Posted by Tomato (ip68-3-164-47.ph.ph.cox.net/68.3.164.47) on March 14, 2002 at 19:28:50
In Response to Re: Well, here's some posted by Shih Tzu on March 14, 2002 at 00:38:21:
> Shinny-poo!
ROFL that's exactly what I did, minus the poo of course.
>But I do want to end up with something that I'd want to play.
That's a pretty good foundation for whatever philosophies you wind up creating and which will serve as an aid when you have to choices to make in your translations.
> > Well, you've been studying in Japan for half a year with months still ahead of you, you seem to have a pretty strong grasp of translation theory, and you know Japanese pretty well, just get a few scripts under your belt and then you can shove people around and not worry about messing up so much ;)
>
> Heh, we'll see. ^^;
Trust me, you're already more than qualified that a lot of fan translators out there. Don't be modest ;)
> Speaking of translation theory, of which I've read practically nothing outside of your essays, do you have any recommended reading on that? Particularly something that doesn't get too dense and academic, more along the lines of what Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct is to linguistics. Is there such a thing? I find it fascinating, and it'd probably help me develop my philosophy.
Well, there's one good book that I can recommend if you want some lighter reading. I really, really like it. It's called "Words, Ideas, and Ambiguities". In 1998 four of the top Japanese->English translators got together in Tokyo and held a conference where they talked about translating issues they've had to deal with and how they dealt with them. One of them is Edward Seidensticker, probably considered one of THE top J->E translators out there, and incidentally he was my sensei's sensei, so I gotta mention him :) I guess he's kinda like my grandsensei ;) Anyway I don't know if it's 100% theory per se, but it's extremely enlightening. Even these guys get harassed a lot by reviewers who only go looking superficially for differences in translations and then claim their translations are bad if they find anything.
It's a real short book, but it's an easy read and really helpful.
There's one other book I have that is okay and is pure theory, but it's not focused on translating from J->E, just on translating on general. And it is kinda sholarlyish, but I think it's probably pretty important to know at least the ideas and philosophies on translating that important translators/writers have had over the course of history. It probably won't be completely pertinent to your situation, but it's good to have background info. Anyway, the book is called "Theories of Translation - An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida".
Or you could just read my two horribly written, insulting things about J->E game translating over and over :)