/ 炒キザダ
か
む吾―/ 之- 2 /
ユめ
The lmpossibili呼'OftranslatiOn
By Shigekatsu Yamauchi
,hat about ialllbic
joyed in all languages, but 、 、
rhythin?JalDanescぅ not beillg accent―
based)lacks
tools fbl・
collveyillg thc feeling Ofianlbic rhythlla
―
Elaglish is ilot??み
θ,Aα
baSed;can the rhythnl of haiku
really bc cl130yedぅ
rcally conlc thi'ough,in Engish,
1lke it does for」
apanesc people?Surely)unfortu―
nately)not.
Transiation's challenges pop up cvery、
vhere,not
mall “ sein oder nichtsein.'' Even Chinese is
only in literary、
vorks,but also lll evcryday busi_
slraightfOr、
vard:``shengcun huo huilnie."ヽ Vhen
ncss transiatiOns,
translating into these languages you can avoid
Here is a typical rnistransiation,comnlon even
thinklng deeply about what Shakespeare IIleant.
among professional translators,often found in busi―
You can leave the task ofinterpretation to the au― ness or econorL■
ic forecasts putinto English.In dis_
dience,just as itis tt English.
cussing the tttwe,the」 apanese author speculates
But Halnleげ s famous lines have been a
about events a4d so ends sentences、 vith da?・
θοOr
forlnidable challenge to 」 apanese translators.
d2sんθθ(ila the original),indicattng the statement is
」apanese has no泣 】拘Eitive forlrn,nor the、
vOrd“be."
provisional,not deIInitive.Here lies the problem.
The only possibility is to“
interpret the phraseず'
When」 apanese teachers,and English textbooks,
Special〔
o The Daily Yonniuri
“
Tメ 齢培
薔講繰
盟鮒盤罷
艦騨謙品館ざ
紆腎岳
ぷ
盤せ
器 8旨警 f盤 8踏 鑑 挑
鉛 銑 群 i撤 濫 整 縄 域
]予盤 培岳総
協 緒肝 け脇
鞘
￨ぱ 盟
館
respond to“ Ⅵ岨 .''Actually,Japanese has no future
tense!UIlfortunately,because of schooling,IttOst
路鉛群齢謎
愉鞘♀
押盟!器鮒縮18響 滋 棚
is``Nagarahuru ka nagarahenu ka,"This is、
vritten
んθ】紺 品 h盛 景gh掛 輯 群 8tとn譜 将 簾
lators are virtually conditioned to translate fore―
casts into English like thisi``The」
apanese econo―
my hr11l gro、
v2percent next year."Here,native
Enghsh readers generally feel ttc sayttg:“HOw dO
v?Are yOu a prophet?''
you kllo、
Even things like観宜s are notthe realchanenge Of
translation,though.The dittculty,the impossibiエ ー
ty,is to translate something Japanese that does not
existin Enghsh(Or vlce versa).The best you can do
is use the closest equivalent English word or
譜
晋
柵 盟縦盤Si古
岳
縛簾辞榊播繁
18遇
、
就ミ 盪
ル 、
簿器
鑑襴 繋鑑縄 翻
路皿薔納品
部器
撫
盤
襴 薔路瑠辮総
鱒 tr
n y b n g航otnt at週
豊
縛8 監総音
g鮒
紺
S鞠
8ぷ協 』縫 苦it:撤
群 増盟
:盤
謎
paradox herei Each language develops in its O、 vn
environment,and words(sounds denoting con―
cepts)evolve in a llmque context.A language can―
not,as a rule then,Inean the same thing、 vith its
words as a tterentlanguage IIleans、 れ
■th its o、
、
砲.
The Romance languages evolved out Of Latin;
thus they have a colnlnon history,、vhich explains
why Shakespeare can be translated into French so
as to leave lllterpretation to the audience.But、
vhat
aboutlanguages separated by tilne and distance?
Ulforttlnately,Shakespeare in Altabic or Japanese
requires the translator to interpret for the audi‐
ence,inevitably changing shakespette's intended
meaning,
Another g00d example is the Japanese、
ァ
Ord
んαれscぢ
.ェ
f you look it up in the dictionary)you Mア
111
且nd IIleanings such asi exal■
ine one's collscience,
reflect on one's past cOnduct,regret Mア
hat one has
dollc,think about oneselfregarding H′ hat olac has
done but could have done better,ctc.■ /11at you see
黙艦L艦
縄
鱗
縄
艦町
灘げ
he ttpossiЫ
mtte れ
pttd的
撚撤
ピ
ヤ
騨
麒
ル
路鮮端洲Sn品
ゴ
鍬魯
1ぎ
品鮮品eぱ
ンわ?れ
attcん
どぢ
sp?・
cs,dc,材q√と
け
んθ好を
crれa渉ぢ
0物α[
″7物角ガ
Ca渉″
Cθ77み
θtt F?2sけ
?を
θα?7びa Cθ?‐
ど
を
祝渉
θtt υ
?2ガ
υg?・
s ,,
―ra力2cd」c/79α
と
?2csc―
Fa?み
υ渉
0 物cOcとcaCんer
here are all correct translatiOns of the、
vord,but
don't they giveふア
ou a rather negative impression?
」apancse use the■ ア
Ordん α?2sc'quite a lot,describ―
ing using H″
hat came befOre fol・
the flltLlre's better―
ment.It has a nlore positive col■
notation thall its
revcr、
Engllsh cqttvalents do,Tlus、 h。、
、
ls a cultur―
alissuc tllatis bcyond tI'anslat10n.