The Quintessential Quintuplets: Is 'Koi no Summer Vacation' better translated as 'Love of Summer Vacation' instead of 'Summer Vacation of Love'?


From S02E03 of the anime adaptation of the manga [The Quintessential
Quintuplets](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/93612/the-
quintessential-quintuplets-
aka-%e4%ba%94%e7%ad%89%e5%88%86%e3%81%ae%e8%8a%b1%e5%ab%81-is-%e5%b1%8a%e3%81%8f%e3%82%93%e3%81%a7%e3%81%99-it-
reaches-a-mondegreen):

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/soP2L.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/soP2L.jpg)

Is 'Koi no Summer Vacation' better translated as 'Love of Summer Vacation'
instead of 'Summer Vacation of Love' or even 'Love's Summer Vacation' ?

Afaik, 'の' in 'X の Y' is usually translated as

  1. possession like 'X's Y'. Eg from Yu-Gi-Oh! (RIP Kazuki Takahashi!) 'My turn' is '[Ore の taan/turn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oxYnNDMb4o)'.

  2. reversing X and Y and connecting them with 'of' like 'Y of X'. Eg 'Teacher of the Japanese language' is 'nihongo の sensei'. Or idk...'Game of Thrones' is 'Thrones の Game'.

  3. Or some adjective thing. Eg from Kaguya-sama '[Secretary Chika](https://www.animesonglyrics.com/kaguya-sama-love-is-war/chikatto-chika-chika)' or 'Chika the Secretary' is 'Shoki の Chika' or 'The Attack Titan' is '[Shingeki の Kyojin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHvvkUATHFs&t=20s)'.

Ok, #3 (and possibly onwards) is a whole other story, but I believe it should
be #2.




The Japanese possessive / genitive particle [の]{no} works kinda "backwards"
from the English preposition _of_.

  * A of B  
A belongs to B → B owns A.

  * A [の]{no} B  
A owns B → B belongs to A.

It might help to think of the [の]{no} as a little bit like the English
possessive _-'s_ ending. A [の]{no} B = A's B.

I think this is partly the reason why Japanese full names and English full
names have opposite ordering.

  * In English, the personal name is followed by the family name: "Personal" belongs to "Family".
  * In Japanese, the family name comes first, then the personal name: "Family" owns "Personal".  
_(In olden times, the family name was often followed by the particle
[の]{no}.)_

When translating then, we have to swap the ordering.

  * A of B → B [の]{no} A.
  * A [の]{no} B → B of A.

* * *

**Update**

Folding in some additional content from the comments.

The OP commented, _" it's possible the story is talking about love of summer
vacations like it's a movie about a series of summer vacations showing the
good things that happen"_ -- it's certainly possible, but in that case, the
title and the story wouldn't have much to do with each other. Considering the
meaning of the terms and the grammar, the title 「[恋]{Koi}
[の]{no}[サマーバケーション]{Samā Bakēshon}」 cannot accurately describe any story about
how someone loves summer vacations.

It could be about the summer vacations of someone _named_ "Koi", but in that
case, "love" really isn't the correct translation: names are names, best left
as-is. By way of example, the Japanese feminine given name _Megumi_ derives
from verb _megumu_ , and literally means "a blessing" -- but when we talk
about someone named "Megumi" in English, we don't call her "Blessing", we call
her "Megumi". :)




The Japanese possessive / genitive particle [の]{no} works kinda "backwards"
from the English preposition _of_.

  * A of B  
A belongs to B → B owns A.

  * A [の]{no} B  
A owns B → B belongs to A.

It might help to think of the [の]{no} as a little bit like the English
possessive _-'s_ ending. A [の]{no} B = A's B.

I think this is partly the reason why Japanese full names and English full
names have opposite ordering.

  * In English, the personal name is followed by the family name: "Personal" belongs to "Family".
  * In Japanese, the family name comes first, then the personal name: "Family" owns "Personal".  
_(In olden times, the family name was often followed by the particle
[の]{no}.)_

When translating then, we have to swap the ordering.

  * A of B → B [の]{no} A.
  * A [の]{no} B → B of A.

* * *

**Update**

Folding in some additional content from the comments.

The OP commented, _" it's possible the story is talking about love of summer
vacations like it's a movie about a series of summer vacations showing the
good things that happen"_ -- it's certainly possible, but in that case, the
title and the story wouldn't have much to do with each other. Considering the
meaning of the terms and the grammar, the title 「[恋]{Koi}
[の]{no}[サマーバケーション]{Samā Bakēshon}」 cannot accurately describe any story about
how someone loves summer vacations.

It could be about the summer vacations of someone _named_ "Koi", but in that
case, "love" really isn't the correct translation: names are names, best left
as-is. By way of example, the Japanese feminine given name _Megumi_ derives
from verb _megumu_ , and literally means "a blessing" -- but when we talk
about someone named "Megumi" in English, we don't call her "Blessing", we call
her "Megumi". :)

