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Final presentations are generally individual
However, this year there is one dual presentation
Glenn Lashley and Thomas Derbish will present on
"The Trouble of Translating Fiction"
(thunderous applause)
Good morning everyone, I am Thomas Derbish
This semester, Glenn Lashley and I translated two short stories by Tsutsui Yasutaka
We chose to do this project together because
we felt that two people translating different stories by the same author
then comparing and presenting on their experiences
would be illuminating
We each chose one story by Tsutsui
and translated them independently
Today, we will present on our experiences
specifically on the trouble we encountered translating these stories
Hi everyone, I'm Glenn!
...and that's why it was the best summer vacation ever.
and now I must be off
back to my home planet
where I am a symbol of hope
and justice
(sounds of women fainting)
I translated the story "Judgement at Norikoshi Station" by Tsutsui Yasutaka
Today I will present about that experience
First, I'd like to briefly summarize the plot
In the story, a novelist named Irie Matazo returns home for the first time in seven years.
However, in route, he accidentally rides the train without paying
which results in a fight with two strange station attendants who attack him repeatedly
and in the end both his mother and his brother join the attendants punishing him
It's a weird story
(uproarious laughter)
In the process of translating this story, I faced several challenges
For one, this is a "horror" story
and there were some disturbing scenes
correctly translating those scenes into English
was more difficult than I had assumed
However, out of the many challenges I encountered
today I will focus on just one
That is the problem of translating dialogue
I want to focus on dialogue because
this story is told through dialogue rather than prose
In other words, the character's dialogue is more important than the narrator's descriptions in this case.
When you translate dialogue
it's not enough just to translate it directly
you have to create a voice that suits each character's personality
and that is the most difficult part
for example, a character's voice can vary based on their age, education level, or attitude
you have to consider all of those factors
and creating an appropriate voice can be very difficult
Now, I would like to take a look at the speaking styles of three different characters in the story
The top one is the main character, Irie Matazo
his style is much more polite than the rest
his word choice sometimes makes his speech sound weak or passive
The middle example shows the speaking style of the story's villain
the "young station attendant"
you can see that he has a very direct style
and uses words that are very rude and forceful
the bottom example shows the dialogue of the young station attendant's partner
the "middle-aged station attendant"
As you can see, each character's voice is unique
and that individuality will not come through if you only translate the words directly
figuring out how to correctly represent those personalities in English
is very difficult
and how to translate those voices is a considerable challenge
specifically, the middle-aged attendant
along with the young attendant
he punches, kicks, and generally abuses Irie
however, he doesn't seem to be evil
rather, he is a bit crazy
and a very simple person
he is like a small child
so he isn't evil but he does bad things
it's a very delicate balance
and that impression is given through dialogue only
so you have to get that same impression across using English dialogue
and creating a voice that gives that impression is very difficult
Next...
I'd like to talk about jokes, puns, slang
and other things that can't really be translated
In the story, the young station attendant uses a lot of slang
he has a very bad attitude
and uses a lot of slang and bad language
also, as the story progresses
his attitude gets worse and worse
and his use of slang and the level of confrontation in his attitude
gets more and more extreme
take a look at these two examples
the top one is taken from the first half of the story
his language usage is certainly confrontational
but isn't all that rude yet
however, in the bottom example
both the language and style are incredibly rude
almost to the point of being unrealistic
it's very rude
so, in order to translate passages like these two
one has to think about how to properly capture the different levels of rudeness in each
and that can be quite difficult
especially words like "anta", "omae", "kisama"
and other rude forms of address are hard to translate
because there really aren't rude forms of address like that in English
well, there are but...
(insolent laughter)
they're not the same
instead, they all end up getting translated as "you"
so its hard to figure out how to translate that rudeness
you can't translate just the form of address
you have to put other rude or vulgar words, that aren't in the original text, into the translation
by putting in extra rude or vulgar words in other places
you can make a sentence that gives the same rude impression as the original
jokes and puns are similar
of course, with jokes
if you translate them directly, they won't make any sense
if there is a similar joke in English
then it's easy
but if not
it's hard to say what to do
jokes require a lot of cultural background knowledge
so translating them isn't easy
puns are the same way
for example, this story's title
"Judgment at Norikoshi Station"
and the word "Norikoshi" is a pun
of course it's the name of the station
it also means "ride past", as in Irie "rode past" where he should have
however, when you are translating into English
you typically leave place names as they are in the original text
so in this case there really is no way to preserve the "ride past" meaning of "Norikoshi"
so no matter what you do you are going to lose that double meaning, and lose the pun
Next, lastly...
sometimes, in Japanese conversations
there are patterns and structures that don't appear in English conversations
for example, in this story
there are a lot of repeated words
the same character will repeat the same thing over and over for a long time
take a look at this example
this is taken from the latter part of the story
Irie's brother
in the same paragraph, in the same bit of dialogue
he repeats the same phrase
"ibate yagaru"
over and over seven times in a row
in Japanese, to a Japanese reader
I don't think that looks all that odd
however, if you translate that directly into English
it is going to read poorly
if you repeat the same word or phrase seven times in a row
it will be hard to read
so if you have something like this
as a translator you have to think, what role does this dialogue play, how was it said,
and how can I translate it so that the meaning comes across the same way in English?
It may require words and phrases that are very different from the original Japanese text
but you have to write something with the same meaning
that is a pretty heavy responsibility
but it is also part of the lure of translation
I have talked a lot today a lot about the problems and the struggles that I had translating this story
however, throughout this project
I have learned much more about the joys of translation than the struggles
these problems, if you want to call them problems
puns, jokes, creating voices that suit the individual character
these are all problems
but, in the end, I was able to see them more as meaningful challenges
(thunderous applause)
My name is Glenn
and I speak Japanese
very well.