Forum - View topicINTEREST: Gundam's Yoshiyuki Tomino Shares Thoughts on Working with Attack on Titan's Tetsuro Araki
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hyojodoji
Posts: 585 |
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Linguist Kanaya Takehiro even wrote a book titled 『日本語に主語はいらない 百年の誤謬を正す』. ｗ
So, an English-speaking translator cannot help adding subjects to this? Alas, it would kill the fluency and exquisiteness. |
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vanfanel
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"Japanese Doesn't Need Subjects - Correcting a 100 Year Misconception" I took a look on Amazon; it sounds interesting. So basically, he's saying that a century of Japanese students studying English grammar has given rise to the (false) ideas that Japanese sentences are illogical without subjects, and that the subject is often "omitted" in Japanese (when it was never really needed to begin with)?
I can't quite process 18th-century poetry yet, I'm afraid. That said, it should be possible to avoid a subject in poetic translation if necessary, given the broad latitude one has with grammar in various literary styles. |
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Zero Gravity
 Posts: 88 Location: Stardust Speedway |
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I have no personal issues with Reconguista other than the choice of mobile suit designs, although I've fallen in love with the design for the Gundam for reasons I can't really comprehend myself. While I'm not overly thrilled with the series, I want to see where it'll take me by the end.
Gundam has a way of turning my interests around during mid points, which i first noticed when I watched ZZ Gundam (I at first had to force myself to get through it, after a point, it became my favorite of all the Gundam series). Gundam 00 turned me off horribly with season 2, so bad I wished episode 25 of season 1 was the finale, and don't get me started with the 00 film. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2404 |
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So I guess ANN has no interest in correcting their horrible translation? I wouldn't really expect them to post a retraction, but at least fixing something they put in an article which is very, very wrong...
Interesting topic. As a native english speaker, translating multiple back to back japanese lines with no subject is a giant pain in the butt (not that I'm a professional translator or anything). Translating isn't suppose to be rewriting, but you still need coherent, grammatically correct sentences in the end.
I think the slow start is pretty constant with Tomino's gundam series. ZZ and Turn-A both show drastic improvement in the second half. Really though both First and Z have a slow start where they are running away and the baddies keep coming back each week to attack. Those just picked up a bit faster and pretty consistently. G-Reco isn't really unusually slow starting for him, but he only has half the episodes this time. And it sounds like some one doesn't like aliens in their gundam... |
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hyojodoji
Posts: 585 |
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Yeah, it seems to be so. Linguist Mikami Akira objected to the concept of 'subject' in English grammar being applied to study of the Japanese language. Probably Dr Kanaya has inherited linguistic theories from Dr Mikami. That also reminds me of Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, who criticised poor Japanese writing badly influenced by English grammar.
Oh, actually the quotation is prose, and it is from a novel. Part of the quotation is a reference to a poem in the Kamakura period, but it consists of a modifier and a noun and doesn't need a 'subject'. An interesting aspect of popular literary works in the Edo period is that they sometimes require of readers that they should have knowledge of high culture, if they want to fully appreciate them. Anyway, thank you for posting your insight. ^_^ Dr Konishi Jin'ichi, who taught also at Stanford, said, '日本語は、主語を出さない言いかたの方がむしろ普通であるような感じさえ与えられる.'
In one of his books, Dr Konishi asked readers what the subject of 'あはれなり' was. |
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vanfanel
Posts: 1246 |
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Ah, I see, now. I'm not uninterested in koten, but the barrier to entry seems awfully high. With all the obsolete words and verb tenses, it feels like a bit like having to learn Japanese all over again. But who knows? Maybe someday. The oldest book I've tackled so far is from the late 1950's. |
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Brutannica
Posts: 257 |
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Thanks to the sharp readers who pointed this out. Upon reconsideration, I believe Kamiechi's reading of the sentence in question is more accurate. vanfanel was correct in assuming that I was misled by the lack of subject.
I will edit the article. I deny that I was slandering Tomino in any way in this article and apologize if people got the wrong idea based on this line. |
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hyojodoji
Posts: 585 |
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Yeah, Dr Konishi Jin'ichi said to students, 'Don't have an idea such as "The language used in the Japanese classics is still the Japanese language. So probably I can easily read them without studying hard.".'
When Dr Donald Keene taught at Cambridge, students who read Japanese were really into koten and they used ancient Japanese expressions in everyday conversation. How about mastering 中古文 (A very simple chronological table-wise comparison might result in Late Old English) in the future and being given thunderous applause by Japanese friends? ^_^
Possibly 『金閣寺』 by Mishima Yukio? He was a fan of science fiction. Perhaps 「宇宙塵」, which started to be published in 1957? Oh, sorry if this is too an inquisitive question. |
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