Time for outrageous levels of hair-splitting?
So, in my efforts to provide succinct interpretations of the games' main titles (to be used for stuff related to what's discussed
here), I have a pretty good idea of what to use for most titles, even if some become a bit awkward. The actual problem comes from Touhou Hisouten and how it's currently translated.
緋想天 is individually just three kanji which, without context, would end up with like "red thought sky". The first, 緋, refers to a couple of things, among them being Tenshi's sword (緋想の剣) along with its color, Iku's title (美しき緋の衣), "Scarlet" Weather Rhapsody, whatever. Obviously using "scarlet" makes sense. The next, 想, refers most likely to the Buddhist term sa??a, and is usually translated as "perception". Now, the current translations for 緋想天 use "Sky of Scarlet Perception" which kind of falls flat with the last kanji. This is because these three kanji are used all over the game in various ways, all essentially referring to the same thing. First off, 緋想 is pretty much wordplay on 非想, as 緋 contains 非 (and consequently is pronounced the same). ZUN interchanges these everywhere, too (非想天 is even used in Yuyuko's final stage title). So we can look at 非想天 being the same, which ends up being a shortening of 非想非非想天 ("the heaven of not perception and not not perception"), which is a term for Bhavaagra that's also used in Tenshi's title (非想非非想天の娘). More commonly though it's called 有頂天 (
wiki), which is Japan's direct translation of Bhavaagra ("the peak of existence heaven"), and that's considered to be where you fight Tenshi.
All that being said, I think it's profoundly clear 緋想天 refers exactly to 1. the "scarlet" theme, and 2. Bhavaagra. So, using "Heaven" for 天 is also the clear choice, which would make the short name for 緋想天 "Scarlet Perception Heaven". It's also worth an explanation on the wiki by itself.
Now, one problem with this is that we get the same situation as with Yuyuko's theme and Utsuho's theme, where both 緋想天 and 東方緋想天 are used as music titles, and changing them kind of screws over music title searching if you get it from the wiki. I think it's justified, but that's me.
I guess my "question" is just... "Thoughts?"
