Civilization 7 Leaders Dialogue Translations

[SeelingCat]

Greeting: "Soy doña Isabel, monarca destos reinos e señoríos. La reina acierta decir siempre. La reina es siempre cierta."

Thank you! I knew I didn't get that second sentence right - it was driving me crazy!

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

I've taken a listen to Augustus's intro dialogue, and it seems to be "Ego Octavianus Augustus Casear. Sum illis (?) princeps civis et princeps orbis terram." The first clause and the second if we skip the "illis princeps civis et" are quite simple, lit. "I am Octavian Augustus Caesar" and "I am... emperor of the circle of lands (roman term referring to the world)," but I'm pretty sure that I'm mishearing the "sum illis" because the demonstrative pronoun "illis" doesn't agree with any of the present words... given that the provided subtitles consider the introduction to be a single sentence, I'd bet that rather than it being a new sentence starting with "sum" (serves same purpose as ego for an introduction), I'm mishearing a word that sounds something like "umilis" (which isn't the right word, unless he is stating that he is a first citizen able to be made moist) and it's a single sentence governed entirely by "ego." If I have time, I'll start searching in a dictionary for a word meaning "humble," as that would make the subtitles a one-to-one translation.

If it turns out that describing oneself as "able to be made moist" is actually an Augustine-era way of stating humility, I will be amused, but I really don't think that that's it...

 

[SeelingCat]

Perhaps humilis?

 

[ConspicuousFlower]

Thank you! I knew I didn't get that second sentence right - it was driving me crazy!

To be fair, "La reina acierta decir siempre" sounds a bit nonsensical to me, but it's the closest I could get to a sentence that worked.

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

Perhaps humilis?

Oh, perfect! Can't believe that that wasn't the first thing I thought of considering the etymology of humble... it matches with the nouns present and does indeed equal a direct translation from Latin -> English in the subtitles.

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

I suppose I should offer some judgement about the quality of the dialogue... I will preface this by saying that my studies are mostly on Augustine poetry, which needs to conform to a strict meter and tends to include more flowery language in more complex clauses, so my perception may be skewed, but this introduction is immediately identifiable as written in modern English. When I say "direct translation," I mean from English to Latin, not the other way around: the word order is fully English, lacking any order choices made for emphasis or spatial communication. The phrasing "a humble first citizen and emperor of the world" also reads as a historical reference made by an English author: as you can read in the Latin, "first citizen" is the literal meaning of "princeps civis," the title of the emperor which is usually shortened to "princeps," as visible later in the sentence. In English, this phrasing emphasizes what Augustus's title is meant to communicate, humility, before giving him a contrasting moment of pride. In Latin, however, he just states that he is a humble emperor (written in the more formal way) and an emperor (written in the less formal way) of the world. A charitable interpretation of this would be that the repetition is being used to communicate the irony of the title: trying to appear humble while being the supreme ruler of Rome (or any other empire, I suppose). However, the fact that the wording is different for both mentions of his title makes it obvious that the connotations of this sentence were planned in English before being directly translated piece by piece. The phrasing is the way it is because "first citizen" directly translates to "princeps civis" and "emperor" directly translates to "princeps." Personally, I would have either used "princeps" twice, implying the one modified by "humilis" as meaning "citizen" and the one that is "of the world" as meaning "emperor," or used a single princeps modified by both to exemplify the irony further, putting his title in a sort of quantum state of meaning. That is, if I had to modify the existing phrase: personally, I would have given him an introduction emphasizing his authority in terms of his control over the historical narratives of Rome through his control of Rome's prominent poets, but again, my bias...

 

[untitledjuan]

To be fair, "La reina acierta decir siempre" sounds a bit nonsensical to me, but it's the closest I could get to a sentence that worked.

I also heard the same and, also as a Spanish-speaker, it does sound strange. However, it might make sense sense for Medieval Castilian, maybe back then that word order made more sense than today. I understand it as meaning something like: "The queen is always right when speaking" or, in Modern Spanish, "La reina siempre acierta al decir (hablar)"

 

[ConspicuousFlower]

This video has the leader intro quotes, so I was able to get Isabella's.

"Plega a Dios que yo reine, e que este su reino se acreciente sobre la tierra. ¿Se hará igual con el de vos?"

Pretty close to the official translation (It is God's will that I should be queen, and that His kingdom should extend over the earth. Will it be the same for yours?), though "Plega a Dios que yo reine" means "it pleases God that I rule", not "It is God's will I should be queen", though the meaning is more or less the same. That being said, "plegar" is like, peak Medieval Spanish as far as verbs go, it's already an old way to say a verb, "placer", that is already old fashioned and not commonly used.

 

[Ryansinbela]

 

[Red Khan]

Here I had hard time figuring out the beginning of her line when you choose her
Будем же править силой личности, страстью, а не посредством бескровной системы.

I've watched video and here are her some other lines. Plain modern Russian, without even some archaic words, as was the case with Peter's line in Civ6.

Greeting:

Екатерина Алексеевна, императрица и попечительница искусств. Но вы можете называть меня Софи.

In-game translation: Yekaterina Alekseyevna, Catherine, tsarina and patron of the arts. But you can call me Sophie.
Literal translation: Yekaterina Alekseyevna, empress and patron of the arts. But you can call me Sophie.
Notes:

• She calls herself Yekaterina Alekseyevna, name given to her when she was baptized to Orthodox Christianity. Alekseyevna is a patronymic and means daughter of Aleksey. It was given to her so that she in all respects be the namesake of Catherine I, the mother of Elizabeth and the grandmother of Peter III, her husband.
• Sophie is her German name. And yet again I can't fully express my disappointment here, it would be great if she said "Aber du kannst mich Sophie nennen" instead. They missed such an opportunity here!
• She calls herself empress (императрица/imperatritsa), although subtitles say "tsarina". That is a completely different word in Russian - царица (tsaritsa).

