Post by smith on Jan 8, 2015 21:24:56 GMT 9
And now for something completely different.
This is a short story I found on someone's personal home page (they gave me permission to translate and post it here). It's essentially the Author's take on the early stages of a Vampire's life cycle. It's definitely different from the pieces taken from Aozora Bunko, that's for sure.
The original can be found here
-----------------------------------------------
The young girl sighed as she gazed up into the darkness of the night. The darkness that she couldn't do without. But she had started to think that the darkness also begot creeping feelings of loneliness.
"Come on. It's time to wake up," she said as she poked the bat lying next to her. She spoke with a lisp. The bat sleepily opened it's eyes and met her gaze. Outwardly she looked no more than ten years old. She had clear blue eyes and beautiful blonde hair as fine as thread. The bat wondered if the people of this town would realise that she was a vampire at all.
"I'm hungry. Let's eat," said the girl. The bat fluttered through the air over the young girl with a sigh as she puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
"Will a young lady do?" asked the bat.
"I want to suck the blood of a young man!"
"No. I'm tired of luring young men. You'll have a woman," said the bat before it disappeared into the darkness.
"It's not fair. That bat is going to take the first bite anyway." The girl looked annoyed as brushed back strands of hair from her face.
She wouldn't survive in this world without that bat. Without knowing how to properly feed herself, she would continue to sleep, and before long someone would tear open her coffin, stab her with a stake and her fate would be death, or so she had been told by her friends of the night.
Her home, where she slept, was an abandoned house in the middle of town. The sound of the door creaking open echoed through the building. Instinctively she ran towards the door, without letting her footsteps make a sound.
"That was quick," she said. Just as she spoke those words, an unexpected figure reflected in her eyes from the stair case.
Uh-Oh.
She quickly realised what it was, and ran out of the room and down the connecting hall.
"He-Hey! Wait!" said a man. The girl realised she had been spotted as soon as she heard his surprised voice.
A human. A human here of his own accord. An adult male at that!
"If a human ever sees you, they will first try to help you," the bat had once warned her, "And the human will want to take you into the light, saying it's for your own good"
"I'll die if that happens!" the girl had cried with fear.
"It's one thing that a grown human who finds a child your age in an abandoned house would do. Not all humans are the same," The bat had said.
This is bad!
The girl shot down the hall, jumped towards the roof and hid inside a chandelier. She held her breath and waited for the man to disappear.
"He-Hey!" The man's eyes darted in all directions as he walked around the room.
Go on, get out of here you idiot
The girl held on to the chandelier as she peered down at the man.
Go away. Hurry up and go home. I'm starting to get hungry...
She pulled herself back as she watched the man walk right underneath her. She followed him with her eyes.
...blood...
You can't ignore an urge, and there was no way she could make herself ignore the prey right before her eyes. What lay before her was prey, even if he wouldn't treat her as anything else but a little girl. His body was a walking store-house of that sweet liquid. That's what was going through her mind the moment she jumped down from the chandelier and into the hall. The man turned towards the girl at the sound of the chandelier moving.
"Where were you?" asked the man. The girl smiled and walked towards the man as he spoke.
"Cuddles," said the girl in a childish manner. The man smiled back and held his hands out to the girl. He picked the girl clean up off the ground. She found herself feeling a little perplexed as she gazed at her foolish prey, who was smiling to himself. He gently held her close, the arteries in his neck pulsing right in front of her mouth.
So ... thirsty
The girl narrowed her eyes and swallowed. She moved in close, her mouth open and her teeth inviting the neck.
Time to eat
"So you don't have any parents, then?" his sudden words pulled the girl back to reality. "Where's your mommy and daddy?" asked the man. She turned her head in the direction of the voice. The man was smiling and waiting for her to answer.
Damn it
The girl could feel herself become overwhelmed. She should have sunk her teeth into him when she had the chance.
So close...
"Did they leave you here all alone? This house is in tatters, isn't it? Is this your secret hiding place?" he asked, looking straight at the girl with earnest eyes.
"Yeah," muttered the girl with a nod, not directly answering the man's question. Just as she thought, the man choose which of his own answers to believe.
Foolish human...my bat will be back in a little while. I'll just keep distracting you. And soon... soon I will drink
The girl had answered the man's question only to humour him.
Hurry, hurry home, before the man gets away
The moon was shining high in the sky as the man sat next to the little girl. She sat there next to the man and patiently listened to what he had to say. Her mouth cracked open, little by little. The man was absolutely broke. The next day he would be driven out of the home he had been renting. He had no job, no lover, had failed everyone, but he wasn't trying to blame anyone else.
"Well, you know, it's just terrible timing. It's not really anyone's fault." The man laughed as he spoke, a soft smile of defeat on his face. The little girl sat silent, listening. For this girl who had slept so long, who had never left the house, what he spoke of was quite difficult to comprehend.
