Reading Cathy Hirano's article was really enlightening. One thing that caught my attention was how she talked about the eight different ways to say "you" in Japanese, each with its own subtle meaning, which made me realize how complex language can be and how much is lost when translating into English, where we just have one "you."
Another interesting point was her challenge with translating humor and cultural references. For example, she had to swap out "Tokugawa Ieyasu" for "Buddha" so that English readers would understand the joke. It shows that translators have to be creative problem-solvers, not just language experts.
This resonated with me because when I tried translating Haruki Murakami's short story, I also encountered similar challenges, where I had to find new ways to convey wordplays involving kanji, hiragana, and katakana in English. Exactly as she argued in the article, I realized how important and difficult it is to preserve the original spirit of the text due to the culture gap.
No comments:
Post a Comment