How English materials are translated and sold to the Japanese?
It was either real novel or manga for me, but yesterday I decided to check out what ranobes (light novels) were like. I felt like reading some film treatment rather than a novel. It was like a parade of adjectives and adverbs so I thought it must've something to do with the shuujigaku (decorating literary works with lots of modifiers) which is totally different to English rhetoric (which involves figures of speech and other compositional techniques).

Now I'm wondering how English materials are translated and being sold to the Japanese if they don't share the same rhetorical concepts. Like Harry Potter books which were translated to Nihongo, did they simply translate it from how J.K. Rowling made it? Or did they deconstruct and reconstruct the entire material to fit that of their target market? :(

Question

How English materials are translated and sold to the Japanese?
It was either real novel or manga for me, but yesterday I decided to check out what ranobes (light novels) were like. I felt like reading some film treatment rather than a novel. It was like a parade of adjectives and adverbs so I thought it must've something to do with the shuujigaku (decorating literary works with lots of modifiers) which is totally different to English rhetoric (which involves figures of speech and other compositional techniques).

Now I'm wondering how English materials are translated and being sold to the Japanese if they don't share the same rhetorical concepts. Like Harry Potter books which were translated to Nihongo, did they simply translate it from how J.K. Rowling made it? Or did they deconstruct and reconstruct the entire material to fit that of their target market? :(

Answer

All depend on in-house rules, and contracts with original publishing companies (and also between original publishing companies and original authors). You can easily figure out what the contracts affect on the ways of translation. Some authors hate their works to be modified, so in that case, translators deal with those rhetorical lines with footnotes. As for in-house rules, each companies specify up to where translators can modify originals to make concepts fit in with Japanese ways of thinking.

Answer

Now I'm wondering where did the answer go. :(

Answers · 4

Still haven’t found your answers?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!