"You're a good girl," the man said with a smile, patting her on the head, "if I ever had someone to look after, I would do anything for them," the man finished as he gave the girl a hug. "I'm worn out." His final words found their way to the girl's ears.
"...I want to die. Being alive is painful if you have no one to blame but yourself. I don't have the strength to keep on living after all that's happened. I can't go on any more. But..."
A complex emotion seeped into the little girl's heart. There was a simple way to fix this man's problem.
"You should kill him," said the bat. They spoke telepathically so that the man couldn't hear. The little girl jerked her head up in the direction of the echoing voice. The bat had hidden himself away in the broken down house. Some place the man couldn't see. "Right now, suck his blood and he will die."
"...but he won't die. Not die, he will..."
"This human, this man will die."
"But he'll still remember his past!" The young girl cried in her mind as she shot to her feet The man looked at her with wide eyes and held her by the hand. Before the man had a chance to ask what was wrong, the little girl had turned to face the bat.
"You know damn well! I'm not strong enough yet! I'm not powerful enough to suck away his memories! There is no way we could live together with him still remembering everything!"
"Well you'd have a friend, wouldn't you? You've always wanted a friend to come and be by your side, haven't you?," said the bat.
The little girl swallowed her words and looked up at the man who had been looking down at her with a confused look in his eyes.
If I suck his blood now...
"What's the matter? Did something frighten you?" asked the man, eternally gentle. The girl realized that she couldn't bring herself to quench her thirst and feed her hunger with the blood of this man.
"There will be something better out there for you once you leave this town," said the little as girl snuggled into the man. He wrapped his arms around her.
"What's gotten in to you?" as soon as the man spoke, he lost conciousness. She wiped the trickle of blood from her mouth and looked up at the bat with teary eyes.
"You should drink. If you want me to, I can kill him and you can make the blood of this human your own."
"Are you telling me what to do?" the girl glared up at the bat and wiped tears from her eyes.
"Just, go and put this human in a park or somewhere!" The little girl produced a paper bag and stuffed it into the man's pocket.
"Is that the currency that the humans use?" asked the bat. The little girl glared up at him. The bat let out a little sigh, and lead the human, who had risen to his feet as if possessed, out of the abandoned house.
The little girl looked down at her slender wrists. They began to grow in the light of the moon. When did the bat say it would happen? When does a vampire grow? "When you find yourself the kind of prey you want to keep, when your heart starts to care," the bat's words wisped through her mind, "A grown up vampire has to fool his heart to rid himself of those conflicted emotions." Her long blonde hair grew and tangled over her chest.
"I've put him somewhere." The little girl looked up at the echoing voice above her head.
"You've become a beautiful young woman," said the bat. It floated in front of the girl's chest as she held her arms out.
"If you're able to grow then you are also finally able leave this place. Do you want to go to another town?"
She just nodded. The vampire who had just turned from a little girl into a woman simply nodded.
"Let's go to a town where the humans are easier to drink," said the girl.
A beautiful, beautiful vampire. But what she really wished for was something trivial. What she wanted was someone. Someone who would always be by her side, no through magic control, but because they wanted to.
She wanted someone all to herself.
~The End
--------------------------------------------------
I came across a couple of sentences I wasn't sure about with this translation;
Which I have tentatively translated as "Being alive is painful if you have no one to blame but yourself. I don't have the strength to keep on living after all that's happened. I can't go on any more. But..."
Something about that sentence just doesn't 'click' with me. I'm sure I've either misunderstood the Japanese or I've misunderstood what the author was trying to say.
『気に入った獲物を見つけた時、心の中でわだかまりが生じた時、』
蝙蝠の声が脳裏を過ぎる。
『ヴァンパイアはその心の葛藤を無くすために大人の心で誤魔化そうとする』
金糸の髪がすらりと伸びた少女の腕に絡まる。
It's the same thing with this passage, which I translated as "When you find yourself the kind of prey you want to keep, when your heart starts to care," the bat's words wisped through her mind, "A grown up vampire has to fool his heart to rid himself of those conflicted emotions."
I just don't think I've translated it correctly, but at the same time I can't quite figure out what I've done wrong.
I'm sure you'll find plenty of things that could be changed if you read through the story, but there two points in particular are driving me up the wall.
Lastly, the reason she didn't want to kill the man is because it wouldn't free him from his troubles as he would turn into a vampire if bitten. It would mean that he would spend an eternity as a worn-out and depressed vampire. I was just wondering if that was clear to reader (without me having to spell it out).
This is a short story I found on someone's personal home page (they gave me permission to translate and post it here). It's essentially the Author's take on the early stages of a Vampire's life cycle. It's definitely different from the pieces taken from Aozora Bunko, that's for sure.
