Games

Let’s learn Japanese with Ryu’s quote from Street Fighter Ⅱ.

Video

Ryu’s Quote

Japanese: 昇龍拳を破らぬ限り、お前に勝ち目はない。
Romaji: shoryuken o yaburanu kagiri, omae ni kachime wa nai.
English: You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.

Analysis

昇龍拳 (shoryuken) as you know is the name of the move but it is “rising dragon fist” if translated directly.

A negative verb conjugation + 限り means “unless”, and the negative verb conjugation here is ぬ which is the same as ない in an old-fashioned and classical way. You often hear it in samurai movies.

勝ち目 means “a chance of winning”.

So it means “unless you defeat the shoryuken, you won’t stand a chance of winning”.

However, let’s look at the sentence in the English version.

You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.

So this phrase suggests that there is a person called Sheng Long and that the opponent must be able to defeat Sheng Long first before being able to stand a chance against Ryu.

Did you notice? According to the Japanese version, Sheng Long was not a person but is actually just referring to the shoryuken, the move that defeated Sagat.

I can explain how this mistake could have happened. Sheng Long is actually the Chinese pronunciation for the kanji of shoryuken without the Ken. Whoever translated the script probably did not know that shoryuken was a move so it was translated as a name in Chinese.

Despite the error though, rumours of Sheng Long became so big that it got into western game magazines and it even got the attention from Capcom at one stage. This mistake probably did take part in making the game a bigger hit in the western world and so in the end, I think it was ok that it was translated to “you must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance”.

Examples

〜ない + 限り (unless)

雨あめが降ふらない限かぎり、試合しあいは決行けっこうします。

ame ga furanai kagiri shiai wa kekkō shimasu.

The match will be carried out unless it rains.

彼かれが謝あやまらない限かぎり、二度にどと話はなさない。

kare ga ayamaranai kagiri nido to hanasanai.

I will never talk to him again unless he apologises to me.

宿題しゅくだいを終おわらせない限かぎり、おやつをあげません。

shukudai o owarasenai kagiri, oyatsu o agemasen.

Unless you get your homework done, I won’t give you snacks.

勝ち目 (a chance of winning)

この勝負しょうぶ、勝かち目めは五分五分ごぶごぶだ。

kono shōbu, kachime wa gobugobu da.

For this match, the chance of winning is fifty-fifty.

あいつは強つよすぎる。とても勝かち目めがないよ。

aitsu wa tsuyosugiru. totemo kachime ga naiyo.

That guy is too strong. I definitely won’t stand a chance.

勝かち目めがない試合しあいはしたくない。

kachime ga nai shiai wa shitakunai.

I don’t want to play a match that I have no chance of winning.

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