I found it interesting that in the article "Notes from Interlingual Hell" the translation of text from Japanese to English is described as more of "transmigration" than "translation" which I felt was accurate for a good part, as Japanese traditional sayings, proverbs, and terms that are seldom found in English must be replaced with an English equivalent that may not necessarily mean the same thing but convey the same idea. I also agree with the idea brought up in the article that the title is one of the hardest things to nail down - as can be seen in the recent magazine article translation assignment.
In "A Live Dog" a seemingly recurring topic of cultural difference arose, especially when talking about the idea of how an American/ Japanese person would say something/ respond to a phrase in the opposite language. Particularly notable examples were "itadakimasu" which obviously has no equivalent in English as it isn't really common for Americans to say a particular phrase before eating (unless it is a prayer of some sort), and "muzukashi" which simply means no but is not used in English as Americans can be a lot more direct with responses compared to Japanese people who are more hesitant to refuse someone/ something directly.
I also resonate with the part about translating metaphors as that is something I tried to do in the recent assignment where there was a saying in the title - which I replaced with an English saying - that didn't really sound that great when translated into English.
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