Articles
September 16, 2013
Special SWET Report: Susan Bassnett on Translation as a Shaping Force in English
Juliet Winters Carpenter
This article is a summary of a talk given by Professor Susan Bassnett of the University of Warwick, at the plenary session of the annual conference of the Japan Association of College English Teachers, with support from the British Council, held at Kyoto University, Clock Tower Hall, 31 August 2013. Professor Bassnett is author of Translation Studies (4th edition; London & New... more
April 25, 2013
Spirited Away: Translating Hideo Furukawa
by Hart Larrabee
Nagano-based translator Hart Larrabee reflects on his experience at the July 2012 summer workshop at the British Centre for Literary Translation. Those who are considering attending this year’s workshop (applications are due 7 May 2013) may also wish to read descriptions of the 2010 and 2011 workshops that were written by Ginny Tapley Takemori and Alison Watts... more
February 3, 2013
Translating Shiba Ryōtarō’s Saka no Ue no Kumo
In 2009, translation got underway of best-selling novelist Shiba Ryōtarō’s eight-volume Saka no ue no kumo (English title, Clouds Above the Hill), a planned three-year project funded through Japan Documents, an independent publisher under the direction of Saitō Sumio. The translators are Juliet Winters Carpenter (professor, Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto), Andrew Cobbing (professor, University of... more
September 20, 2012
Journeying with J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965
by Avery Fischer Udagawa
Shogo Oketani, author of J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965 (Stone Bridge Press, 2011), and his wife, Leza Lowitz, spoke to members of SWET and SCBWI Tokyo on December 6, 2011. Avery Fischer Udagawa, the translator of J-Boys, joined via Skype in the exchange, which was moderated by Holly Thompson at the Wesley Center... more
December 15, 2011
Slave to the Word
by Michael Karpa
In an efficiency-first, high-tech world, will human translators soon be transformed into skilled slaves? We bring to the task of translation understanding and consciousness, exactly what both rule-based and statistically based MT translation lack, and the completeness of our understanding becomes the measure of what we do. Karpa recalls the history of reading text when there were no... more
September 8, 2011
Qualifying as a Translator
by Lynne E. Riggs
"The world in 1991 badly needs trained, experienced Japanese-to-English translators—not just people who know both English and Japanese and have fancy computer setups, but people educated for the job of translating messages in one language to those in another."
In the 20 years that have passed since I wrote this, many hardworking, experienced translators... more