September 27, 2010

SWET Newsletter, No. 125

Translating from Japanese to English

Translating and Blogging in Sapporo, by Deborah Davidson and Kathleen Morikawa

From Sapporo, Kathleen Morikawa interviews Hokkaido translator Deborah Davidson, talking about Davidson’s versatile translating career (which has involved topics as wide-ranging as etegami art, Ainu folktales, and wagashi sweets) and her life’s work—making the novels of best-selling Hokkaido-based author Ayako Miura (1922–1999) more accessible to an international audience (see her website).

The Hadashi no Gen Project, by Alan Gleason

Alan Gleason’s experience as a translator began in 1980 with the manga Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen), as part of a volunteer project that continues today. Project Gen inadvertently became the world’s first publisher of manga in translation when it issued Barefoot Gen Volume One in 1978. With the tenth and final English volume completed in 2009, the Gen series bears witness to the evolution of the translation of manga over three decades. Gleason described that evolution at a session of the 21st International Japanese English Translation Conference (IJET-21) in May 2010, and agreed to write about it in detail for SWET members as well. Gleason lives in Tokyo, where he edits and translates websites, books, articles, and academic papers on language, the arts, and environmental science. Gleason’s “How We Got Here” story was published in SWET Newsletter 109 (2002) under the title “The Serendipitous Translator.”

SWET Events

Setting Up a Translation Company in Japan, by Phil Robertson

Professional translator and technical writer Phil Robertson is co-founder of Honyaku Plus, based in Jimbocho. On February 16, 2010, he took valuable time out of his tight work schedule to share the story of the early career that led him to Japan, along with some of the lessons he has learned in the course of establishing a professional translation business in the fields of international relations, information technology, emerging technologies, medicine, economics, digital camera technology, and sports.

SWET Japan Style Sheet in 2010, by Lynne E. Riggs

The Japan Style Sheet (Stone Bridge Press, 1998) still stands as the most reliable tool for making style decisions about the use of Japanese words in English text. Fourteen experienced SWET editors discussed ways of updating it and making it more widely available.

SWET Cyber Matters

More Adventures in the Quest for “Real English,” by Torkil Christensen

Another chapter in the life of SWET-L, never tiring at explaining to the puzzled (except when it’s clients who are dishing it up). Much English as we wish it were not used is corrected, explicated, and improved with erudition and ample good cheer for beleaguered keyboard-bound anchorites.

From the Trenches

Photos and Words—Which Is the Illustration? by Alfie Goodrich

Alfie Goodrich is a British-born photographer and writer who has been living in Japan for three years, after 12 years of coming and going between the U.K. and Japan. His work has been published in a wide variety of magazines, including the Wall Street Journal and Time. As well as taking pictures, Goodrich teaches photographic skills through workshops and “photowalks.” Examples of his work and details of his teaching can be found at www.japanorama.co.uk. Here he talks about the relationship between his images and words.

Book Reviews

Finding Writing Hints in Fiction

Reviewed by Jens Wilkinson
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. By Francine Prose. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. Softcover, ISBN 978-0-06-077705-0.

Defending the Translation Endeavor

Reviewed by Charles De Wolf
Why Translation Matters. By Edith Grossman. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. Hardcover. ISBN 978-0-300-12656-3, $24.00.