The original can be found here
-----------------------------------------------
I'm tired of sleeping alone.
Won't someone lie beside me?
The vampire princess
~The girl who was waiting to wake up~
Won't someone lie beside me?
The vampire princess
~The girl who was waiting to wake up~
The young girl sighed as she gazed up into the darkness of the night. The darkness that she couldn't do without. But she had started to think that the darkness also begot creeping feelings of loneliness.
"Come on. It's time to wake up," she said as she poked the bat lying next to her. She spoke with a lisp. The bat sleepily opened it's eyes and met her gaze. Outwardly she looked no more than ten years old. She had clear blue eyes and beautiful blonde hair as fine as thread. The bat wondered if the people of this town would realise that she was a vampire at all.
"I'm hungry. Let's eat," said the girl. The bat fluttered through the air over the young girl with a sigh as she puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
"Will a young lady do?" asked the bat.
"I want to suck the blood of a young man!"
"No. I'm tired of luring young men. You'll have a woman," said the bat before it disappeared into the darkness.
"It's not fair. That bat is going to take the first bite anyway." The girl looked annoyed as brushed back strands of hair from her face.
She wouldn't survive in this world without that bat. Without knowing how to properly feed herself, she would continue to sleep, and before long someone would tear open her coffin, stab her with a stake and her fate would be death, or so she had been told by her friends of the night.
Her home, where she slept, was an abandoned house in the middle of town. The sound of the door creaking open echoed through the building. Instinctively she ran towards the door, without letting her footsteps make a sound.
"That was quick," she said. Just as she spoke those words, an unexpected figure reflected in her eyes from the stair case.
Uh-Oh.
She quickly realised what it was, and ran out of the room and down the connecting hall.
"He-Hey! Wait!" said a man. The girl realised she had been spotted as soon as she heard his surprised voice.
A human. A human here of his own accord. An adult male at that!
"If a human ever sees you, they will first try to help you," the bat had once warned her, "And the human will want to take you into the light, saying it's for your own good"
"I'll die if that happens!" the girl had cried with fear.
"It's one thing that a grown human who finds a child your age in an abandoned house would do. Not all humans are the same," The bat had said.
This is bad!
The girl shot down the hall, jumped towards the roof and hid inside a chandelier. She held her breath and waited for the man to disappear.
"He-Hey!" The man's eyes darted in all directions as he walked around the room.
Go on, get out of here you idiot
The girl held on to the chandelier as she peered down at the man.
Go away. Hurry up and go home. I'm starting to get hungry...
She pulled herself back as she watched the man walk right underneath her. She followed him with her eyes.
...blood...
You can't ignore an urge, and there was no way she could make herself ignore the prey right before her eyes. What lay before her was prey, even if he wouldn't treat her as anything else but a little girl. His body was a walking store-house of that sweet liquid. That's what was going through her mind the moment she jumped down from the chandelier and into the hall. The man turned towards the girl at the sound of the chandelier moving.
"Where were you?" asked the man. The girl smiled and walked towards the man as he spoke.
"Cuddles," said the girl in a childish manner. The man smiled back and held his hands out to the girl. He picked the girl clean up off the ground. She found herself feeling a little perplexed as she gazed at her foolish prey, who was smiling to himself. He gently held her close, the arteries in his neck pulsing right in front of her mouth.
So ... thirsty
The girl narrowed her eyes and swallowed. She moved in close, her mouth open and her teeth inviting the neck.
Time to eat
"So you don't have any parents, then?" his sudden words pulled the girl back to reality. "Where's your mommy and daddy?" asked the man. She turned her head in the direction of the voice. The man was smiling and waiting for her to answer.
Damn it
The girl could feel herself become overwhelmed. She should have sunk her teeth into him when she had the chance.
So close...
"Did they leave you here all alone? This house is in tatters, isn't it? Is this your secret hiding place?" he asked, looking straight at the girl with earnest eyes.
"Yeah," muttered the girl with a nod, not directly answering the man's question. Just as she thought, the man choose which of his own answers to believe.
Foolish human...my bat will be back in a little while. I'll just keep distracting you. And soon... soon I will drink
The girl had answered the man's question only to humour him.
Hurry, hurry home, before the man gets away
The moon was shining high in the sky as the man sat next to the little girl. She sat there next to the man and patiently listened to what he had to say. Her mouth cracked open, little by little. The man was absolutely broke. The next day he would be driven out of the home he had been renting. He had no job, no lover, had failed everyone, but he wasn't trying to blame anyone else.
"Well, you know, it's just terrible timing. It's not really anyone's fault." The man laughed as he spoke, a soft smile of defeat on his face. The little girl sat silent, listening. For this girl who had slept so long, who had never left the house, what he spoke of was quite difficult to comprehend.
