Hideo Kojima gets poetic on his weblog

9 Comments by Ross Miller Sep 27th 2005 6:00PM
Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3

Hideo Kojima, international playboy and creator of Metal Gear Solid, has had a personal weblog for at least a few days now. The site is in Japanese, but many have tried reading it through translators such as babel fish – and as you may realize, the translations are not perfect. However, for those who yearn for the days of oddly translated kung-fu films, scrolling through Kojima's blog might be a blessing. Take, for example, this passage:

Now, trying playing, "the metal it does not change", that you think.
MG 18 years ago, is the game of 15 years ago even with MG2 of the continuation.

Indeed, the "metal it does not change" is a great game. Don't fault the writer for babel fish's engrish, but enjoy a bit of insight into the man who made Solid Snake.

[Thanks, bandersnatch]

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

chudgoo: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

Instead of musing about how unreliable translations are with babel fish, how about contacting someone who could accurately translate the text?

I'm not complaining about Joystiq's content, I just wanted to point out that this story doesn't HAVE to be lacking in details...though it is.

Ross Miller: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

Nope, it doesn't have to be lacking in details, but the engrish is still discernible for english natives. The point, moreso, was to get a good laugh out of how unreliable translators can be. A post about a personal web log isn't entirely newsworthy (though, since it is kojima, and we have to report on everything he touches...), but a personal web log with the phrasing, however intentional and whoever's fault it may be, "the metal it does not change," is amusing.

shawn: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

I've been studying japanese for a little while, and I can tell that there are definantly vowels on that page.

Laughing Man: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

For the love of God everyone go here and please ask them to start translating the Hideo blog into English. With enough responses I bet they would. I want to know as regularly as possible what the master is thinking.

Also, a hi-def quictkime of the MGS4 trailer while you're at it.

http://www.konami.jp/gs/kojima_pro/english/mail.html

Dan: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

Damn... This story actually links to the original story from -my- website. It's like a 3rd generation story, heh.

bandersnatch: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

Hey Dan,

I gave you proper plugs on gameinsider for this story.

Now go cluebat Ross.

Momus: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

Shawn, you are beautiful.

chudgoo: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

Momus, (not THE Momus, I presume...)

Way to go pointing out ever so subtly that Shaun misspelled "definitely'. =P

Back on topic...
(here goes a rehashed version of what I bitched about on slashdot in the past)...

Isn't it the obligation of the editors of a money-making website that has thousands(?) of readers to do the hard work for their readers?

With all the contacts and connections and whatnot that Joystiq editors likely enjoy, is it not possible to get a translation of this text?

Surely you guys can do better than "Hey this really cool guy has this website and we think it contains all kinds of neat stuff, but we can't read the 'engrish' so instead of telling you what it is, here's a bunch of 'funny looking characters"

Ross Miller: Dec 18th 2005; 10:08PM

*clubbed to blithering idiocy* ouch, stop it, oh the insanity!

but yeah, sh*t, i knew i forgot something, i meant to make the main link to gamegeeknews - it's fixed now, really sorry about that, dan.

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