Posted by Shih Tzu (cf-i2.doshisha.ac.jp/202.23.191.26) on March 24, 2002 at 22:42:07
In Response to Re: Well, here's some posted by Tomato on March 14, 2002 at 19:28:50:
> 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".
Thanks! Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to sound like such a slacker. I just don't want to look into a book only to find that I need to be familiar with Whifflebottom's Pan-acoustic Deduction Hypothesis and have Stromfunster and Thord's Comparative Reciprocity Notation fully memorized, or something. I'll definitely look into these! My college has the second in the library and I see the other on Amazon, so I'll get around to them someday.
> Or you could just read my two horribly written, insulting things about J->E game translating over and over :)
Yeah, that sounds like a plan!