Translating a title: Kusa Makura or Grass Pillow?

Natsume Soseki house

A small pilgrimage..

Xavier: Here we are. Natsume Soseki’s third house.

Dennis: Where he wrote Kusa Makura in 1906?

Xavier: Also known as Three-Cornered World in the 1965 translation.

Dennis: Huh?

Xavier: A phrase taken from the book. But the 2008 translation kept the name Kusa Makura, meaning “grass pillow”, an allusion to travel in Japanese.

Kusa Makura Road

Dennis: I hear in Shimasaki is the road up the mountain which inspired the novel.

Xavier: It’s an energetic walk but it feels like you’ve stepped back into a Japan of hundred years ago.

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Voice-over

Translation of a title is a challenge to capture the spirit of an original work. Keep the original language, literally translate it, use an equivalent expression, or just pluck an idea from the original text. Or maybe subtitle it as Grass Pillow: Resting on a Journey. It captures the Meiji idiom.

I'm going to see a man about a dog

When a direct translation isn't...

Trevor: I always thought, “I’m going to see man about a dog” was an Aussie expression.

Angie: Why?

Trevor: Well I grew up with it. 

Angie: When did you find out it’s used in the US and UK too?

Trevor: After putting it through Google Translate.

Angie: What did you get? Something like, “I’ve got an appointment”?

Trevor: From European languages through Middle Eastern to Asian, they all translated directly. In Italian: “Vedrò un uomo che parla di un cane.” In Japanese: “犬について男性に会いに行きます。”

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Voice-over

Relying on Google Translate and extracting a direct translation you can miss the local colloquial meaning, in this case of flippant evasion.

Murakami Haruki and back translation

Back translating?

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Franz: One writer I’ve heard of who does that is Murakami Haruki.

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Yoko: Yes. He did. That’s how he got started, how he developed his distinctive voice. He thought in Japanese, wrote in English and back-translated into Japanese.

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Franz: Is that why he doesn’t mind giving speeches in English?

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Yoko: Yes, he’s comfortable with planning a speech in English. He says writing short sentences in English reduces his choices, makes it clearer, gives him confidence.

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Franz: He delivers well. He’s good at getting the audience on his side. They laugh, they nod in agreement.

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Yoko: Oh, but he also practises. Over and over. Often when he goes out running. Even gestures and facial expressions.

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Franz: Surprising passersby no doubt.

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Voice-over

Reversing Murakami's method

It has been said that Murakami's Japanese often reads, in the original, as if it has been translated from English. If an English writer were to do the same; by writing in Japanese first then back-translating into English, would it have a redolence of having come from the Japanese? It goes without saying though that such a writer must first be fluent in Japanese.

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