again per @bthump‘s request, we compare griffith’s “If I can’t have him I don’t care” with also griffith’s “That you, rather to have been with princess Charlotte, would have had her yourself?”
If in the instant our swords meet, the pressure from his alters the arc of mine even just a little … … I might really kill him!!
Even then … If I can’t have him …!!
I don’t care!!
here, the expression used is 手に入る, literally meaning “to enter someone’s hand,” with the actual meaning being “to obtain” “to get hold of” “to get one’s hands on.” i would have to check if it’s generally used for objects or people or both, but yeah.
another thing possibly of note is that there’s also 手に入れる (”to put into one’s own hand”) with pretty much the same meaning when translated into english–but clearly there are differences. for example, if something “entered your hand,” you didn’t do anything to obtain it, it just found its way there. likewise, if you “put something into your hand,” you did something to obtain it, you went out and got it for yourself.
bear with me though. there’s an issue here, and that is that when it comes to transitive/intransitive pairs of verbs (such as 入れる /
入る), in certain situations japanese speakers have a tendency to use the intransitive verb where speakers of other languages would more naturally use the transitive verb. for example, instead of asking “have you found your keys?” (mitsukeru, to find – transitive) they’ll ask, “have the keys been found?” (mitsukaru, to be found – intransitive). and i’m still not sure what the rules/patterns are here, really.
this means that i don’t know for sure if griffith using 手に入る instead of 手に入れる has any real semantic significance. but even if it really doesn’t, i still think it’s fitting, and interesting, since, as griffith understands it, guts is the one who won’t readily enter griffith’s grasp anymore (in fact, he wants to leave it: オレの手の中から出ていきたいのか！？)
and while we’re on the topic of grasps, if you’ll allow me to go on yet another tangent here,
いつからだろう 手に入れたはずのあいつが 逆にこんなにも強くオレを掌握してしまったのは
How long ago did someone I was supposed to have in hand instead gain such a strong hold on me?
(i’ll talk more about this scene some other time)
now for the dungeon scene with the king.
それならば・・・・・・・・・・・・ それならば、いっそ・・・・・・
いっそ・・・ 私が・・・
抱きたいのですか？ シャルロット様を・・・・・・ いや・・・
あなたが・・・ 抱・い・て・ほ・し・い・ のでは？
I’d rather … … rather that …
… That you … rather …
to have been with princess Charlotte … would have hadher yourself? No …
Don’t you … … want her to have you?
here, the verb used is 抱く, which can mean “to hold/embrace” literally or in the sense of “making love.” according to my dictionary, it can also mean “to have” (e.g. ambition) but i don’t … know what else you can “have” like that (people??).
my guess would be that griffith is basically saying “you wanted to hold her … no … you wanted to be held by her,” but since the king was talking about griffith having taken her virginity before griffith said this, it makes sense to translate it as “to have her,” as in, “to have her first.”
sadly though that means there’s a parallel in english that isn’t there in the original japanese, but i still think your overall reading of this scene is accurate.
Thank you so much! This is only mildly disappointing lol, the similar wording in the english translation was one of those things I referred to in some earlier post where I’d written the entire section beforehand and only noticed something seemingly obvious w/ the wording afterwards, so I tacked it on. I think the parallel stands up fine without it.
Nice nice nice wrt the connection to “how long ago did someone I was supposed to have in hand,” tho. i’m looking forward to your further thoughts on that someday!
you're the only one 