魔法少女幸福論 || Magical Girl Eudaemonics

魔法少女幸福論
mahou shoujo koufukuron
Magical Girl Eudaemonics

Video text only
Vocals: 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku)
Lyrics: トーマ (Tohma)
Composed by: トーマ (Tohma)
Upload date: 2 April 2013

Requested by: Saryu
Watch the official video on NicoNico!

Update (10/04/2021): Updates for clarity and to clarify puns – thanks Saryu!

This is specifically the video text that appears at around 2:05 in the original video.

日本語

魔法が実在するかは別として、行き過ぎたテクノロジーに於いて其処に有るのは何か。
無償で永遠の利便であろうか。
人は奇跡の類いを「魔法」という言葉に置き換えているだけではないのだろうかい。
其処には代償などなく、
我々は一振りで終わる奇跡をただただ指をくわえて盲信じているだけなのである。
其処で奇しくも力手に入れた少女が一人嘆く。
そう彼女が操るのは、
我々が憧れ続けるその力は
他でもない「魔」の「法則」なのだから。

Translation

What else is there in technology taken to the extreme other than magic made real?
Might it be eternal convenience, free of charge?
Perhaps people just exchange a type of miracle with the word ‘magic.’
There’s no cost to that,
instead we just look on, blindly believing in miracles that are over in the wave of a wand.
So, the girl who obtained a miraculous power grieved alone
because what she was manipulating—
the power that we kept longing for—
was none other than the ‘laws of demons.’ (1)

Translator’s note

(1) This line separates the two characters used in 魔法 (mahou – magic) into two words: 魔 (ma – demon) and 法則 (housoku – rule/law).

Posted

7 February 2021

Translations, Vocaloid

Releska

Tags:

トーマ, Hatsune Miku (初音ミク), Tohma

Comments

3 responses to “魔法少女幸福論 || Magical Girl Eudaemonics”

Saryu

9 April 2021

Thanks for the translation. There are two points I’m not too sure about
1) ‘Enviously’ is a translation for 盲信, right? I usually see it translated as the conveniently literal “blind faith”, Jisho also suggests “credulity”. Either way I don’t understand where envy comes in. Judging from the PV, I get the impression the idea is that they overlook the price for that magic, instead trusting it indiscriminately? Relatedly…
2) 魔 is a term for evil spirits, so I don’t think translating 「魔」の「法則」 as just ” laws of magic” conveys that. “The devil’s law/the law of devils” would be closer, I think, with a translation note for the 魔法 pun.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Reply
1. Releska
  
  10 April 2021
  
  Thanks for the comment! Regarding the two points you raised:
  
  1) I intended ‘enviously’ to cover 指をくわえて. My reading of it is that people don’t actually have the power of magic – instead, they rely on technology, which is so advanced it’s indistinguishable from magic. If magic exists and is something people have blind faith in, I feel that contradicts 憧れ続けるその力 later on. The full line would be ‘instead we just look on enviously, without doing a thing, blindly believing in miracles that are over in the wave of a wand.’ It’s quite long but if the ‘blind belief’ is important I’ll make that change!
  
  2) I interpreted 魔 as a contracted form of 魔法 rather than 悪魔 which is where I got ‘laws of magic’ from. Looking at it from that perspective, I wonder why they didn’t go all the way and write 「魔」の「法」, since that would have made the pun even stronger…You raise a good point, though, and I’ll think about how to adjust that line!
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
2. Releska
  
  10 April 2021
  
  I thought it through a bit more and made some changes – I ended up trimming down the line in point 1 as well. Thanks again!
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply