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You're reading an English-language article about someone famous, say a movie star or a politician. You happen to know that the person doesn't speak English, but you come to a statement that the article claims was spoken by this very person. The statement is enclosed in quotation marks and followed by the words "he said," as if those were the exact words the person spoke. You stop and think. It's a translation. You wonder, "What did he really say?"
I'm sure that is a common experience for translators of every language. Whenever I read a quote that I know has been translated from Japanese, I sometimes feel that the words "he said" or "she said" are almost dishonest. It would be much more accurate to claim "was translated as saying." After all, the person never said the words. Writing "he said" or "she said" is only accepted as a convention.
The problem with this, however, is that nearly everything can be translated in more than one way. Even Voltaire gets translated in different ways. The Bartleby site quotes him as writing:
Woe to the writer who gives a literal version; who by rendering every word of his original, by that very means enervates the sense, and extinguishes all the fire of it.
http://www.bartleby.com/34/2/18.html
But elsewhere this is translated as:
Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.
And at another site as:
Woe betide the doers of literal translations, who by translating each word distort its meaning! There you can say that the letter destroys totally, while the spirit gives fresh life.
What did Voltaire actually write? Did he write "enervates," "kills," or "destroys"? Was it "writer," "maker," or "doer"?* Could make a big difference in a murder trial:
PROSECUTOR: And is it true, Mr. Voltaire, that you then picked up a knife and ran towards your translator screaming, "I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"?
VOLTAIRE: No, no, no. A more precise rendering of my words is, "Translator! Traitor! I will surely enervate you!"
All translators work by taking words from one language and attempting to give them new life in another. And just as each person will read a sentence and understand it slightly differently, so will each re-writer— that is, translator—write it differently. To illustrate this process, JAT members have provided translations for two notable Japanese quotes.
The first quote is by 有島武郎 (1878-1923)
愛と憎しみとは相反する心的作用の両極を意味するものではない。憎しみとは人間の愛の変じた一つの形式である。
愛の反対は憎しみではない。愛の反対は愛しないことだ。
English translations:
Love and hatred do not signify diametrically opposed extremes of psychological function. Hatred is an altered state of human love. The opposite of love is not hatred, but the absence of love.
Carol Lawson
Love and hate are not opposites on the scale of human emotions. Far from being the opposite of love, hate is in fact a transformation of love. The opposite of love is simply not to love.
Jeremy Angel
The second quote is by 安部次郎 (1883-1956)
生きるための職業は、魂の生活と一致するものを選ぶことを第一とする。
English translations:
It is paramount that the means one chooses to earn one's daily bread be in concordance with one's inner existence.
Carol Lawson
Work for sustenance must first and foremost be harmonious with your soul's activities.
Geoff Trousselot
The best profession to make your living should come from what your soul tells you.
George Tokikuni
While the source sentence for each of these translations obviously stays the same, each translation is different. Each has the life given to it by its translator. So although translation necessarily involves the risk of enervation, it also involves the pleasure of invigoration (which is especially nice if followed by remuneration).
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Slight change of subject. Here's a Raymond Carver quote (translated to Japanese here by George Tokikuni):
Isak Dinesen said that she wrote a little every day, without hope and without despair. I like that.
Raymond Carver (1939-1988)
希望を持たずに、かといって絶望もせずに毎日少しずつ書くとイサク・ディネセンは言ったが、そういうやり方が好きだ。
レイモンド・カーヴァー (1939-1988)
I like that too. And writing a little every day can also include translating a little every day, especially the just-for-fun kind. Would you like to translate and contribute a short piece next time? Would you like to suggest a different topic or source, such as cartoons, advertising slogans, or political soundbites? Send ideas and any feedback to me, or bring them up on the JAT mailing list.
JAT member contributors (in alphabetical order)
Jeremy Angel
Jeremy Angel, unashamedly 51, born and raised in the UK, living in Japan since 1976, Nagano since 1992. Been translating in dribs and drabs since 1984, but finally got serious in 1999. A background in biology and social anthropology dubiously qualifies me to translate biotech/environment and sociological themes. I also enjoy doing IT-related articles that aren't too technical.
Carol Lawson
I began learning Japanese in Sydney in 1975 aged 10. I have come and gone from Japan in my teens, twenties and now had four years in Sendai in my thirties. I have a BA (Asian Studies-Japanese) / LLB and a Masters with Distinction in Advanced Japanese from Sheffield University. I enjoy the shared passion JAT members have for the pursuit of excellence in translation.
George Tokikuni
A patent translator specializing in electronics and computers.
Geoff Trousselot
Thirty-ish translator with several years experience in the translation field. Born and currently living in Hobart, Australia. Preferred fields include work that is 魂の生活と一致するもの (harmonious with the soul's activities).
* It appears that Voltaire used the word "enervent " (translated in the quotes above as enervate/kill/destroy) and the word "faiseurs" (writers/makers/doers).
". . .malheur aux faiseurs de traductions litterales, qui en traduisant chaque parole enervent le sens! C'est bien la qu'on peut dire que la lettre tue, et que l'esprit vivifie" VOLTAIRE (Francois-Marie Arouet, dit), Lettres philosophiques, XVIII.