Cyril's Fish Tank Trick - A (Rough) Translation

Yesterday, on Constitutional Public Radio (listen here, 3pm-5pm Eastern), a link to a rather impressive magic trick was given. Normally, that would be the end of the story. However, this particular clip happened to be in Japanese... so, taking an interest in it, I translated it, at least so far as my current skills and ability to weed one voice out of another (that darned announcer keeps talking over the magician...).

This is very much in the nature of a quick and dirty translation. I certainly can't guarantee 100% accuracy, but I've tried to mark the points of speculation to make that clear. Hopefully, it's at least readable. A short guide to it: Text in parenthesis is translated from Japanese speech or text. Anything in parenthesis following a double dash (--) is a translator's note, which ends with a (- Trans.).

With that in mind, please enjoy.

Text: 八景島のシー　パラダイス　が　サプライズのステージ (Hakkeijima's Sea Paradise is the stage of the surprise.)

セロが務っかたのはアクア　ミュセアム海の生き物かも (Cyril's trick may have something to do with the creatures kept here.)

たくさんの海洋生物そしてかそく？？の似合うこの氏族かんべい　（カンベイ？） (The announcer is going on about the many creatures there. - Trans.)

Text: 前代未聞　空前絶後のサプライズが幕を開ける！！　(The announcer says the same thing. - Trans.)
Translation: Unprecedented First (and probably last!) unveiling of the trick!! (Kuuzenzetsugo is a noun meaning "so marvelous or horrible that it may be the first, and probably the last.)

Cyril: Hello. Konnichiwa. Bikkurishinaide kudasai. (Hello. Please don't be surprised.) Hello, hello.

Narrator: Okyaku-san wa atsumeru Cyril to iuma ni hito bakkari ga... (Cyril gathers up all the people in the area and...)

Text: 水族館にいるお客さんを集める (Gathering the people at the aquarium)

Narrator: 一体何を始めようというのか？ (Just what is about to happen?)

Text: 衆人環視の中　一体何を始めようというのか？ (In the midst of all these people, just what is about to happen?)

セロ：　これから僕の一番好きマジックをここで披露したいと思います。(I would like to display my favorite magic trick here.)

Text: 一番好きマジックを披露します (Displaying his favorite trick.)

セロ：　So, what's your name?

ゆこ：　Yuko.

セロ：　Yuko. Nice to meet you. Yuko, カード五十二枚あります。　一枚、どれでもいいです、選んで下さい。 (I have 52 cards here. Please, pick whichever of them you would like.)

セロ：　Which one? Which one? Three of clubs. みつばの三です。 (The three of clubs.)

Text: 「みつば（クローバー）の３」です (The three of clubs. (Lit: The three of clovers.))

セロ：　ゆこ、おねがいします、もって下さい。　名前を大きくかいって下さい。 (Yuko, please hold this, and write your name on it in large letters.)

Text: カードを一枚選び　名前を書かせる (One card is chosen, and she writes her name on it.)

Narrator: カードを一枚選ばせ、そして名前にかかせるセロ (She chooses one card, and writes her name on it as Sero requests.)

セロ：　Great! これを書いたこのによくてせいかいで一枚しかないゆこさんのカードになりました。　ゆこ、もって下さい。　ではそんなところでストップ(something)。 (Great! Now, this otherwise normal card has been turned into Yuko-san's card. Yuko, please hold it again. Tell me to stop moving the cards at any time. -- the last line is mostly a guess based on the action in the video. - Trans.)

ゆこ：　Stop.

セロ：　もういってください。 (Please put it there.)

セロ：　みなさん、ゆっくりお見ます。ゆこさんのカードです。まずは真中(something about shuffling the deck). (Everyone, please look closely. This is Yuko-san's card. First, I'm going to shuffle the deck.)

セロ：　Okay? これからちょっと面白い方法を使って、ゆこさんのカードを探したいと思います。 (Okay? Now, using a slightly amusing method, I'm going to search for Yuko-san's card. -- The text on-screen is the same. - Trans.)

セロ：　ゆこ、おねがいります、たのむちょっとカードをシャッフルとして下さい。 (Yuko, would you please shuffle the cards a bit?)

