are going to have the opportunity to really show that off ."
Notes:
lucirse in this sense means to show off or to make an impression.  When used non-reflexively, it means to shine (cf. luz)

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Give Us Your Best Shot

High school girls have armed and mobilized to combat a supposed underwear thief.   Indirect object pronouns directly follow imperative commands:


"All right Ranma, give us your best shot."
Notes:
Dame - Give me
Danos - Give us
golpe (noun) is sometimes translated as hit or punch.  The verb form is golpear.




Monday, April 14, 2014

May The Force Be With You

From "Una Nueva Esperanza":
"Yeah, I was wrong about you." 
"Take care of yourself Han.  It's what you know how to do best!" 
"Eh...Luke!" 
"May the force be with you."

Friday, April 11, 2014

Hulk Logic

You can hear the wheels spinning in his tiny mind:
"Hulk doesn't understand.  At first, the little man fights with Hulk...and now fights with the enemy of Hulk?  But if the enemy of Hulk is enemy of the little one, then the little one is a friend of Hulk.  A friend of Hulk"

"Yes! The little one is a friend of Hulk?  Then Hulk with help the little one to destroy the enemy!"
Notes:
Many translations preserve Hulk's use of the third person when talking about himself.

You can add an adjective to a definite article to say things like the little one or the red thing etc.  Spanish does not require a translation of one.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

No, It's a Yo-Yo!

From Mafalda, which can be your introduction to el voseo:

"What the heck is that Felipe?" "A yo-yo."
"A you-you?" "No, a yo-yo!" 

"Ah…a Felipe-Felipe?" "No, it's not yo like me!  It's called a yo-yo! Do you understand? 

Yo-yo! Yo-yo!" 

"Self-centered!"
Notes: 
Vos is used instead of most famously perhaps in Argentina, but also in other parts of the Spanish-speaking world.  It has its own fun conjugation rules as well.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Cat Fight


La Gata Negra returns to Peter Parker's apartment, only to find Mary Jane...his wife!  Typically adolescent subplot concerning dating someone's best friend to get back at them ensues:


"Upon returning, I see that he too...has made a mistake, in marrying you.  He'll reconsider.  But before, he'll suffer."  

"That's why I snagged Flash Thompson.  I'll break his hear just like Spiderman destroyed mine.  Later, I'll forgive him and then we'll get married."



Notes:  
al+infinitive: upon/when al llegar upon arriving etc.
una red - a net, a web → enredar - to tangle up, to play with, to get involved with




Tuesday, April 8, 2014

It doesn't have to be boiling

From Ranma 1/2:


"So...with hot water you regain your human form." 
"It doesn't have to be so hot" 

"With cold water, you convert into a girl...but hot water transforms you into a boy again." 
"Hot water! Not boiling!"

Monday, April 7, 2014

This Ship Was Empty

Luke and Leia are scoping out real estate on a post-New Hope pre-Empire adventure.


"Empty!  They couldn't have gone very far on foot.  Notify head camp!"

 "Luke!  Can you see something?"
"The Stormtroopers have discovered that we aren't inside the ship, Leia.  That means that soon, someone is going to start looking for us!"

Notes:
the gerund form of ir is the irregular yendo.
the reflexive encontrarse - literally to find oneself - is used as an expression to mean to be in a location.

Friday, April 4, 2014

They've Stolen My Wallet!

Hernández and Fernández use the future tense to express the probable present:


"Did you see?  Here you always have to haggle."

"They've stolen my wallet!"

 "Don't talk nonsense!  Surely you've left it at home...or have lost it."  "No, they stole it.  I'm sure of it."
Notes:
I'm not sure why Hernández(?) uses the plural of the past participle (me la han robado) here.
Ello, the neuter pronoun, is not as commonly used as it is in English.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Cellulite Thighs

From the X-Men installment of "Atlantis Attacks". These two women have inexplicably had their bodies switched:


"Pass me the sugar, darlin'..."  

"No way! It's already bad enough to see you put that over-sweetened trash in my body, much less to let you add even more sugar!" 

"What's the problem?  It's good that way..."  
"A million calories, this is! Ha! I thought you were worried about my 'Cellulite Thighs'!"  

"Well last night it didn't seem to bother a certain Mister Logan!"