So
why don't English-language manga and anime importers give fans a
straightforward, literal translation of the series they handle? Talk to
translators Duane Johnson and Jan Scott-Frazier, and the answer you'll
get is that there no such thing as a literal translation from Japanese
to English. The obstacles go beyond the grammatical differences between
the languages, the translators said at a Saturday Nekocon panel. There
are so many differences in meaning between the languages. implied or
not, that the translator has to make tough choices about how to
interpret the original. Johnson compares Japanese to a computer
programming language in that there are many ways to get a message
across, and Frazier said the subtleties of Japanese leave many blanks
in a translation which an interprer needs to fill.
"One
of the hard truths that faces translators is that there's no perfect
translation," Johnson said. Japanese is infamous for making multiple
potential meanings among words and sentences. Whenever a translator
takes on an assignment, that person has to decide which of the possible
meanings is the best, or find ways to get all of those meanings across.
Then there are the honorifics, titles which refer to someone as a
social superior for inferior, for which there are no clear equivalents
in English. "We don't run around saying `brother' and `sister,'"
Johnson noted. Japanese humor often doesn't translate well, bring based
on history and popular culture unknown among non-Japanese. The
translator has to decide if he will try to pas along the literal
meaning of the pun, taking the chance of losing the humor for those who
don't read footnotes, or if he will write his own joke. "Sometimes you
can come up with decent puns," Johnson said.
"If
the characters are just saying each others' names, it can sound stupid
in English," Frazier noted. He believes that the most important part of
a translation is not its literal accuracy, but its ability to tell an
uninterrupted story. "The most critical thing in translation is the
communicative concept other than the words - the words can only go so
far," Frazier said. Many manga translations have extensive notes to
explain the cultural and regional details mentioned in a story ,but
Frazier prefers not to have those fotnotes, thinking they slow a story
and divert the readers' attention from the tale being told. "My ideal
is to flow you through the manga with the same feeling that a Japanese
reader gets when he reads the manga. If there's any place where you
stop, whether it's stilted dialogue or bad word use, when why did I do
it?"
So
why don't English-language manga and anime importers give fans a
straightforward, literal translation of the series they handle? Talk to
translators Duane Johnson and Jan Scott-Frazier, and the answer you'll
get is that there no such thing as a literal translation from Japanese
to English. The obstacles go beyond the grammatical differences between
the languages, the translators said at a Saturday Nekocon panel. There
are so many differences in meaning between the languages. implied or
not, that the translator has to make tough choices about how to
interpret the original. Johnson compares Japanese to a computer
programming language in that there are many ways to get a message
across, and Frazier said the subtleties of Japanese leave many blanks
in a translation which an interprer needs to fill.
"One
of the hard truths that faces translators is that there's no perfect
translation," Johnson said. Japanese is infamous for making multiple
potential meanings among words and sentences. Whenever a translator
takes on an assignment, that person has to decide which of the possible
meanings is the best, or find ways to get all of those meanings across.
Then there are the honorifics, titles which refer to someone as a
social superior for inferior, for which there are no clear equivalents
in English. "We don't run around saying `brother' and `sister,'"
Johnson noted. Japanese humor often doesn't translate well, bring based
on history and popular culture unknown among non-Japanese. The
translator has to decide if he will try to pas along the literal
meaning of the pun, taking the chance of losing the humor for those who
don't read footnotes, or if he will write his own joke. "Sometimes you
can come up with decent puns," Johnson said.
"If
the characters are just saying each others' names, it can sound stupid
in English," Frazier noted. He believes that the most important part of
a translation is not its literal accuracy, but its ability to tell an
uninterrupted story. "The most critical thing in translation is the
communicative concept other than the words - the words can only go so
far," Frazier said. Many manga translations have extensive notes to
explain the cultural and regional details mentioned in a story ,but
Frazier prefers not to have those fotnotes, thinking they slow a story
and divert the readers' attention from the tale being told. "My ideal
is to flow you through the manga with the same feeling that a Japanese
reader gets when he reads the manga. If there's any place where you
stop, whether it's stilted dialogue or bad word use, when why did I do
it?"
