As a translator myself I found this episode very interesting, and wanted to add a few points of my own. 1) Witnessing the growth of Tezuka is -- unfortunately in this case -- also witnessing the growth of the translator. Metropolis, Lost World, and Next World were the first four books I ever did. I've never been able to bring myself to look at them again, but I imagine they must be a bit clumsy. Then again, maybe that suits the material. (Later on I did Swallowing the Earth, and that's a translation I'm quite proud of.) 2) Something that wasn't mentioned about the shortening of names is that it's a blessing if the word balloons are tiny. I did the translation for Zoo In Winter as well, and "Hamaguchi" is effectively 9 letters in English, 2 in Japanese. When they shortened his name and actually explained it, I breathed a sigh of relief. 3) In Japan it's not just about accents, it's also dialects. Different vocabularies used in different regions. Also, class has to be taken into account as well. I think using certain accents to represent a kind of universal back-woods farming class is one thing, but you wouldn't want a middle-class Osakan to sound that way. I think William's approach is the right one. 4) I think a modern translation of Sailor Moon should reference 90s pop culture, not modern. The reason being: for example,if a Japanese person reading that now is baffled by a reference to a 90s pop star, shouldn't the American reader be just as baffled? I think the reading experience should be as analagous as possible between audiences. Of course, that's totally the wrong path to take if you want to sell more books. KS

posted by: Kumar Sivasubramanian on 2011-10-17 04:18:50