Juliet Carpenter

 Something I’ve been conscious of while doing the translation homework(s) is sentence structure—whether or not I want to keep the subject at the end of the sentence or move it to the front—so I found it nice that Carpenter talked a bit about translating sentence structure even if it was regarding English to Japanese translation. I wanted to read more on the gyaku okuri and jun okuri ways of translating sentences, but I couldn’t find anything on Google.  

Since we saw “you na” in our readings in class quite often, Carpenter’s little snippet about you na is quite applicable. Reminding myself in future translations to check if I actually need to use “seemingly”.

Regarding Carpenter’s translation on Naze ikiru, I was pretty surprised to find that translators can borrow words/phrases from other writers. I didn’t know that was a thing, but it does make sense if you happen to find someone who’s words perfectly capture what the author wanted to get across.

I find it fascinating that Carpenter and Mizumura collaborated on the translation for A True Novel. In the samples Carpenter provided of their translation process—source to Carpenter’s rough draft to Shaw’s edit then to the collaborative wording—you can really see how each iteration slowly brings the story into focus.

Another thing that surprised me was the amount of time it took to translate. Three years seem like a really long time, keeping in mind that Carpenter and Mizumura both had other engagements, and it puts into perspective the amount of work that goes into translations.

Lesley