danish - Myriad of Leaves

Final Fantasy Royal Titles

Final Fantasy is no stranger to royalty. In fact, in most cases the main playable cast will contain a prince, princess, king and queen either secretly or quite obvious - such as in the cases of the most recent numbered Final Fantasy game. Previous games in the series also featured

japanese

Yule Post the 1st - Grantræet

We begin this year's Christmas themed posts with a look at one of Hans Christian Andersen's few yuletide fairy tales, aside from Den lille pige med svovlstikker ("the little match-stick girl"), wherein a sentient fir-tree experiences the existential crisis and threat over first waxing

english

Possible Oldest Dialect

Simon Roper, a linguistics enthusiast and knowledgeable gentleman on Youtube , posted a video not too long ago regarding whether or not there such a thing as an “oldest English dialect”, that is, one that retains the most archaic phonetic, syntactical, grammatical and/or vocabulary-wise features in contrast to other varieties

danish

The Ægyptian Stork

The tale of the Ugly Duckling (Den Grimme Ælling) is perhaps Hans Christian Andersen's most famous tale - part autobiographical story about striving against the odds, and part celebration of the sublimity of nature. Whilst a full analysis of the linguistics and narrative elements of the fairy-tale in

danish

The Mystic Tinderbox

Whilst researching for future posts, I was looking into the Andersen fairy-tale Fyrtøjet (The Tinderbox), which famously is about a soldier who fortuitously meets an old witch that offers him abundant riches if he is to help her retrieve a magical tinderbox that her grandmother forgot down in the bottom

japanese

DB in DK - Addendum - Shukan Idou

Son Gokuu's ability to instantly teleport from place to the other, provided that he can recognise a qi pattern that is there possess a rather simple if verbose name. 時間がなくてよ　教えてもらった技はひとつだけなんだ　そんでも　えれえ　苦労したんだけどさ瞬間移動ってやつが　できるようになったぜ！ Jikan ga nakuteyo oshiete moratta waa wa hitotsu dake nan da sondemo

japanese

DB Addendum - Super Ultra Mega Saiya Jin

The Danish Dragon Ball translation by John Lysmand, has been covered in quite a few posts on this blog, albeit in Danish, though, this time, I would like to write one in English for a change, moreover concerning the nomenclature when it comes to translating the relatively simple names for

danish

Hans the Clog-Head

In the place of another large project to take care of, I thought we'd take a look at some of Andersen's lesser known works and how they have been treated in translation. Hans Christian Andersen's shorter tale, Klods Hans ("Hans with the Clogs&

japanese

Princess Tamaeda

Whilst researching for upcoming projects in relation to the next work to compare and analyse, I came across various Japanese translations of Andersen's De Vilde Svaner ("The Wild Swans") - which involves a young princess by the name of Elisa, who must save her eleven cursed

japanese

Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1930 - 1940s

We now enter the pen-ultimate chapter in our grand tour of the translations of the fairy-tale, as we now enter two decades that feature two translators, Taketomo Boufuu and Oohata Suekichi, both experienced and famed handlers of translating literary works into Japanese at this point. Taketomo's is from

japanese

Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1924 - 1929

Thus we enter a new decade of translations and a new round of analyses that either have the Emperor of the story be demoted to mere king or have him keep his empire. We thus acquaint ourselves with three new translations, this time by two translators: Kusuyama Masao's

japanese

Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1910 - 1911

Closing off the tenth decade of the 1900s, we deal with not just two, but three translations, those by Wadagaki Kenzou (1910), Ueda Kazutoshi (1911) and Kondou Toshisaburou (1911). Their Majesties - The King, the Son of Heaven and the Emperor: You shall note that our three translators pick quite

japanese

Philomena cries at night

The Nightingale is a tale written by Andersen concerning the contrast between natural and artificial beauty, in the aspects of music, splendour and above all else life. The titular bird that sings before the Emperor of the story has various connotations in not just Danish whence Andersen in part wrote

japanese

Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1907 - 1908

After having analysed Watanabe and Takahashi's translations we shall proceed a decade forward (or so), and tackle those of Nagura Jirou (1907) and Kimura Shoshuu (1908), whose versions differ quite significantly and continue in the vein of Takahashi when it comes to applying distinct nuances of personality to

japanese

Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1888 - Part III

Note: I have omitted Watanabe's translation due to the difficulty in translating/transcribing it, and the fact that it ditches in most cases the nuances of line individualism in favour of a more direct if flattening out style of translation. I may revisit this article and add it

japanese

Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1888 - Part II

The Swindlers The Swindlers ("bedrager, in Danish) who fool the Imperial Court into believing that their supposedly invisible clothes are actual delicate garbs and not purely fictitious are described as sagisha (詐僞者, "prevaricator") in Watanabe and katari (欺騙者) in Takahashi's version. The latter using the

english

Imperial Intermezzo - His Majesty

Whilst holding a break from the main Japanese translation comparisons, I thought it'd be interesting to take a glance at how European translators handle the title of the monarch himself. This shall be done in brief notes going through the various terms with a short explanation or remark

japanese

Emperor's New Clothes Comparison - 1888 - Part I

Chapter I - The Earliest Translations - Anno 1888 - Part I Hans Christian Andersen, one of the most widely read and translated authors of not just Denmark, but also the world has his works preponderate in terms of international versions to the point of equalling that of the Bible.

english

Bah! Humbug!

As an addendum to the article that regard the Japanese translations of A Christmas Carol, here are some of the European translations of the famous utterance "Bah, humbug!" as expressed in versions readily available through WikiSource: Here they are in a picture format since tables aren't

danish

Dragonball på Dansk - Del II

(Opdateret 27/11/2020) Persongalleriet og deres karaktertræk: I det følgende kigger vi på nogle særpræget person fra Toriyamas tegneserie og hvorvidt deres personligheder i sandhed bliver korrekt reflekteret i den danske oversættelse og specielt i henhold til originalteksten. Son Goku Goku taler i originalen i form for nedvandet udgave

danish

Døgnstemning (Danish Poem)

DØGNSTEMNING: Skrevet den 01/10/2018, på en kølig vintermorgen. Morgendagens retræte, nattergalens sang, vindens blæst, friske minder, friskere sind. Middagens fremmarch, azurblå himler, skyfrie tanker, blåt, åbent og æterisk. Eftermiddagens okkupation, rødlige nuancer, den sidste ild. Kvældets opgivning. Stjerneklare vidder. Sindet atter tomt. Klar til morgendagen.

danish

The Island in the Stream

“A æ u å æ ø i æ å, æ i å u å æ ø i æ å” This famous Jutlandish phrase was brought in a recent LanguageHat article comment and to add and thus decipher it more fully, we will - in this quickie - without further a-due

danish

Dragon Ball på Dansk - Del 1

(Danish blog post) I Juni 2000 udgav Carlsen Comics, under det oversættelses-mæssige lederskab af John Lysmand baseret på en tysk udgave, en officiel dansk oversættelse af Akira Toriyamas kampsports tegneserie Dragon Ball med det første bind Dragekuglernes Hemmlighed til den beskedne pris af 39,50 kroner. Noget, som læserne hurtigt

danish

Danish Poem - Atman

Atman (2017) Jeg ser dig Derfor er du usynlig Jeg hører dig Derfor er du uhørlig Jeg føler dig Derfor er du ufølelig Jeg lugter dig Derfor er du ulugtelig (Jeg er dig Derfor er du ikke Derfor er du dog) Øjne Ser det Det er! Ørerne Hør det Det

danish

Danish Poem - Naboer

Naboer (2017) Talrig' lys overfor Tænker på studier og job Hvert sit univers