The very title of Cathy Hirano’s essay “Eight Ways to Say You: The Challenge of Translation” interested me. The question of translating ‘you’ has been something I’ve thought about for a bit, particularly since a singer I follow tweets out a variation of 「おはようお前ら」every morning. The community around this singer collectively decided that ‘good morning, y’all’ was the appropriate translation, and it got me thinking as to how difficult it is to translate certain nuances of Japanese into English. Reading Hirano’s various translations and her explanations of what makes Japanese complex to translate made me appreciate it so much more.
In particular, I found myself also thinking about how differently localization tends to work in the west, especially in the video game industry. The Ace Attorney series is a notorious example, where all references to ramen was replaced with burgers, and the titular Naruhodo Ryuichi became Phoenix Wright– one of the best translations of a pun I’ve ever seen. In contrast, one of the things that stood out to me was how Hirano decided to go about describing a cram school. I found it interesting that Hirano made it clear that she was not writing for an English speaking audience, but a North American one, first and foremost. The localization of cram school into an American atmosphere was entirely ignored, and rather, she opted to preserve the Japanese atmosphere, adding an explanation for readers instead. I think I prefer this approach. While localization benefitted Ace Attorney, it ended up changing the tone and the atmosphere of the game, making it distinct to the Japanese series. It is at complete odds with Hirano’s philosophy of remaining true to the essence of the original book. That said, Hirano’s anecdotes of her experiences translating have given me a lot more methods to keep in mind when working on our first translation exercise, and I look forward to considering them.
Reshma
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