Defeated:

Позаботьтесь о моём дворце, когда меня не станет. Большую церковь следует регулярно проветривать, а с янтаря стирать пыль. Вы эээ… Нет, это ваше. Мне пора.

In-game translation: Look after my palace when I am gone. The Grand Church must be aired regularly, and keep the amber dusted. You mu — No. It is yours. I leave now.
Literal translation: Take care of my palace when I'm gone. The Grand Church needs to be aired regularly, and the amber dusted. You, uh... No, this is yours. I have to go.
Attacked:

Ну что ж, пойдёмте. Я оставлю вас там, где, как говорится, раки зимуют.

In-game translation: Come, then. I will leave you where — as they say — the crayfish sleep.
Literal translation: Well then, let's go. I will leave you where — as they say — the crayfish winter.
This one is a case of bad translated to Russian, to be honest. Notes:

• The word "come" is translated literally here, as an invatation to literally go somewhere with her, and not a call to start something. In Russian the word "пойти" (poyti) have just the meaning of going somewhere. A more appropriate translation would, for example, "Давайте начнём" (Let us start).
• The second sentence have problems too. There is a saying in Russian - "Показать, где раки зимуют" (Pokazat', gde raki zimuyut) which literally mean "To show (someone) where crayfish winter (i.e. spend their winters)" and is used as a threat to "teach someone a lesson, punish or handle someone severely", but I never heard it in the form "to leave someone where the crayfish winter" and neither did Google or Yandex.
• Maybe it was intended to be a play on the double meaning of the word "come" (come and I'll leave you there), but, as I said before, it doesn't work in Russian.
• The saying itself originated from the times of serfdom. At that time the nobility left for the cities for the winter, where the season of balls and receptions began. Crayfish were considered one of the most exquisite dishes at dinner parties. Gourmets claimed that crayfish were truly tasty only in those months whose names contained the letter "r", i.e. from September to April. Since crayfish were needed in winter, the surfs were sent to gather them. And since the crayfish for the winter dig themselves into deep burrows at the bottom of ice cold rivers it was a very harsh experience, hence the saying.

 

[Red Khan]

Attacked:

Here is a video of Attacked lines of other leaders, I didn't see it posted in this thread.

 

[ConspicuousFlower]

Isabella: ¡Yo, que busqué acrecentar la gracia de Dios en aquesta tierra, desta soy echada! ¡Para vivir entre simples porqueros y... ¿cuál es la palabra? Horneros!

"I, who sought to extended the grace of God in this land, I'm cast out from it! To live among simple swineherds and... what's the word? Bakers!"

 

[Red Khan]

Lady Six Sky’s dialogue is littered with soft “sh” sounds, transcribed with a Roman “x.” The voice actress instead pronounces them as harsh, violent “ks” sounds, because she was never told what that letter meant.

While you could argue that was a fault of bad transcription (write the sound as “sh” and the actress might understand), proper transcription still can’t save bad pronunciation.

The reason for this is simple - whomever Firaxis outsourced to record her and Montezuma's voices did a very lazy casting, they didn't try to find native speakers, they just took the people available at hand, since both VA are quite famous in Mexico for their work in dubbing.
And even if you don't know a word of Mayan you can actually hear that Lady Six Sky’s VA is not a native, just compare her speech with Pacal's in Civ5 which has very distinctive ejective consonants.

And it is not like Mayan is some obscure language now, which is spoken only in a couple of villages deep in the jungle. A comment about her speech:

There are also Yucatec language soap operas and television programs on local TV channels in the Yucatan. There are lots of Yucatec voice actors in the newest Tomb Raider game too, if you turn on the immersion mode. Funnily enough, Pacal in Civ V actually had a decent native speaker of Yucatec as the voice actor.

I hope that if they do Mesoamerican leaders they won't contract these people again and make a clause in the contract that the VA must be a native speaker.

 

[Ryansinbela]

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

While there is the off chance that Firaxis mixed up their Caesars, I'm going to just assume the best and believe that Augustus is paying an homage to his mentor. How sweet!

 

[ConspicuousFlower]

While there is the off chance that Firaxis mixed up their Caesars, I'm going to just assume the best and believe that Augustus is paying an homage to his mentor. How sweet!

Trajan also had it for his war declaration line, so it's probably just the recognizability factor.

 

[ConspicuousFlower]

Isabella: No codicio vuestras tierras e corona para mi, más para aumento del reino de Dios, el cual es mío.

"I covet not your lands and crown for me, but for the increasement of the kingdom of God, which is mine."

 

[ehecatzin]

I love that they went with Medieval Castilian instead of Modern European Spanish

mandatory : "Spain should have been Castille"

Jokes aside, I really like Isabella's voice and lines she is one of my favorites, really dig her subtle animation as well, that confident passive agresive look of superiority she gives is so great. I can't imagine the greetings/war/defeat is all they recorded from the voice actors, I hope they have a bunch of yet to implement dialogue saved up, because the grunts and "ums" are getting old fast.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Well that war declaring line for Augustus confirms they got an Italian not versed in Latin for his VA.

On the “est,” he can’t help but adding a small “-a” to the end of it. “Alea iacta est(a).” Italian almost universally ends its words in vowels, leaving its speakers with this tell.

I could have just checked the credits but it’s more fun this way

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Oh, and I noticed the Ozymandias reference in Hatshepsut’s line. Very nice