YKK Forum

The Tarpon

I just found out a "Tarpon" is a type of fish... quite an interesting one, too. Has to breathe air as a juvenile! o_O

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Tarpon/Tarpon.html

In the manga, is the name "Tarpon" written as the Japanese name for the fish, or is it written as "Tarupanu" or something?

-k

- Kempis Curious
Thursday, September 30, 2004

Howdy,

It is written "taapon". Now in Japanese, this could very well be the phonetic equivilent of "tarpon".

Best,

Dave

- dDave
Thursday, September 30, 2004

It's a BIG fish, too, as befits its suspected importance.

- seaweb
Thursday, September 30, 2004

Regarding the name of Taapon, I'll buy the theory of 'Da Peng', a Chinese mythical bird.

"In the northern ocean, there was a fish called Kun. Its length was hundreds or thousands miles. Kun was reborn as a bird called Peng. Its wingspan was hundreds or thousands of miles. Peng flies for six months without rest, to the southern ocean."

Peng is also called 'Da Peng'. 'Da' means "great".

'Da Peng' is pronounced 'ta pong' in Mandarin Chinese:
http://kimoto.cc/ykk/dapeng.wav
(sound recorded from LD9988 electronic dictionary)

'Ta pong' is transliterated to Japanese romaji as 'Taapon'!

You can learn more about Kun and Peng by searching the net:
http://www.google.com/search?q=kun+fish+peng+bird

Aa, souda.
Maybe, Kun was a taRpon, fish discussed in this thread ;-)

- kGo
Friday, October 1, 2004

Wow! ^_^

The Chinese legend sounds like it fits the airplane better.

It also seems likely that Ashinano would know that legend more than he would know a fish which is mostly found in the western Atlantic. Was this a coincidence?

-k

- Kempis Curious
Friday, October 1, 2004

I found a photo of the mythical creature:
http://www.pbase.com/shaun/image/27003492

- kGo
Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Reply to this topic
Topic list


Contact the translator