Seidensticker on Nagai and Kawabata Thoughts

 I found his analogy on translators being counterfeiters to be quite interesting as opposed to a betrayer or a traitor as Italians call them. He says to be a successful counterfeiter, you must reproduce every detail or the original to the best of your ability and not to change anything but there are some cases where some things should be changed to better cater the readers of the translation when the original references cultural aspects or something else that the readers of the original language definitely know. I wonder if because of this, the translator would be considered a nonsuccessful translator? Though I do agree that if people were to say the translation is better than the original, it isn't quite a praise as it can be an insult to the original writer and story.

Seidensticker mentions that he most enjoys translating complex pieces of work as it is interesting. Therefore, he likes translating Kawabata's works which are full of ambiguity that could be intentional or not. I could see his point in this as it can really rack your brain into how to put that into words of the language it's being translated into but even from the little translation experience I have, it is already so difficult finding fitting words for not-so-hard sentences and phrases so I can't even imagine trying to translate a piece full of ambiguity and meaning. I do notice in some fan translations of manga, they have translator notes on the edges of the page or at the end of the chapter/volume where they clear up misconceptions that English readers may have or questions concerning the translation regarding ambiguity and certain confusions about culture-related topics. I wonder if that is an acceptable approach for some works. Back to the point of counterfeiting, it is already so hard to find fitting phrases that work well in English and if I were to have to keep the translation as accurate as possible, it would be too overly difficult for me. 

It is also quite interesting that there is a peculiar way that a printed page should look in Japanese. The focus is on appearances alone, and not on the content of the piece as the Chinese characters are darker and the Japanese kana is lighter which creates a sort of the beauty of the disposition between the two on a single page.

Connie