Reference:   Shueisha bunko 4, 281-295 (tankoubon 8);   anime ep.37

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Japanese text  (will open new window!)

 

 Anime

[ In the anime, this scene is combined with the earlier scene showing Oscar's love confession.   Oscar declares her love for André and beds him on the same night.   For clarity, I've kept both scenes on the same page.   Note that the anime uses mostly nature imagery to convey the lovers' feelings.   I've included some screenshots at the end of the text translation. ]

[ On their nightly scouting, Oscar and André are ambushed by mobs and forced to escape into the forest.   The two wander along the river bank, searching for a path to safety. ]

Oscar:	How's your head injury?
André	I'm okay.   It's nothing serious.
Oscar:	How dare you keep on deceiving me!
André	Huh?
Oscar:	Dr. Lassone told me about your right eye. You're almost blind, aren't you!? Anyway, we'll go back to the mansion. I can't take you to the troop assembly at Paris tomorrow. You'll go back to Granny, and I'll go to the barracks alone. Please do as I say, André. Nothing should happen to you.
André:	I'm still going, Oscar. Just like before, I'll always stay by your side.
Oscar:	André, I used to love Fersen. Even though I knew you loved me, I still loved Fersen. Will you still love someone like me?
André:	Everything about you.   For the rest of my life.
Oscar:	Oh ... André, André ... I love you ... with all my heart.
André:	I know.   I've known it since years ago. No, I knew it before I was even born.
Oscar:	André Grandier ... With you I can go on living. No, I want to go on living!
< ... >
Narrator:	Now Oscar has become the wife of André Grandier.

 

 

Undoubtably the most poetic description of Oscar and André in the manga.   Ikeda loves metaphors and literary allusions, and seems to have gone all out on this scene.   In a good way, of course. ^_^   Still I must say this is one of the toughest passages to translate precisely because of the poetic structure.   I've tried to make it sound like natural English while maintaining the rhythm in the Japanese.   I hope I'm doing justice to the original.

This scene is among one of those where the manga and anime differ substantially.   In the manga, the scene takes place after a series of love confessions and subsequent interactions emphasizing Oscar and André as lovers.   Their consummation is a welcoming relief for two soulmates, who are overjoyed with finding each other just in time.   The anime, however, patches the lovers' vows and union into one scene and cuts the intervening love scenes.   As a result, the scene appears to be rushed and weaker in emotional impact.   The two are also not given the chance to see their love develop fully.   This will have a major impact on how Oscar and André perceive their relationship in the later scenes.

 

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