Text: セロが言うおもしろい方法とは？！　(What is Cyril's amazing method? -- The narrator says essentially the same thing. - Trans.)

セロ：　正確水族館にきてんので今日はこの水槽を使って、ゆこのカードをさがします。 (Now, starting in this aquarium, I'm going to use this fish tank to find Yuko's card.)

Text: 水槽を使って探します。 (Using the fish tank to search.)

セロ：　じゃ、みなさん、(Now, everyone... (drowned out by the narration.))

Narrator: 360度全方位？？水槽を使うセロ、このちゅうしんにちゅうもくさせる (Now Cyril, surrounded on all sides, will perform his trick with the fish tank.)

Text: 360度全方位に観客がいる状況 (The spectators are all around him.)

セロ：　You ready? いきます。 (Here I go.)　One. Two. Three!

セロ：　みなさん、一枚のカードはこの水槽のまなかにすいてしまいました。 (Everyone, one card is inside the fish tank.)

セロ：　ゆこさんのカードです。　(It's Yuko-san's card.)

セロ：　取ってめくって下さい。 (Please, try to remove it from the glass. -- Text says the same. - Trans.)

セロ：　取れない。 (You can't take it.)

セロ：　じつはきついただけではなく、じつは水槽の中に入っています。　(In truth, it isn't stuck to the outside of the tank. It's actually IN the tank.)

Text: 水槽の中に（カードが）入っています (The card is in the tank.)

Narrator: セロが飛ばしたカードは水槽の中に入ってしまった。(One of the cards that Cyril sent flying actually entered the tank! -- Text says the same. - Trans.)

セロ：　Yuko-san, may I have your hand? ここをついてきて下さい。　みなさんがよかったらうしろの方にもって、　このカードを見て下さい。(Please follow me this way. Everyone, if you would, please come to the other side of the tank and look at the card.)

Narrator: 本当に彼女が選んだカードなのだろうか？ (Is it really the card that she chose?)

ゆこ：　すご～い　(Wow!)

セロ：　ゆこさんのカードです。 (It's Yuko-san's card.)

Narrator: 彼女が選んだカードはクロバーの三。　そしてセロが選んだカードもクロバーの三。 (The card she picked was the three of clubs. And the card Cyril picked was... also the three of clubs.) そして、セロはそのカードは水槽の中に行ってしまった。 (Furthermore, the card that Cyril picked has entered the fish tank.)

Narrator: しかし、セロのサプライズはこれで終わりではなかった。 (However, Cyril's surprise did not end there. -- Text reads the same. - Trans.)

セロ：　But wait. Wait. みなさん、もう一つどうしても見せたいんです。 (Everyone, there is one more thing that I'd like to show you.)

セロ：　とうぞ見えないの方こちらの方にきて下さい。 Come over here. 見えない方 (Please, would the people on the far side of the tank come over here. Come over here. -- I assume he repeats himself again in Japanese at this point, but the narrator talks right over him again. Can't really understand one bit of what either of them are saying at that point. - Trans.)

Narrator:　。。。じょうきょうでわれわれは奇跡の瞬間を目撃する！！ (What kind of miracle are we going to witness now?)

セロ：　このナプキンで拭くとどうなるか分かりますか？ (Do you know why I'm wiping the side of the tank with this napkin?)

セロ：　窓（ガラス）はきれいになります。 (So that the glass will be clean.)

セロ：　Okay. じつは窓はきれいになるだけではなく、じつはこするとガラスが柔らかくなってきます。 (Okay. Really, I'm not doing it just so the glass will be clean. The truth is, I want to soften it up just a bit.)

Narrator: ガラスが柔らかくなるとは？ (Soften it up a bit? -- Text is the same. - Trans.)

Narrator: いったいどういうことなのか？ (What does he mean by that?)

Narrator: いけんするとガラスはふつうのかたいガラスにしか見えない。 (However you look at it, the glass looks like normal glass.)

セロ：　Now watch.

Narrator:　かみナプキンを水槽のガラスにかむせい、セロが上からガラスを？？はじめ。　するとガラスを？？？ (Placing the paper napkin on the glass wall of the fish tank, Cyril begins pressing on the glass from above. -- The next line has to be about him making headway into it. - Trans.)

