10/21 readings - Rachel

Charles Terry,  A Live Dog

I noticed from this reading and from Judy Wakabayashi's chapter that I read about register, tone, and repetition that Japanese writing heavily portrays how Japanese people try to avoid absolutes. For example, Terry mentioned 難しい in business meetings usually means "No," but people don't want to say it straight up. I also resonate with his statement that "ninety percent of the time, ... you don't say what the American wants to say in Japanese. You say something else, or you say nothing at all." I often get asked how to say an English phrase in Japanese, but it is rare that there is an equivalent translation.

Another point I found interesting was the didactic/rhetorical questions. It's commonly used in Japanese literature, but I never noticed that you don't really use the English equivalent in English writing. He mentions that Japanese will often have more intricate details in a singular sentence compared to English. That made me wonder whether Japanese writing naturally is harder to read. It takes me more time to read Japanese, but I always thought that was because less characters hold more meaning in Japanese than in English.

Lynne E Riggs, Notes from Interlingual Hell

I liked the way Riggs described the translation process required the original to be "obliterated and reincarnated" so that the "soul (message)" can be "reborn in the next (English) life." Since the nature of Japanese and English language structure is so different, I agree with the fact that it is to this extreme of obliteration and reincarnation that has to be done to make a successful English piece.

I think the inviting title is very important in starting a magazine article or essay. Making an impactful title for our assignment was the most challenging part, especially since Japanese titles tend to be much longer.

I found it interesting how Riggs was comparing and contrasting the translator and the editor's point of view for each of the components in translation. For example, it mentioned how editors have a way of changing titles to obtain a preferred image without the translator's consent so the translator should create a good title while anticipating that the editors may change it. I also found it interesting when it concluded with "After working with a text for a long time, once ceases to be able to see it objectively." We often talk about this in our class discussions, but since the translators look into every detail in the original writing for so long, they often get too deep that they might not notice a problem with the larger picture as a whole. I think the balance between translating minute details and maintaining an overall cohesive tone is the most challenging task for translators.