One thing that stuck with me the most when reading Hibbett's "On Tanizaki Jun'ichirō" was the translation for feminine and masculine voices. I think that simply italicizing feminine voices wouldn't do the job. If I were to translate such work, then I would make feminine lines in a font that is not too sharp but curvy, like hiragana, and for masculine voice, I would write it in a font that is different from the original font but a sharper font. I am not sure this would be the perfect way to replicate the original work; however, I am curious to see how other translators deal with this situation.
Another thing Hibbett talked about was the difficulty of translating dialects. He mentions that it has gotten better since more people in the western world have acquainted with some facts of Japanese life. I see how it would be difficult to convey the same nuance when you read Japanese text involving different dialects. As Hibbett says, there are particularities of culture that convey the feeling of what this person is like depending on the dialect. Conveying some information, such as age or personality in characters' voices when translating is still tricky, but I think the most challenging thing is when translating dialects.
Airi
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