[GinaS]

Originally Posted by GinaS

ミランがチャペックを揺り起こすと、彼は怖い夢を見た といいました。亡命する時、危険を目に遭ったのかとミ ランが尋ねると、彼は笑って、怖かったのは亡命の前... ...あの事件のあとの七年間だった、わたしは彼に代わっ て計画を進めたが、いい人材にはあたらなかった、だが 四十二を四十六にした時ほど頭をひねり、怖い目にあっ たことはなかった、まったくあの人のせいだ、といった そうです。

Milan shook Chapek awake, and he told him he'd had a terrible dream. When Milan asked him if he had experienced something terrifying at the time of his defection, he laughed and said, "No, I'm afraid of the seven years before that..." He said "I carried forward the plan in his place, though regrettably I was not such a talented man, but I wracked my brains over (or puzzled over) the 42 and 46, it wasn't such a dreadful thing to experience, entirely because of that man. (or, that man was entirely to blame)."

I've finished with the next chapter, and as expected, the meaning of 42 and 46 is made crystal clear. [serious spoilers ahead] My first instinct was correct - it does refer to bodies, but it seems that there should have only been 42, and yet 46 were exhumed by the police. "That man" either killed 4 additional people (or had them killed on his behalf) to cover up the fact that he and 3 others that he wanted to hide were in fact still alive (and this also explains the presence of the two children).

That discrepancy in the body count is something I've been wondering about since the anime (I always thought it must be a mistake in the scripts that wasn't caught), so I'm delighted to have that finally cleared up after all these years. There is still a mystery here, and that is who killed the extra four people, who were not present during the massacre of the 42. And like the numbers, either that will be confirmed later, or never will be. I don't expect a definitive answer at this point, even with a perfect translation from Urasawa himself.

I still am unsure though about Chapek's line, and since it is quoted verbatim in the chapter I just finished (lol, the second time he did break it into two sentences!), I'd like to give it one more go.

The writer quotes Chapek's words about puzzling over the numbers and concludes from this that he is the one who did the dirty work of killing the extra people. That in turn makes me question "puzzling over" as the correct choice of translation. Does 頭をひねり have any other connotations besides serious pondering or working out a puzzle? Worrying? Agonizing? If Chapek killed these people, I don't see what's to puzzle over, unless he doesn't know why he was told to do it. But more to the point, if he is puzzling, how would that lead the journalist (who was puzzled about it himself) to suspect him of murder? Creating confusion was the reason for the murders, so expressing confusion ≠ being the murderer. I'm thinking instead that he either was deeply regretting killing them, or having some moral quandary at that time about how to come up with 4 extra bodies on behalf of "that man" without resorting to the murder of innocents.

So, with that new context, here's my last attempt (at least until I finish this book...around this time next year). Please let me know whether you think it's any more (or any less) correct.

"I carried forward the plan in his place, because there was no one else qualified, but at the time, I thought intensely about (agonized over/was troubled by) increasing the 42 to 46. I've never suffered through a more dreadful experience than that, and that man was entirely to blame."

Here's how it appeared the second time:

..., うなされてミランにいった言葉——四十二を四十六にし た時ほど頭をひねり、怖い目にあったことはなかった。 まったくあの人のせいだ——こそ、謎の答えではないか 。チャペックは、ボナパルタの汚れ仕事をこなす殺人者 だったのではないだろうか。

"At the time, I pondered intensely about increasing the 42 to 46. I've never suffered through a more dreadful experience than that. That man was entirely to blame." -- doesn't that solve the puzzle? Isn't it likely that Chapek was the murderer doing Bonaparta's dirty work?

I just know you're going to tell me that says it's unlikely that Chapek was the murderer. If that's the case, I'm just shelving this paragraph for the time being, until I come across something else that sheds more light on it. But this sort of thing is par for the course with Monster. Even with everything done by professional translators and spoken in English, I still have a million "but if...why this?" sorts of questions.