Comments on: Lost in Translation?

By: Maru

Maru — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:04:34 +0000

Well, putting the text together, I’d say it’s a butchered or cutesy “I’m Lord/Prince/Duke/Sir Pug” (the last character doesn’t have a smooth translation). While the “I” used is the way a farmer from the boonies would say it, the contrast here is most likely for cute comedic effect, which is more information than you most likely needed.

As for any meaning or cultural significance, I have no idea. It was most likely made to be cutesy and that’s the best I can give you. I try not to think about the bird pecking his ass.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:45:05 +0000

Hoddie got the gist of it but just needed to put it all together. “oira” (the three black characters at the top) is like “me/I” and “pagu” (the first two red characters) is a romanized pronounciation of “pug” as in the type of dog. So basically it’s saying “I’m a pug.” Why they added a “ko” at the end of it, I’m not sure of either.

And at the end, Hoddie was apologizing that he couldn’t give you a better explanation: “gomen ne” (“sorry”), “wakarani” (“I don’t understand”).

And the arse-pecking/-sniffing I have no idea about as well.

Japan produces a huge amount of these cute stationary items with random expressions so it may be difficult to find any more information on origin or lineage.

By: Zach N.

Zach N. — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 17:39:42 +0000

Huh?

By: Hoddie

Hoddie — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 15:57:47 +0000

oira which is the top bit is a country bumpkin mans way of saying “ME” or “I”, the bit at the bottom has “pagu” which is a type of dog (its a foreign word so its in Katakana) but its mebbe a bit of a pun this one, theyve put kanji with the word pagu to say “paguko” which is a kind of ummm I dunno actually… The kanji on its own can mean prince or duke or “sir” but you wouldnt say oira with this…the word pagukou does have some kind of negative connotation to do with the police though..but again that doesnt fit with oira…gomen ne…wakaranai