"You're a good girl," the man said with a smile, patting her on the head, "if I ever had someone to look after, I would do anything for them," the man finished as he gave the girl a hug. "I'm worn out." His final words found their way to the girl's ears.
"...I want to die. Being alive is painful if you have no one to blame but yourself. I don't have the strength to keep on living after all that's happened. I can't go on any more. But..."
A complex emotion seeped into the little girl's heart. There was a simple way to fix this man's problem.
"You should kill him," said the bat. They spoke telepathically so that the man couldn't hear. The little girl jerked her head up in the direction of the echoing voice. The bat had hidden himself away in the broken down house. Some place the man couldn't see. "Right now, suck his blood and he will die."
"...but he won't die. Not die, he will..."
"This human, this man will die."
"But he'll still remember his past!" The young girl cried in her mind as she shot to her feet The man looked at her with wide eyes and held her by the hand. Before the man had a chance to ask what was wrong, the little girl had turned to face the bat.
"You know damn well! I'm not strong enough yet! I'm not powerful enough to suck away his memories! There is no way we could live together with him still remembering everything!"
"Well you'd have a friend, wouldn't you? You've always wanted a friend to come and be by your side, haven't you?," said the bat.
The little girl swallowed her words and looked up at the man who had been looking down at her with a confused look in his eyes.
If I suck his blood now...
"What's the matter? Did something frighten you?" asked the man, eternally gentle. The girl realized that she couldn't bring herself to quench her thirst and feed her hunger with the blood of this man.
"There will be something better out there for you once you leave this town," said the little as girl snuggled into the man. He wrapped his arms around her.
"What's gotten in to you?" as soon as the man spoke, he lost conciousness. She wiped the trickle of blood from her mouth and looked up at the bat with teary eyes.
"You should drink. If you want me to, I can kill him and you can make the blood of this human your own."
"Are you telling me what to do?" the girl glared up at the bat and wiped tears from her eyes.
"Just, go and put this human in a park or somewhere!" The little girl produced a paper bag and stuffed it into the man's pocket.
"Is that the currency that the humans use?" asked the bat. The little girl glared up at him. The bat let out a little sigh, and lead the human, who had risen to his feet as if possessed, out of the abandoned house.
The little girl looked down at her slender wrists. They began to grow in the light of the moon. When did the bat say it would happen? When does a vampire grow? "When you find yourself the kind of prey you want to keep, when your heart starts to care," the bat's words wisped through her mind, "A grown up vampire has to fool his heart to rid himself of those conflicted emotions." Her long blonde hair grew and tangled over her chest.
"I've put him somewhere." The little girl looked up at the echoing voice above her head.
"You've become a beautiful young woman," said the bat. It floated in front of the girl's chest as she held her arms out.
"If you're able to grow then you are also finally able leave this place. Do you want to go to another town?"
She just nodded. The vampire who had just turned from a little girl into a woman simply nodded.
"Let's go to a town where the humans are easier to drink," said the girl.
A beautiful, beautiful vampire. But what she really wished for was something trivial. What she wanted was someone. Someone who would always be by her side, no through magic control, but because they wanted to.
She wanted someone all to herself.
~The End
--------------------------------------------------
I came across a couple of sentences I wasn't sure about with this translation;
何も恨めないのなら、もうここにいる事も苦しい。でも、何もかもを許して生きていけるほどの強さは持っていない。ここで生きていく事はもうできない。でも……。
Which I have tentatively translated as "Being alive is painful if you have no one to blame but yourself. I don't have the strength to keep on living after all that's happened. I can't go on any more. But..."
Something about that sentence just doesn't 'click' with me. I'm sure I've either misunderstood the Japanese or I've misunderstood what the author was trying to say.
『気に入った獲物を見つけた時、心の中でわだかまりが生じた時、』
蝙蝠の声が脳裏を過ぎる。
『ヴァンパイアはその心の葛藤を無くすために大人の心で誤魔化そうとする』
金糸の髪がすらりと伸びた少女の腕に絡まる。
It's the same thing with this passage, which I translated as "When you find yourself the kind of prey you want to keep, when your heart starts to care," the bat's words wisped through her mind, "A grown up vampire has to fool his heart to rid himself of those conflicted emotions."
I just don't think I've translated it correctly, but at the same time I can't quite figure out what I've done wrong.
I'm sure you'll find plenty of things that could be changed if you read through the story, but there two points in particular are driving me up the wall.
Lastly, the reason she didn't want to kill the man is because it wouldn't free him from his troubles as he would turn into a vampire if bitten. It would mean that he would spend an eternity as a worn-out and depressed vampire. I was just wondering if that was clear to reader (without me having to spell it out).
