Comments 10/13

 While I don't particularly agree to the opening of Terry's notes, I did think a lot of the pointers were actually very useful. I typically find it difficult to stray too far away from the original Japanese when I am translating, but the difference in writing was really something I hadn't considered much before. The difference in what makes writing good in Japanese and what makes writing good in English is a really interesting point. I think I've experienced it the most in the differences between essay writing. So seeing what shouldn't be included in the English translation, like repitition and rhetorical questions, did make sense. However there is one part that I think isn't exactly true. At one point, he mentioned that English writing is like its spoken language, while Japanese writing and spoken language are very different. I would argue that literary writing in English is also quite different than its spoken language. Overall though, I thought this article was very useful with tips to keep in mind while translating. 

The second article seemed to support the changing of the source text quite a bit. Much more than I have read in past readings. I thought there was a bit of a questionable sentiment in this article, with the idea of incomplete information in the Japanese source material. I don't necessarily agree with Japanese being less organized or having a lack of flow. I think formatting is absolutely different between the two languages, so that has to be dealt with with reconstructing as the article pointed out. I did enjoy the solidarity of the difficulties of translation mentioned in this article though. Translation involves so much research, work, and effort beyond just translating, and it is great to see that acknowledged. It is also nice to see a realistic article about how in modern translation, and between such different languages, there has to be additions and changes made to the source text in order to retain the "meat" of the text, as the article puts it.