Updated 2000-11-01
Translating Japanese Science Fiction
by Edward Lipsett
JAT Bulletin 187, October 2000. Publications Committee Interview.
今回は、日米のSF（Science
Fiction）に造詣が深く、平井和正氏のウルフガイシリーズ「狼の紋章」の英訳を手がけられたEdward
Lipsett
氏にインタビューしました。1976年に発表された「狼の紋章」は
Wolfcrestのタイトルのもと、講談社インターナショナルから出版されました（1985年）。平井和正氏は、漫画・テレビアニメの「８マン」の原作、『ウルフガイシリーズ』、そして売り上げが総計で2000万部を超えた『幻魔大戦シリーズ』などで有名なSF作家です。詳しくは同氏の公式サイト
ウルフガイ・ドットコム
へどうぞ。
JAT
どういう経緯で平井和正さんと知り合い、「狼の紋章」の英訳を引き受けられることになったのでしょうか？
Lipsett
I've always been an SF fan, and once I got over the shock of
being in Tokyo and learning to open my mouth without looking
like a total idiot, I began looking around for places to
satisfy my habit. Fortunately, I ran into an ABC
(American-Born Chinese) named Ted Quock, who was teaching
English there.In addition to teaching English at one of the
countless English schools (he later became a full-time
teacher at Simul Academy, and when Simul died moved on to get
a "real" job at a university...), he was
also assisting a group of professional SF translators as a
"native American." And better yet, he
needed a replacement.
Well, needless to say, I was delighted to get the offer. I
got to meet some very talented people - Shibano Takumi, Yano
Tetsu , Asakura Hisashi, Itoh Noriaki, Yamada Junko, Satoh
Takako and many, many more, not to mention people from
publishing, like Hayakawa and Sogensha. I was in seventh
heaven, not only enjoying the people, but also being able to
really stand back and take a look at Asimov, Heinlein,
Clarke, EE Doc Smith, L Frank Baum, etc, etc...
JAT
柴野拓美、矢野徹、浅倉久志、山田順子、佐藤高子・・・ SFやミステリーの翻訳で有名な方々ですね。うちの本棚を見ても、矢野徹さんのハインライン、佐藤高子さんのＦ.ボームの「オズ」シリーズ、山田順子さんのマッキャモンなどがあります。あと伊藤典夫さんのアーサー
Ｃ.クラークも・・・・
Lipsett
I was also introduced to intriguing customs of the group,
such as dropping an egg into a glass of left-over
beer/wine/shochu mix the next morning for breakfast
<g>.
The group would get together about once a month back then,
under the auspices of Shibano Takumi , at some inn or hotel
in the extended Tokyo area, and spend one night carousing
(excuse me), uh, studying. Through this group of people I met
many people related to the SF industry, but not directly in
translation, including game publishers, book and magazine
publishers, and artists (I shook hands with Matsumoto Reiji!
I was so thrilled!). And somewhere along the way, someone
remembered my name when Hirai Kazumasa was looking for
someone to translate his work.
It was to be published by Kodansha International, which was
still independent of Kodansha back then. Apparently Hirai
himself took all responsibility for finding and approving the
translator, and he chose me after an astonishingly brief
meeting. To seal the deal, he wrote me a check for a hefty
retainer, although I didn't really understand why at the
time. It was above and beyond the royalties I was to receive,
which were dictated by Kodansha. He sent me a complete set of
the books in the series - over a dozen of them! This was
clearly a best-selling author...
The next step was off to Bunkyo-ku to meet with the editor at
Kodansha International, who, not surprisingly, wanted to see
a sample of my work. I slogged out a chapter in about a week,
taking care to make it look somewhat presentable, and sent it
in on a brand-new 5.25-inch floppy disk, from my brand new
NEC 9801-F2 (as I remember). He had some minor corrections
and comments, but basically we saw eye-to-eye.
