Comments for Durf.org

Comment on Literary translation contest by Phillip

Phillip — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:32:56 +0000

Do you know when details of the 2nd competition will be announced? I really do hope that there will be one for 2012 as well.

Comment on A child custody story to watch? by Dragon Ash

Dragon Ash — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:19:01 +0000

This appears recent:

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11474891.asp

I’m not sure what to make of it. According to the mother’s filing with prosecutors in Turkey, the husband ‘threatened to kill Michiko and her daughter if Michiko took legal action against him’.

But she also says, apparently, that ‘she is not considering divorce but wants to live in Japan with her husband and daughter’.

Would you let your daughter live with a father that had threatened to kill both of you? Doesn’t make any sense.

Comment on Cabinet numbers by Durf

Durf — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 06:33:46 +0000

Yeah, in Japanese I think the difference between 代 and 人目 is clear enough that the writers don’t need to worry about whether readers will get it. The problems arise when we get English translations of these Japanese articles that unthinkingly feed the terms through to make Noda the ninety-fifth PM, period.

Comment on Cabinet numbers by sigma1

sigma1 — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:57:14 +0000

As a good example of this the Yomiuri listed Noda as the 95th “Prime Minister” and 62nd person to occupy the role.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/news/20110829-OYT1T00686.htm?from=top

Comment on Love, the moon, and translation by Durf

Durf — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:47:56 +0000

Actually more of the time it’s up to the client, not the translator, to make those decisions. If the company/agency/ministry wants chokuyaku you’re obliged to provide something closer to that end of the scale. You can of course provide guidance to the client in the process—”you know, this sort of text won’t be as effective as you want it to be”—but the decisions often get made on the money side, not the translator’s side.

I’ll see about producing a PDF at some point today.

Comment on Love, the moon, and translation by Michael

Michael — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:33:59 +0000

I remember you (somebody?) mentioning this before. With a couple of years basic translation experience under my belt now, I’m very much more aware of the skill being about reading the emotions in a given context. ‘What would we normally say in English in this situation..?’

Of course, the translator must decide how appropriate it is to substitute completely different phrases that have a similar feeling in the target language or to translate the text more faithfully, word-to-word. I’ve never done any novel translations, but I imagine it demands a lot more of this emotion interpretation than the sort of stuff I deal with. 細菌性髄膜炎 is always ‘bacterial meningitis’, after all :p.

P.S. Would like to read that article – could you send me a copy?

Comment on AKB48: The media response by JimR

JimR — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:01:01 +0000

Fascinating, I love finally seeing some deeper analysis of the utter strangeness surrounding AKB48.

I also like seeing Okamura mentioned as one of the few to react publicly; he’s long struck me as one of the more insightful faces on TV here. His segment putting gei-no-jin on painfully obvious “candid camera” type shows to see how long they would play along was almost a critique of entertainment and expectation.

Comment on Still Moving by Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:24:28 +0000

Nicely penned.

Comment on Chinese characters through time by Durf

Durf — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:28:30 +0000

Which site? The main site (first link above) is called Chinese Etymology; the site where I found out about it (link below image) is Language Log.

Comment on Chinese characters through time by JAE

JAE — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:03:48 +0000

can you please please give me the name of the site you used