Comment on Punch Time
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I will transliterate where I want to preserve the original context of words. Otherwise I generally just go for stage 3 to get the gist of what a writer or speaker means, and usually it’s a combination of the two, I don’t try to use different idioms.
So “I’ll punch your lights out” might likely become “I’ll beat you so that the lights in your eyes go out” if I were to translate to Japanese (transliterated back).
It’s a neat way to show how each person translating has their own style. (And how Japanese news and diplomatic translators have had a rough time with Trump, forced to sanewash a lot).
kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Transliteration is another thing entirely: it’s translating the sounds. “I’ll beat you so that the lights in your eyes go out” translated to Japanese is “君の目の光が消えるまで殴ってやる”. Transliterated back, it’s “Kimi no me no hikari ga kieru made nagutte yaru”.
lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
It’s a bit more complicated: if you’re dealing with the sounds it’s transcription, if you’re converting from writing system into another it’s transliteration.
So for example, what you did is transliteration. But if you were to record some Japanese guy speaking and wrote it down (in kanji+kana, Latin, or even IPA), it would be transcription.
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Oh yeah you are right… let me edit it