Narrator:　なんと水槽の中にセロの手いちのガラスを入ってしまった (Somehow, Cyril has put one hand through the wall of the fish tank!)

Text: 水槽の中に手を入れてしまった (One hand in the tank.)

Narrator:　よくから見えとたしかにセロの手が水槽の中に入ってがくりんできる (Certainly, looking at it, Cyril has stretched one of his hands into the tank.)

Narrator:　手をどんどんと中にいれ、水槽のはんたいのガラスへ。。。その一枚のカードを手に取る。　やっぱり、カードはガラスをかんたんに水槽の内側に入っていた！ (He stretches his hand out slowly towards the far side of the tank... and takes the card in hand. As expected, the card was stuck to the inside of the glass wall of the tank!)

Text:　　カードは水槽の内側に入っていた (The card was inside the tank.)

Narrator: そして、カードを手にしたもら手はふたたびそとのせいぞう (And, card in hand, he pulls his arm safely back out of the tank.)

Crowd: すごい (Wow!)

Narrator: (Now, let's see that one more time. And recap it, naturally. - Trans.)

Swastika Hijacking?

The obligatory link: Hindus opposing EU swastika ban

A friend of mine linked me to this last night, and I couldn't help but be interested. I mean, it's not every day that you hear about people standing up in defense of something so closely associated in the minds of people with the Nazis, even if the people in question were using it long beforehand.

On closer reading, particularly from the Wikipedia entry on the subject, it appears that the ban of the image in Germany does not include religious usages. The question then becomes, is that same exception carved out in the ban being put forth to the EU, as the only wording I've found on it is rather vague.

One For The Good News Files

The obligatory link: Afghan civilians stop terror attack at U.S. base

Honestly, I was rather surprised to happen across this while perusing news sources this morning. Pleasantly surprised, of course. After all, hardly a day goes by that there isn't a headline from some news agency of a suicide bombing killing or injuring people somewhere... So nice to see one averted, and in a spectacular manner at that.

Sick, Twisted Scam - Be Forewarned

The obligatory link: New Phisher Tactic: Pay Me Or I'll Kill You

From the same kind of low-life scum that cooked up the Nigerian e-mail scam, undoubtedly. Not to mention, yet another good reason not to open e-mail if you don't know the sender.

In any event, since the article was so good as to give us a sample of the main body of the scam mail in question, we can do something about it without having ever received one personally. If you don't know the general procedure to set up rules in Outlook, please refer to this post. Now, instead of checking the box "which has an attachment", we're going to choose "with specific words in the body". Adding a couple of the phrases from the mail in question will do. I'd choose "Do not contact the police" and "I turned out to be a betrayer", since they're not so common that they might accidentally filter legitimate mails from people, but the choice is yours. Continue with the rest of setting up a rule, and apply it.

Delay Dementia By Four Years?

The obligatory link: Bilingualism has protective effect in delaying onset of dementia by four years, Canadian study shows

It's an interesting idea, I suppose. Of course, they don't say what constitutes real "lifelong use of two languages". Does picking up a second language at seventeen count? (And if it does, does that make me an honorary member of the juunana sai cult?)

Looking down the article, it takes better than half the article to finally get to the real statistical value of the study... a whole 184 people. So, file this one under "more research is needed", I suppose.

Things Worth Seeing

A few things worth your reading time, if I may... Not in any particular order, but if you're only going to read one, it really ought to be the first one.

From the Radio Patriots, Mark and Andrea, the obligatory link #1: It always ends with one word.

From RealClearPolitics, the obligatory link #2: Thomas Sowell's Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

From the Richmond TimesDispatch, the obligatory link #3: Non-father must pay past-due child support, Ark. court says

From KSTP Channel 5 (Minneapolis), the obligatory link #4: Kids kicked off bus (for speaking English!)

A Cold Knight In London

I'm sorry, I know that was bad. Here's the obligatory link: U.K., Russia clash in a different kind of cold war

Following the link, there's a video of the game, including the very cool-looking (should be, they're ice, after all...) chess pieces. Unfortunately, you'll be treated to a thirty-second commercial first... Not much to be done about it.