Translating fun!

[muikabochi 208]

This week a friend of mine who owns a hotel asked me if I would help by translating a bit of Japanese into English.

 

Not much, but wow it made me realise what a difficult job it must be.

Even though my Japanese is good enough to understand the words, I'm certainly no translator.

 

Such flowery phrases that don't really have any meaning in themesleves other than to create an image.

I was at a loss as to how to translate it - try to be flowery in return and it sound really un-natural; or translate it into what would be less exciting English. But to do that I had to ask them what it actually meant (ie. facts, rather than just fluffy words).

 

I don't envy people translating stuff like that!

[pie-eater 207]

Yes I can imagine that being a toughy.

What do the translators here do? Depends on the clients wishes? (And what are they often?)

[yamaski 0]

I would imagine they need to decide if they want to be poetic or just get across the facts.

Translating directly will always sound very strange I imagine.

[Chriselle 158]

I agree. Sometimes it takes me the longest time to work out a translation that makes any sense. You start second guessing yourself if it's any better than the nonsensical Engrish translations we see everyday. Shit ...I can't speak Japanese or English.... is something I mumble to myself these days.

[NoFakie 45]

Japanese promotional material usually goes way over the top. Everything's a "meibutsu" etc.

 

Tone it right down, and if there's a chance of doing more, charge by the length of the source text, since the English will probably end up being a shorter and highly edited (i.e., worked upon) version of it.

[muikabochi 208]

I'm not charging them anything just doing them a favour, and I'll probably get some beer in return or something.