May 29, 2023
Hills of Silver Ruins IV
Maps
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Glossary
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Labels: 12 kingdoms, black moon, ebooks, fantasy, japanese, translations
May 28, 2023
Hills of Silver Ruins IV (notes)
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Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 • Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 • Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 • |
Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 • Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 • |
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Notes
Glossary
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More about the title
More about the covers
Labels: 12 kingdoms, black moon, ebooks, fantasy, japanese, translations
May 27, 2023
Hills of Silver Ruins (4/41)
Until the adoption of Meiji as the name for Mutsuhito's entire reign, the nengou was traditionally changed several times during the reign of a single emperor—at two fixed points in the cycle of sixty years, or when a series of natural disasters were attributed to an inauspicious nengou, or when some prodigy of nature required recognition in the calendar.
The kanji for the era name of Gyousou's new and improved dynasty are bright (明) and banner (幟).
Labels: 12 kingdoms, black moon, fantasy, japanese, translations
May 20, 2023
Hills of Silver Ruins (4/40)
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in fields of gold
So she took her love
For to gaze a while
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold
Will you stay with me?
Will you be my love?
Upon the fields of barley
We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in fields of gold
See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold
Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold
Labels: 12 kingdoms, black moon, fantasy, japanese, translations
May 13, 2023
Hills of Silver Ruins (4/39)
Labels: 12 kingdoms, black moon, fantasy, japanese, translations
May 06, 2023
Hills of Silver Ruins (4/38)
Kaei was the last person to see Risai before she departed for Kei in chapter 6 of The Shore in Twilight.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, black moon, fantasy, japanese, translations
May 01, 2023
Twelve Kingdoms
The Twelve Kingdoms novels have been licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment. Bookstore links will appear when they are published.
For additional commentary about the Twelve Kingdoms and the translation process, see Kate's Interview with a Translator series.
1. Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi. My translation: Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows.
2. Kaze no Banri, Reimei no Sora. My translation: A Thousand Leagues of Wind, the Sky at Dawn.
Youko, Suzu, and Shoukei join forces to defeat corrupt government leaders in Wa Province.
3. Tasogare no Kishi, Akatsuki no Sora. My translation: The Shore in Twilight, the Sky at Daybreak.
Risai escapes to Kei and asks Youko for help rescuing Taiki. Taiki and Youko are contemporaries.
Fuyumi Ono wrote The Demon Child before she started the Twelve Kingdoms series. See link below. She covers some of this material in The Shore in Twilight, The Sky at Daybreak. In Kaze no Umi, Meikyu no Kishi ("A Sea of Wind, Shores of the Labyrinth"), Taiki choose Gyousou as Emperor of Tai. See links below.
1. Tasogare no Kishi, Akatsuki no Sora. My translation: The Shore in Twilight, the Sky at Daybreak.
Risai escapes to Kei and asks Youko for help rescuing Taiki. Taiki and Youko are contemporaries.
2. Shirogane no Oka, Kuro no Tsuki. My translation: Hills of Silver Ruins, a Pitch Black Moon (book I II III IV).
Risai and Taiki return to Tai. They recruit a small band of allies to search for Gyousou and take back the kingdom.
Higashi no Watatsumi, Nishi no Sokai. My translation: Poseidon of the East, Vast Blue Seas of the West.
Tonan no Tsubasa. My translation: The Wings of Dreams.
Kyouki chooses Shushou as Empress of Kyou. (Shoukei encounters Shushou in A Thousand Leagues of Wind.)
Kasho no Yume. My translation: Dreaming of Paradise.
- (冬栄) "Winter Splendor" (Touei): takes place in Tai and Ren during The Shore in Twilight, the Sky at Daybreak.
- (乗月) "Jougetsu": takes place in Hou after A Thousand Leagues of Wind, the Sky at Dawn.
- (書簡) "Pen-Pals" (Shokan): takes place in Kei and En after Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows.
- (華胥) "Dreaming of Paradise" (Kasho): takes place in Sai sometime before A Thousand Leagues of Wind, the Sky at Dawn.
- (帰山) "Kizan": takes place in Ryuu and Sou after A Thousand Leagues of Wind, the Sky at Dawn.
Hisho no Tori. My translation: Hisho's Birds.
- (丕緒の鳥) "Hisho's Birds" (Hisho no Tori): takes place before and shortly after the coronation of Youko as Empress of Kei.
- (落照の獄) "Prison of Dusk" Rakushou no Goku: references to Ryuu and Emperor Chuutatsu suggest the beginning of Youko's reign.
- (青条の蘭) "Blue Orchid" (Seijou no Ran): takes place in En before Rokuta chooses Shouryuu as the next Emperor.
- (風信) "Weather Vane" (Fuushin): takes place during the last days of Empress Yo of Kei, and then following her death.
I've created my own abridged glossary. An overview of the Twelve Kingdoms universe can be found at Wikipedia (English Japanese). The Twelve Kingdoms Wiki has scans of the illustrations and additional artwork.
My go-to resource while translating the novels has been Yoshie Omura's Twelve Kingdoms Room (Japanese). Also see the Twelve Kingdoms Database (Japanese).
Fuyumi Ono borrows much of the political terminology from medieval China. Harvard University's "Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China" (PDF) provides useful clues about the English equivalents.
However, we are talking about a fantasy series, so historical translations are not always exact. The organizational charts at Twelve Kingdoms Memo (Japanese) have proved quite helpful.
The NHK anime can be streamed at Tubi and Crunchyroll (regional restrictions may apply). The Blu-ray edition is available from Discotek Media.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, books, crunchyroll, fantasy, japanese, kate, publishing, translations, tubi