Geisha, Interrupted

when onomatopoeia attack

It has been another day of translating cartoons over on my end. One of the most challenging aspects of this job for me (besides the fact that Japanese doesn't make any sense) is dealing with all the onomatopoeic expressions that are generously sprinkled throughout the dialogues. In fact, I've been having so much trouble with this lately, that I caved in and a bought a dictionary that is for Japanese onomatopaeia exclusively.

Below, I've created a little quiz in hopes that some of you reading (all 2 or 3 of you) can help me discern whether these exclamations have any basis in real noises, or if, as I've always suspected, the Japanese are just weird.

How to play: It's easy! Number a page from 1-6, then match the sound with its description.

Sounds

1) Zaa! Zaa!

2) Bako!

3) Guwaaoo!

4) Gabu-gabu!

5) Gyuu-gyuu!

6) Fuaa!

Descriptions

a) The sound one's mouth makes when chugging a beverage, such as Pepsi Ice Cucumber.

b) A torrential downpour. Most common in typhoon season.

c) The sound made by objects or people as they are pushed far too closely together for comfort. A good place to hear this noise would be on the Yamanote subway line at around 8am.

d) An evil dragon car. It is chasing you.

e) The sound which is emitted when one person throws his slipper at another person, just as the slipper hits the other person square in the head.

f) The sound of a drunken salaryman collapsing into a pail of garbage.

(scroll down for answers)

Answers

1) b

2) e

3) d

4) a

5) c

6) f

So??? How did you do??

Image is nothing, context is everything . . . bring on the winged cats!

Yes, I said "winged cats."  If you've been reading long enough, you'll know that a winged cat was one of the characters in a certain anime proposal that I complained about having to translate from Japanese to English under a tight deadline some months ago.

Since then, a studio here in Tokyo has accepted the proposal and the production has begun for the new series.  This is every bit an occasion to break out the grape juice, since I am the one who gets to translate the new episodes into English. 

Over the past few days, I finished translating the script for the first episode, along with some updated character descriptions.  Since being sold to a major animation studio, the story's overall concept has been tweeked here and there to make the whole thing, on the whole, more like pokemon.  Nonetheless, it was a very interesting script and I enjoyed translating it.

It was far easier this time around, since I already understood the context.  It is always very difficult for me to translate an unfamilliar anime script for the first time, because many situations are so hard to believe that I wonder if I'm not reading the whole thing incorrectly.  Like, I originally had to do a Japanese google image search just to make sure that when the characters for "wing" and "cat" are combined, the resultant expression actually means "a cat with wings"  and not some obscure Japanese saying I know nothing about. 

In the revised character descriptions, an interesting note was added under the heading of of 'the winged cat': she is a lush.  Yes, the winged cat drinks a lot.  I can't even say I'm surprised at this point.  In episode one, the main character has already started stumbling over drunk for comic affect (it's a Japan thing, I think), and I absolutely can't wait until it's the cat's turn.  Maybe she will fly into walls or something.  Hey, just because I don't drink anymore doesn't mean that I can't laugh about it.

This job is fun.

Flame me out of this country for saying this, but I usually don't even like manga/anime. (Well, except for Ranma1/2 and Sakuran.)   Still, I far prefer translating dialogues between cartoon characters over interpreting those between real people, such as talk show hosts and the like. 

The cartoons are just smarter, even when they're drunk. 

My recent translation work has done much to pursuade me that "fantasy" may well be the only form of media here in Japan(istan) where any real social commentary occurs uncensored. I want to elaborate on that claim, but I can't go into much more detail, seeing as most of the programming I translate hasn't aired yet.  I like my new job, and would like to keep it.

trials of a translatrix

The below exerpt is from the script of a recent Japanese television program. It is the most spectacularly fulfilling dialogue I have ever had the fortune to translate from Japanese into English:

S-san :Everyone probably wears this shirt without understanding its meaning. (Points to a Japanese person wearing a T-shirt that reads: "Hysteric Narcotics".)

P-sensei:　 When most foreigners buy T-shirts in other languages, they inquire about the text's meaning. Because in America, the messages on T-shirts are thought to be messages from the heart.

S-san:　Now when we all go shopping, let's find out the meanings on our T-shirts before we buy them!

Students:　OK!

Yes! Yes! Yes!! You finally get it! This is one of those moments of deep cultural understanding that makes me feel like what I'm doing here is all worthwhile. That, or I just wanted a break from the never-ending-transcript. Back to work for me now.

death by translation

Newsflash: japanese is really, really, really hard.

This is all that is going through my mind right now.  I haven't been around for the the past couple days because I somehow agreed to translate a Japanese proposal into English.  The proposal- to adapt a book into an anime series (which, of course, has little in common the actual literature)- was LONG.  A last minute request from the dispatch agency I freelance with, I agreed to translate the whole thing in only two days.  During which time, I have been translating nonstop.  For the few hours I alloted myself for rest last night, I could barely fall asleep.  I kept wondering why I do these things to myself.  The proposal was way too long for me to translate in that amount of time.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I always feel like I have something to prove with respect to translation work.  This is largely because I am a white girl, and people assume every day that I can't speak their language.  Still.  Although I am finished the proposal now, my brain is still floating around in that odd anime land of winged cats, evil fairies, dark lords and (this is my favorite) a dragon that- of neither a solid nor liquid composition- can merge with vehicles to become what is called an Evil Dragon Car.

My head hurts.  I sleep now.