Shiki Novel Translations 9.0 and notes

[sinnesspiel]

Links to Chapter 9
Chapter 9 - 1
Chapter 9 - 2
Chapter 9 - 3
Chapter 9 - 4
Chapter 9 - 5
Chapter 9 - 6
Chapter 9 - 7


Chapter 9 Translation Notes

Chapter 9 - 1

Posthumous names - Honorary Ingou

A posthumous name is assigned to denote one as a follower of Buddha, originally for those entering the priesthood and taking certain vows. Now they are written on sotoba, mortuary tablets and the like to assist in their passing to the next shore, by carrying the honor or good works within their name and having that be what they are identified by so that they aren't lured back to the world of the living when spoken about by their original name, as well as to help them spiritually separate from their former life and material world. The name is assigned by the family temple's head priest or, if one doesn't belong to any particular parish, a monk from the funeral service will assign one. It's generally made up of two characters, and optionally honorary titles such as Ingou, Dougou, Igou, and others varying by sect. There are specific rules as to which characters can be used, determining prefixes and suffixes based on age, gender, sect, etc. as well as denotations written before or after on certain relics, which vary by sect. As there are quite a few rules in place which require some thorough study to assign titles appropriately, there is a charge, which is the source of some controversy.

Ingou - In is an honorary title consisting of two characters and the third character "in" (院), for temple, put at the beginning of the posthumous name, before the two on a standard name. It's reserved for those who were central to a temple or performing great works for the public good. It was originally reserved for emperors or those of high government houses who erected temples.

Comments

Re: Shiki Chapters

[sinnesspiel]

I go from the Japanese text and, when I don't know a word I dictionary it, then often look for the word in other contexts and run it through a few sources to see if there are any other nuances to it. For example, the word used for 'school district' by Hirosawa is actually one used specifically in Western Japan and is not the Tokyo standard term. This may be a slip of where the authoress is from (south/western Japan) and a thoughtless word choice, or a reference on where Sotoba is located regionally (the Tokai region, which is mostly in western Japan). In this case, there was no special way to translate that word choice distinction into English, but it's good for me to keep in mind that while there's no particular dialect in play here, there are some possible nuances at work creating the regionalized feel. Then there are cases like Natsuno talking to Ritsuko where, while I can translate him talking more formally (as is appropriate as a child talking to an adult), he's also a bit cold and blunt, so while I can do my best, if I'm not satisfied with getting that nuance across I leave a cultural note.

Another example is with Sunako; I'll sometimes translate her as using bigger words because her speech style is very distinctly that of an adult, high class woman. I wouldn't keep picking bigger words for her if that were all, she does at time indeed use words very unusual for her age. For example, her use of the word 'curriculum vitae' is indeed an unusual word for a kid to throw around, and she chooses 'nattoku' (satisfied-- in regards to Seishin having a scar, even if he has no horns) rather than the more child-character appropriate 'sore de ii wa' (which would be more in line with "precocious child trying to talk like a high class lady"). That's why I went with 'difficult' (in regards to the vocab in Seishin's novels) rather than 'hard' even though her word choice there, muzukashii, is a normal, simple word. I think it was a throwaway line by her to attempt to humor his perception of her age, but even when acting the child role, it's still the precocious child role, so I have to keep that in mind when translating her dialogue. But then, the way she says she's disappointed he doesn't have horns is, indeed, very childish in Japanese, so I just went with "sad" even though the word was closer to "disappointed" or "let down" because simpler words feel more "childish" in English. It's a tough balance making sure that characters only break character when they do that in text as opposed to them breaking character because I didn't translate it right.

That's my biggest worry in translating, especially if my English translation will then go on to be the basis of other language's translations; if people could read Japanese themselves, they wouldn't be reading my translation, and if my translation is wrong or off or adjusted more to my tastes than to the tastes of the work itself, they have absolutely no way of knowing that. A translator has very low accountability because their audience wouldn't need them at all if they had the capacity to check their work. I've seen some very poor or even intentionally deceptive translations pass through fandoms this way.

The resources outside of dictionaries that I use include searches on Google, Bing, Google Books, and Weblio, for contexts using those words. I've done a lot of study on character speech styles and Japanese sociolinguistics, with my most common resources for that being Satoshi Kinsui's research and summaries of his symposiums and presentations. I also recommend his blog for other potential, context-specific resources.

2ch, the Japanese message board, is often very helpful to foreigners, though surprisingly since it's their native language, many Japanese don't think too much about their own language's nuances. But nothing can beat "what kind of feel does this give off?" as subjective as that can be. I had to request a friend in Japan do some library scrawling for notes on the miyaza/murakata stuff, even though the cultural notes ended up so brief on it. Originally, my culture notes on them were about two pages. I had to hack it down to what's really relevant to understand the story.



...Whew, you got an essay out of me. I get chatty when it's about translation.