I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. However, that was in the past and since then my knowledge of English has been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to submit some simple questions and comments about English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) to Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may be making elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

What does "Let me be good to you" mean? | English Is Not So Easy 1

Hey fellas

The time is right

Get ready

Tonight's the night

Boys, what you're hopin' for will come true

Let me be good to you

             ―Let Me Be Good to You by Melissa Manchester from "The Great Mouse Detective"

First, this article is written by one Japanese person. In other words, I always think in terms of "English compared to Japanese." In this article, I would like to write about translation from English to Japanese, and I would like to mention one of the most difficult phrases to translate into Japanese: "Let me be good to you." This is also a song by a singer named Lou Rawls, but my focus is on the romantic line sung by a singer named Miss Kitty Mouse in The Great Mouse Detective.

I understand what she means, but translating is another matter, at least into Japanese. This is what I exactly thought: "'Let me do something,' …and 'something' is 'being good to you,' and that equals 'being nice to you.'..."

Indeed, if I follow this train of thought, I can get a word-for-word translation:

私にあなたにとって良くさせて（lit. 'Let me be good to you'）

but this is too mechanical and awkward. I have to find another solution.

In my opinion, one of the common problems in translation is "how to avoid a mechanical output," and the solution is to imagine what would it be like if the same song were sung in my mother tongue. To do this, sometimes it may be necessary to add or omit some words, or even use completely different words. Then the next question arises: "To what extent can translators be VIOLENT?" This question is still being debated today by many professional translators and writers.

Incidentally, Stanley Kubrick was known as an extreme perfectionist, and whenever he released his films in foreign countries, including Japan, he always had the translations submitted to the translators in those countries. One of his masterpieces "Full Metal Jacket" was translated by a classy female translator named Natsuko Toda, but he rejected the script because Gunnery Sergeant Hartman's words were "not violent enough". For him, it was violent not to translate the words of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in a violent way. Instead, a translation by film director Masato Harada was submitted, and Mr. Kubrick liked it a lot. Generally, in translating Kubrick's works, translators are always faced with the problem of difficulty in translating swear words in English language, and I would like to write about this in another article.

Now, let me back to "Let me be good to you". I was just wondering how the machine translation would respond.

Google Translate:

よろしくお願いします（lit. 'Nice to meet you'）

Comment: ?!?!

DeepL:

いい子にさせてね（lit. 'Let me be a good girl'）

Comment: Good translation.

It is amazing how technology has evolved in recent years. Now let's take a look at translations by humanity.

Japanese sub/dub (by a professional translator):

私に任せて（lit. 'Let me handle it'）

Comment: BOOOO!!

My translation:

Keine Ahnung.

Comment: Sorry.

I think I need to know a little background on what she said. In the film, she sang this song to the men in the show pub with chairs and beer bottles in their hands. This scene reminds me of Jessica from Roger Rabbit, the world's first moe character Betty Boop, and the greatest sex symbol of all time Marilyn Monroe.

I wanna be kissed by you

Just you and nobody else but you

I wanna be kissed by you, alone

             ―"I Wanna Be Loved By You", Marilyn Monroe

If they were the models for Miss Kitty, did her song also imply some sort of "sexual seduction", despite the fact that the film is a Disney production for children? I don't know the answer, but if so, that is the field that I am really good at and can suggest the following translation:

My translation:

お世話してア・ゲ・る♡（lit. 'I'll take care of YOU <3'）

Comment: …This is my conclusion. Very adorable.