JAT
私も、まず最初に使ったのがNEC9801-E（フロッピーは８インチ）で、次がＦシリーズ(5.25インチ)でした・・・
Lipsett
From there it was pretty straightforward, and the next
time I went to a honyaku benkyoukai, I had questions of my
own to ask. They had a lot of fun ribbing me as I had
ribbed them - Where did I study Japanese? Any 6th-grader
would know that one! Or sometimes, I wonder what he really
wanted to say... it doesn't make much sense, does it? It
was enormously instructive and enjoyable, and in addition
to improving my translation, it also improved my Japanese.
I remember the biggest problem we had was how to show that a
group of criminals was using Osaka-ben... after it's
translated into English, there is little difference between
hyoujungo and zuzu-ben. I finally just went with some
20s-style gangster English, but I must say I was never happy
with the choice then, and it still grates when I read it. I
have yet to come up with a significantly better way to handle
it, though.
The schedule was quite relaxed, and the manuscript was duly
handed in, checked, revised, proofed, and printed. It came
out as a 2-volume set under the title Wolfcrest,
which is close to the original Japanese 狼の紋章. I really
wanted to somehow work the "bar sinister"
or something similar into it, but the editor advised me to
keep it simple. And when I perused the book, I was also
astonished to discover that it had an extensive glossary at
the back! This was apparently Kodansha's idea, in an attempt
to boost the prospective audience.
I also found the cover amusing - it is actually an excellent
cover, because it summarizes the book very nicely. The
essential content of the book is presented succinctly and
graphically, as you will discover if you read
it （JAT見てみたい気がします・・・）.
I learned a few key lessons from this process. First, hang
out with people where you want to be. I enjoy SF, and found a
way to spend time with Japanese involved in the field (I
still talk to many of them via email). As I was having fun, a
possible bit of work came up, and I was in the right place to
get the invitation. Second, be nice to people you think are
idiots. I didn't like all of the people at those benkyoukai,
but most of them were (and are) important in the Japanese SF
and/or publishing worlds, and having them like you (or at
least not dislike you) was crucial.
I also discovered what that retainer was for... shortly after
the book was published, Hirai called up again, and asked me
to check over the next book he was writing, parts of which
were sited in the US. He wanted me to make sure it all
sounded authentic...
JAT
なるほど・・・・ で、実際に英訳を手がけてみていかがでしたか。 本家（？）アメリカと日本のSFとでは、どのように違うのでしょう。これからSFの翻訳を手がけてみたい、という人に何かアドバイスはありますか。
また実際の英訳の際には、どの程度の「ローカライズ」が可能だったでしょう。たとえばこの話の主人公の名前は、犬神明（いぬがみあきら）で、ヒロイン（担任の先生）の名前は青鹿晶子（あおしかあきこ）です。漢字ですと、すぐ見分けられるのですが、英語でAkiraと
Akikoと表記すると、まぎらわしい気がします。また、Aoshika
Akikoと書いても読みにくいでしょう。
しかも物語の後半に、明がもうひとり登場（ルポライターの神明）してさらにややこしくなります。このあたりは原文通りに、と要求されたでしょうか。また原文では、「校長」とか「教頭」とか、肩書きでしか呼ばれない人々もでてきます。これらの人々はどう処理されたでしょうか？
以上の質問については、次のようにまとめて答えていただきました。
A short comparison of SF in Japan and the US
In mainstream fiction, wordsmiths like Mishima Yukio or James
Joyce can bend all sorts of grammar and other rules and still
be hailed as masters. In the more commercial world of general
science fiction and fantasy, however, it is a bit more
difficult. Once you are an established writer, of course, you
can write experimental stuff, disregard whatever rules you
like, and still keep a reasonable following, but in general
people expect certain minimums in their books.
Unfortunately, what people expect seems to be quite a bit
different between there and here.
