9/21 Reading Comments

 After reading Cathy Hirano’s text, I can say that I agree with all her points. Firstly, the grammar is of course the first issue that anyone who tries to learn any language will encounter, even more so with Japanese since it is so drastically different from English. The most important points for translators she mentions though are the cultural ones. What she mentions about juku is very important since it is of course something we don’t really do here in America. In order to give Western viewers as close to an authentic experience to the original text, you don’t want to make the reader feel like they are reading a wiki page if footnotes are used, or if descriptions are awkwardly added in. That’s why I believe how she added the description to juku was great since it felt natural and as if it were intended to the original text. Lastly, humor is something that I have experienced while seeing Japanese dramas and anime. Oftentimes the translators add some sub notes explaining the cultural context to a joke or phase. In literature, it must be much harder however since a whole new similar joke must be made or reworked in such a way that makes sense in a Western context. Overall, all these points are very valid. Seidensticker also spoke of some of these concepts, specifically the ambiguity and culturally specific words of the Japanese language, but the passage was more oriented on the experience of what it was like to translate. One thing he spoke of was the difficulties of keeping it to the original. For one, I found it interesting that the editors would tell the translator to remove any ambiguity. He spoke of how this could remove the original intentions of the author. Although, the example he gave was just a result of Japanese tendency to drop the subject. Furthermore, the comparison of translators and counterfeiters was an analogy I really liked. I can definitely see this becoming an issue since you have the power to make a text sound more pretty right at your fingertips. Even though we have only done 2 translations so far, I am already worried I will change it too much. Lastly, he spoke of rhythm. This is something also mentioned in the other reading when adding a description to give reading a cultural context. As he said in his anecdote, it could cause some repercussions if it is prioritized. Some details that are considered important that you are unaware of could be left out. The insight Seidensticker provided through his experiences were quite helpful.