Hiya, I'm doing a new fansub for Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters and there's a line I'm stuck on. Is it possible for 可愛 to have a negative connotation? If so, what?Surrounding lines for context. Speaker A has a severe stammer and wants to be liked as he is/for who he is, but Speaker B thinks that's a naive/sentimental ambition since he's 'deformed' (it's set in old Japan, and Speaker B is also 'deformed' with a club foot and is cynical and nihilstic because of his ill treatment) and that Speaker A should lower himself to using his disability manipulatively to get what he wants:A: 片輪って... 壊せヘん鏡ちっと見せつけられてるみたいなもんや. [Being crippled... is like being followed by a reflection you can't break.]B: 君は, 自分が可愛すぎるんだよ. [You know, you're too ??????.] This is the line I need help with.B: だから, たかがどもりぐらいや, そんなに可哀相に思えるんだ. どうせ. 詩かなんか書くんだろ. [That's why you feel so sorry for yourself over a mere stammer. Let me guess, you write poetry or something?]A (pointing): 金閣寺... 美しすぎて... 怖いんや. [The Golden Pavilion... It's so beautiful, it frightens me.]B: なんだ? 坊主か? もう救いようねえな! [What's that? A monk? He's beyond help!]B: それにしても甘いんだよ. 人に好かれたいなんて思う事自体. [Still, it's naïve. To hope for people to like what we are.]B: 所詮ありえないん. 認めるんだな. [It's just not possible. You have to admit it]A: でも… [But...]B: それさえ認めりゃ, 反対にその弱みを餌にして, 女の気を引けるじゃないか. よし. 見てろよ. [Admit it, and you can use your weakness as bait to attract a woman's attention instead. Alright? Watch this.]
>>1460222The above is just a first draft. As far as I know, 可愛 is only used to mean cute, pretty, adorable, or at a stretch, quaint or apparently (in an obsolete usage) pitiable/evoking sympathetic feelings. But even this older use doesn't seem quite right. It seems more like he's saying something like "You know, you're pretty full of yourself (too uncompromising about thinking you can gain attention honestly by someone falling in love with you, act like the trash you are)" / "You're too precious (as in discerning about the values and tastes you hold dear)" / or even "You're too innocent (inexperienced in the ways of the world)". But none of these seem valid readings of 可愛 in either older or newer dictionary senses. Any ideas? I'm happy to give you a credit if you leave a handle in your reply to credit you by. I previously helped create the first English translation of Leos Carax's unreleased 2001 masterpiece "Pierre or, The Ambiguities" after it leaked in VHS quality a couple of years ago. 450,000 views on Youtube before it was taken down due to nudity & still available on Soulseek and Internet Archive, and Amy Taubin from Sight & Sound did a podcast segment on it. Help me with this fansub and hopefully it too will get a big circulation going. Feel free to correct me on any other mistakes if you see any that really bother you, I've been pretty liberal with the wording but I think it all works out in the context of the scene, but it's specifically this one line reading I'm totally struggling with at the moment.P.S. There *is* an official translation that exists from the 80s, but it completely changes the meaning of a lot of passages to stuff that briefs the US normie audience of the time on Japanese subject matter, totally deviating from the subjects being talked about in the Japanese spoken word, so it's not at all reliable for me to base my guess on. Whole reason I'm doing a fansub.
>>1460222in that context its means "spoiling yourself".
>>1460328Thank you, would "Too fond of yourself" / "Pretty full of yourself" make sense in this context?
>>1460222In this context, 可愛すぎる (kawaisugiru) can have a negative connotation of being too naive, sentimental, or overly idealistic. It can imply that Speaker A's desire to be liked for who he is, despite his disability, is seen as overly hopeful or unrealistic by Speaker B. The use of 可愛すぎる in this context suggests that Speaker B views Speaker A's attitude as impractical or unrealistic in the face of their physical deformities and social stigma.
>>1460329>>1460328After consideration, there's two ways I could take this:-Character B is telling Character A he is spoiling life for himself by expecting too much (holding life in too high a regard)-Character B is telling Character A his idea of *himself* is too inflated so he is disappointed by the reality (holding himself in too high a regard)I suppose the cultural difference might fudge there being a difference between these two but does the way this expression is used here lean more towards the first or the second meaning?Put another way, would it be better to render the line as"You know, you're pretty full of yourself"or"You know, you expect too much [out of life/yourself]"
>>1460599Thanks, I hadn't refreshed the page before making my previous post. Looks like it's the second?
>>1460599& probably some nuance I'm missing in the line after if that's the case? Speaker B wouldn't be downplaying Speaker A's stammer as being meagre if he recognises it has detrimental effects on one's social life.
Bump
Bump for >>1460672 >>1460674 answer
