japanese

A collection of 99 posts

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

english

Ducal Difficulty in 3D

Duke Nukem 3D, a FPS game featuring the titular pastiche of action heroes of the 80s and 90s, with all the corny lines and questionable macho-attitude, received a Japanese release for the PC, and in that vein it came with a manual. The translation work for this manual is the

english

The Foul-Mouthed Miller

Geoffrey Chaucer, factotum of Plantagenet England and author of countless inimitable works of poetry, wrote towards the end of the 1400s his magnum opus The Canterbury Tales, wherein we follow a wide assortment and slice of society as they make pilgrimage towards Canterbury. Chaucer was a man whom had interacted

japanese

Do excuse my rudeness, m'dude.

Hearkening back to one of my earlier posts where I remarked on how some characters in Japanese comics would use an overly assertive or informal pronoun, i.e. ore, when speaking in keigo, polite speech, I encountered the element in probably one of the most egregious cases. Case in point:

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

Piano the Pterodactyl Yes-Man

This being the first of April and an international day of pulling the proverbial appendage, I thought that we, however, ought for a moment pause for elegiacal thought for the fate of a fictional Yes-man of Japanese comic history, Piano of Dragon Ball, of Piccolo's royal escort. He,

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

Of Dukes of Thunder and Flesh

This article was originally going to be about the pronoun kikou (貴公), but research led me to a much deeper topic, namely that of how one translates and even conversely render other titles from one language to the other. Today we shall be looking at the title of duke, namely

japanese

Clash of the Pocket Clerks

Wherein we learn that the economical mechanisms of RPG worlds concerning the trading, breeding and fighting of mutant animals seldom makes for logical pondering and that some clerks are more humble than others  - and that the good writer of this blog is probably procrastinating with the more meaningful posts.

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

Mokujin's Back

The wooden training dummy Mokujin ("Wooden Person"), debuted in the second Tekken game, a Japanese fighting game franchise created by Namco (now Bandai Namco) in the mid-nineties. The character Mokujin is an animated wooden training dummy having been brought to life through the mysterious forces that be, that

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

Velvet Swans

In Ueda's translation of The Nightingale, which I am currently going through for a future analysis, I encountered this interesting paragraph: 長い天鵞絨の幕と、厚い金欄とを懸けた、美々しい御寝所の中で、硬張って、色蒼ざめ、横はって居らせられただけなのだ。 Nagai biroudo no maku to, atsui kinran to wo kaketa, bibishii onshinjo no naka de, shachikowatte, iroaozame, yokotawatte iraserareta dake na

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

Particles of Emphasis

In Japanese you can express emotional nuance or stress via emphasis particles that may equate to a vocal exclamation mark or emoticon. We shall in this short explanation look at the most commonly used. Ne (ね), Na (な) and No (の): This one is a "softener" to expressions

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.

japanese

Dickensian Japanese - Stave 3 - Fred and Jacob

In order to speed things up, let us take a brief look at the other principal characters and their main traits, and how translators handle them: Fred: Frederick is an amiable fellow and also the young sister-son of Ebeneezer Scrooge himself, thus his language ought at least to convey nuances