Gaining insights into Seidensticker's thought process in translation was interesting, especially understanding the difficulties that exist in the process. One of the things mentioned that caught my attention was the struggle to maintain the rhythm while translating the text precisely. This often occurs because a clear explanation of the proper name is required for the readers to fully understand, but it takes too much time. He gives an explanation with the two sentences that received loads of criticism in Yuu Keshiki no Kagami. It was especially intriguing because I've never considered rhythm as a factor in translation before. Even in the example given, Seidensticker also touches on how often internal rhyme is generally considered a bad device in English prose. This made me realize the extent to which how translating is difficult due to the number of considerations that has to be made. Ultimately, translation isn't meant to be better than the original. I believe there's a fine line between trying to accurately translate it to engage the reader but to not over do, and I hope to understand this aspect of the two languages more in the future.
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