"Kimi ga itoshii" = "I love you"?

[AdamStephanides]

In a manga which I read recently in Japanese, one of the characters says to another "kimi ga itoshii." This manga has also appeared in English, and this phrase is translated as "I love you." While I'm far from an expert on Japanese, I suspect that this is a misleading translation. Up till now these two characters have only been friends, and my impression is that "itoshii" is not a word that one would be likely to use in a "confession" (as the Japanese call it). And the continuation of the manga makes it pretty clear that the phrase was not intended or understood as a confession of love. I think that a more accurate (if awkward) translation might be "You are dear to me."

Can someone who knows Japanese well tell me if I'm right or wrong? Thanks in advance.

[badasscat]

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AdamStephanides said:
In a manga which I read recently in Japanese, one of the characters says to another "kimi ga itoshii." This manga has also appeared in English, and this phrase is translated as "I love you." While I'm far from an expert on Japanese, I suspect that this is a misleading translation.

Can someone who knows Japanese well tell me if I'm right or wrong? Thanks in advance.

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I don't know this manga but it certainly is not the standard way of saying "I love you". You'd normally say something like "suki desu" if it was the first time and it wasn't deep love yet; for real love you'd just say "aishiteru". (I have some experience with this.)

I'm no expert in Japanese either and I don't know what "itoshii" really means in actual parlance (I always thought it just meant "lovely"), but I've never heard "kimi ga itoshii" as a way of saying "I love you".

I would think your translation is probably slightly more accurate, but it seems like an even better translation would be "you are lovely."

Maybe the translator thought this didn't carry much weight... I guess it would depend on the context. In a movie, if someone says "you are beautiful" in a tender moment it's pretty obvious what it means... but if a guy says "you look hot today" as he walks by a girl in class, maybe not so much. So maybe the translator just thought the situation warranted something a little bit stronger... though that doesn't mean they were right in what they came up with.

[ayumu]

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Jeff Williams said:
I would think your translation is probably slightly more accurate, but it seems like an even better translation would be "you are lovely."

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Not really. Itoshii is one of those words that we don't really have in English. If I had to separate it from love, I might say, "You are precious to me." But honestly, that doesn't really feel the same to me. It's a very close idea to love, and it's hard for me to imagine separating the two. Usually it's because you love someone that they are itoshii.

I can see how the translator would write it that way, because it really amounts to the same thing as telling a person you love them, but it's really hard to say without context. (Off the top of my head example would be the Fushigi Yuugi opening theme, "Itoshii Hito no Tame ni," which is often translated as, "For the One I Love.")

[Kintaro]

I guess I would translate it with "My dear."...I think it means that the other person is very precious to one.

Btw, what manga? I recall reading some manga a few months ago where I read that word the first time...can't remember which one though.

[quenelf]

I'm hardly an expert in any sense, but just to say... personally, I've tended to read that word as 'beloved'.

I hadn't encountered that usage, but it is sort of possible to have a 'beloved' friend who isn't actually, you know, your beloved. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

--quen

[AdamStephanides]

The context makes "dear," "beloved," or "precious" more likely translations than "lovely."

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Kintaro said:
Btw, what manga? I recall reading some manga a few months ago where I read that word the first time...can't remember which one though.

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I didn't say the manga and volume, because it would be a spoiler. I guess saying just the manga title wouldn't be that much of a spoiler, but I'll use spoiler code anyway, to be on the safe side. It's <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> Fruits Basket </span>.

[Kintaro]

Ah...I was mistaken /images/graemlins/happy.gif Thanks.

[ayumu]

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AdamStephanides said:
It's <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> Fruits Basket </span>.

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Wow, I didn't remember that at all. Who says it? What volume?

[safielstar]

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ayumu-chan said:
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AdamStephanides said:
It's <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> Fruits Basket </span>.

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Wow, I didn't remember that at all. Who says it? What volume?

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<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> I think it's Yuki who says it to Tohru at the end of volume 10 if I remember correctly... </span>

When I read that same scene in the Japanese volume, I always translated it in my head as "beloved" or "you're precious to me"....I didn't think of it as quite as intense as an outright statement of love, but it's one of those weird things that just don't come across in English I suppose /images/graemlins/sweat200.gif

[witega]

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Safiel said:
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ayumu-chan said:
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AdamStephanides said:
It's <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> Fruits Basket </span>.

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Wow, I didn't remember that at all. Who says it? What volume?

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<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> I think it's Yuki who says it to Tohru at the end of volume 10 if I remember correctly... </span>

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Yes. <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Or at least, on the last page of vol.10 which just came out in English, it has Yuki telling Tohru, "I love you."</span> I don't have the original Japanese to confirm it has 'kimi ga itoshii' there, but that's the only scene I can think of that fits Adam's criteria.

Given the context and the above discussion on the usage of 'itoshii', it seems like a loose but not particularly incorrect translation. 'You are precious to me.' would have sounded somewhat awkward.

[ayumu]

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witega said:
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Safiel said:
<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> I think it's Yuki who says it to Tohru at the end of volume 10 if I remember correctly... </span>

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Yes. <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Or at least, on the last page of vol.10 which just came out in English, it has Yuki telling Tohru, "I love you."</span>

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Okay. That was one of two possibilites I thought of. Glad I haven't forgotten the story completely. /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

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Given the context and the above discussion on the usage of 'itoshii', it seems like a loose but not particularly incorrect translation. 'You are precious to me.' would have sounded somewhat awkward.

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Yes, but I think "I love you" creates more misunderstandings. It's entirely possible to interpret this as a platonic love, or, as we see later, <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>the love a son feels for his mother</span>, but I think it's not as ambiguous as the original. I probably would have used something like, "You're so special to me." It's kind of cheesy, but I think the original line is pretty sappy, so maybe it's not so much of a stretch. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[AdamStephanides]

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witega said:
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Safiel said:
<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'> I think it's Yuki who says it to Tohru at the end of volume 10 if I remember correctly... </span>

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Yes. <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Or at least, on the last page of vol.10 which just came out in English, it has Yuki telling Tohru, "I love you."</span>

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Yes, that's the place I was thinking of. Checking the scene again in the Japanese version, though, it appears that <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Yuki</span> doesn't actually say the words out loud, just thinks them; in which case, the translation is less misleading. But in the context of the series as a whole, the English phrase still seems to me to most naturally imply a romantic, exclusive love, an implication that the Japanese phrase doesn't have.

True, "you are precious to me" is awkward, and I'm not claiming that this is the best translation. But then again, it's an awkward moment.

[shinBASHI]

This is exactly why the people who translate Japanese manga into English SUCK.
Never trust English translations. Unless they're done by a respectable fan group. Because there's plenty of BAD fan translators, too.