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> He describes it at one point as an “unadorned natural style”, but one that was arrived at in characteristically unorthodox fashion: having failed dismally on
by elihu 4y ago
> He describes it at one point as an “unadorned natural style”, but one that was arrived at in characteristically unorthodox fashion: having failed dismally on his first attempt to write what would become Hear the Wind Sing, he began again from scratch, writing not in his native Japanese, but English. “My vocabulary was severely limited, as was my command of English syntax,” he writes, and yet when he translated his words back into Japanese, the short, simple sentences created by those self-imposed limitations possessed “a distinctive rhythm”.
That's interesting. I wonder if he still does that at least some of the time for his more recent books?
The English translations I've read seem to be really good; I wonder if this technique/style has made the work the translators have to do a lot easier when they translate back into English or if it doesn't actually make much difference? It seems like it would at least lead to a tendency to avoid linguistic constructions and idioms that don't have fairly obvious English translations.
It would be fun to be able to read Murukami's initial English draft side by side with the English version of the published book to see how similar they are.
- Mikeb85 4y ago> I wonder if he still does that at least some of the time for his more recent books? Don't think so however I have heard he proof-reads and adjusts the English translations after someone else translates them.
- runevault 4y agoI don't get the impression he expressly does this (aka writes it down then translates) but I think he does run through the mental filters to reach the same result. But I'm also still early into this book (only read the introduction and first two chapters).
- retrac 4y agoWhen I am struggling to express myself in English (my native language) I sometimes speak to myself for a bit in French. It's my second language and I'm not quite fluent in it. When I wish to express something in French, I often find myself forced to think beyond the surface words. I must discard how I would say it in English, and go for the idea underneath. I get hung up on a particular turn of phrase in English. How would I translate a phrasal verb like "hung up" into French? And does the idea even translate that way? What I mean is fixated, stuck, obsessed, misled by chasing the wrong thing. There are many ways to express it besides "hung up on". Which is a very native English speaker thing to say, but bad style, now that I look at it. Fixated would have been better. Fixé.
- kranner 4y agoIdée fixe, perhaps?