In the United States, while there are always exceptions,
generally a book has to offer a number of essential elements: a
narrative hook to grab the reader at the very start, a
character whom the story is about, and a problem for the
character to resolve, for example. If the background is
interesting that is certainly a plus, but it is not essential
to a sale. The characters, however, really have to be
believable in order for a book to do well in the States, and
the problem has to be something important within the context of
the story.
This doesn't seem to hold true in Japan. Far too many stories
still use cardboard cutouts of characters, which might be
marginally acceptable if coupled with the right storylines. The
stories themselves, however, are often what we would call
background scenarios or vignettes in America (or Europe;
forgive my provincialism)... the characters are transported
back in time and spend 15,000 words exclaiming over the wonder
of dinosaurs. There is apparently no need to explain why they
were transported back in time, or to have them face any
particular problems... just being there and seeing dinosaurs is
sufficient. Just one example, but the same type of writing is
really quite common. There are, thank goodness, many
exceptions.
The problem of theme is another problem that appears in almost
all Japanese writing, not only fiction: few Japanese have any
interest in thematic paragraphs for sections, or thematic
sentences for paragraphs. An astonishing number can't stay
focused on the theme for more than a few sentences at a time
before wandering off somewhere. In fiction, however, these
problems are critical, because if they interfere with the
narrative flow and bring the reader out of the story and back
to reality, the work may be critically flawed.
My own background includes reading essentially every SF book
written in the US until about 1980, and all the ones
recommended by Locus (at least) since. In Japan, I've read most
of the SF books that won awards or were recommended by people
whom I thought would know. There is a lot of good stuff here,
no question about it, but there is also an astounding amount of
material that really reads like American backshelf throwaways
-– an interesting idea lost among cardboard props,
plot devices pulled out of thin air, and thinly-disguised
discourse on everything under the sun by the author.
I am talking about my own, American-bred, SF likes and
dislikes. The people in Japan, obviously, have a different set
of criteria for judging what is good and bad. That's fine;
Japanese literature only has to justify itself to the Japanese.
Wolfcrest is one of these books. I like the basic
concept, that of a Japanese high-school student who happens to
be a werewolf, and it has some interesting trimmings, but the
characterizations, storyline and narrative description are all,
by American standards, inadequate to make it very
successful in the States. Considering how successful Hirai
Kazumasa and the entire series are in Japan, it is clear this
is a highly ethnocentric opinion, however.
For better or worse, I was given instructions to keep the
English version structurally similar to the Japanese - they
didn't want things moved around, added or deleted. As I found
out later, this was because the text was to be prepared as an
English side-by-side for the Japanese, with notes for the
Japanese reader. It was much easier that way, because I didn't
have to sweat much over how to arrange things for the best
feel, or worry about what style to use.
There were some problems that needed to be resolved, like a
few side characters without names or sexes... the principal of
the school, for example. In Japanese you can just say
"Principal" or skip the reference entirely,
but in English we really need a "he" or
"she." I was forced to check with the
author, who said he'd never thought about it (fascinating! I
could never write without a picture of the character in my
mind...), but probably such-and-such for each instance. Since
they were side characters, it really made no difference to the
story. Another character, peripheral in this book but who stars
in his own series, has the same name, Akira, and a very similar
last name... Again, from the American perspective this really
should have been changed, but that wasn't an option in this
job. About the only change I made to names was generally
referring to people by their first names, rather than their
last names as in the original, and I needed the authorization
of the author to get that liberty. (I remember that when the
first Perry Rhodan books came out, the alien Crest had his name
changed to Khrest... in Germany, where the books were authored,
that brand of toothpaste wasn't sold.)
All in all, translating the book was a lot of fun... there
were no heavy philosophical sections to wade through, no
massive research needed into lycanthopy, no bizarre dream
sequences, and it was mostly written in plain Japanese,
without, for example, the created jargon of cyberpunk. And it
was definitely a blast to get copies of a printed book with my
name on it, even if it did come out with that cover...
そのカバーです（誰の絵でしょう？）。
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