Swet Columns
August 25, 2021
Modern Colloquialisms Japanese-English
Nichibei kogo jiten, ketteiban/Modern Colloquialisms Japanese-English. Third Edition, 1,308 pages, Asahi Press, 2021. ISBN 978-4-255-01214-8 C0582.
Among the tools available to translators, writers, and students of English and Japanese of all sorts, Modern Colloquialisms (MC) has been a standard for more than 40 years. It was published in 1977 under the supervision of scholar and translator Edward G.... more
May 20, 2021
Chanoyu/Tea
A Chanoyu Vocabulary: Practical Terms for the Way of Tea Paperback, A5 size, 280 pages. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2007. ISBN9784473033987
This gem of a dictionary has been around for well over a decade. Currently in its third printing, it remains the one and only comprehensive chanoyu dictionary available, providing concise and accurate “to the T” (pun intended) English definitions of 1,642 terms... more
May 11, 2021
EVENT REPORT: SWET Zoom Workshops Experiment 2020
By Richard Medhurst
Talking to other translators and wordsmiths at events and workshops inspires new discoveries and ways of thinking about what we do, as well as providing the chance to get to know people in the business. We used to do this in person until the pandemic made real-world meetings impossible, and led us to reconsider online spaces. One benefit of... more
March 18, 2021
Wood/Carpentry
Japanese Wood and Carpentry: Rustic and Refined. By Mechtild Mertz. Otsu, Shiga Prefecture: Kaiseisha Press, 2020. ¥4,800.
By Judith Clancy
Japan’s remarkable history of wooden structures ranges from massive temples to delicate cabinetry. All their parts, from supporting pillars to decorative tokonoma posts are made from carefully selected wood species. Translators and editors frequently encounter the diverse terminology... more
November 1, 2020
Word Wise: Getting It Out There
By Richard Medhurst
The Internet has made it possible to send whatever we want around the world with the stroke of a key, but what do we hope to achieve by doing so? Some basic uses for the Japanese word 発信 are to do with transmitting or sending various kinds of messages, such as an SOS when in danger. When translating... more
July 26, 2020
Word Wise: Keeping Active
By Richard Medhurst
It is time to take the initiative again and consider various ways of translating Japanese words. This column is on the pairing of 積極的 and 消極的, looking particularly at the former, which is commonly encountered. One way to think about how to translate 積極的 is to roughly divide usage into three categories. The first is how a... more