10/19 Comments

One of the interesting parts of the Hibbet piece is where he's talking about how he translated a variety of titles. One of the titles he had to translate was Manji, the Buddhist swastika symbol, something that would have an entirely different meaning in the west. It's interesting, I wonder what Japanese people thought about it in the time he translated the book, or if they were largely aware of the alternative meaning of it, like many young Japanese are not today? He also mentions that he likes to take "a few liberties" titles, something I think, based on my very limited translational experience, is often necessary when translating Japanese titles to English. He also mentions that before he translates, unlike some translators who like to sort of just go for it without having read the work beforehand, he likes to read it until he feels he knows the text well, and then translate. And then he goes back to the Japanese again, investigating details and consulting matters he doesn't entirely understand with friends. He also mentions that there's been times where he's asked 5 different people about something, and they've given 5 different answers. I think this can be one of the beautiful things about translation, in that there are many particular areas that are subjective, and you just have to decide on the interpretation that you like best.

A common theme with a lot of these translators is, is that no matter how much time they dedicate to a particular translation, it seems that there are almost inevitably mistakes, be it linguistically or contextually. I think it's perhaps important to remember this going forwards, as certainly we too are bound to make errors like this.