翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』
Translator’s Commentary: Progeny: The Children of the White Lions

土方奈美（モントレー国際大学会議翻訳修士課程修了・翻訳者）

Abstract
This commentary was written as a part of the translation thesis which was submitted in partial
satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation at the Monterey
Institute of International Studies. This paper focuses on the choice of overall strategy andprocedures adopted in translations of fantasy literature. It analyzes in particular translation
procedures used for culture-specific items in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and J. K.
Rowling’s Harry Potter series by translators of various languages in order to examine options
available for such items and their potential effects on target audiences. In addition, this paper
highlights the characteristics of translation strategies employed by Japanese translators throughcomparison with translators of other languages including French and Chinese. Following thisgeneral discussion, the specific strategies and procedures are applied to the translation of thesource text of the thesis.
1. Introduction: Reasons for Selecting the Source Text
This commentary begins with the introduction of the source text and the difficulties I faced
while translating it. Next I discuss the theory and methodology of translation studies, which
informed the translation strategy decisions I made for this project. Following this general
discussion, the specific strategies and procedures are applied to the source text.
The source text for this translation project is Progeny: The Children of the White Lion,

which is a fantasy novel written in 2010 by American author R.T. Kaelin. I found Progeny on
Amazon.com in August 2011. Among the many popular fantasy books on Amazon.com at thattime, I chose Progeny as the subject of my thesis because it preserves the tradition of “highfantasy”. High fantasy, which is also called epic fantasy, is a major subgenre of fantasy andincludes masterpieces such as The Chronicles of Narnia, a series written by C. S. Lewis, and The
Lord of the Rings, a series written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Progeny possesses major characteristics ofhigh fantasy set forth by Attebery (1980); it takes place in an invented, magical world; theprotagonists are ordinary children; it has an abundance of extraordinary secondary characters39

『翻訳研究への招待』8 号

such as elves, orcs, and halfmen; and the plot unfolds around the confrontation between good andevil gods. I believe Progeny is an appropriate sample of material with which to examine some ofthe difficulties typically experienced by translators of high fantasy, such as how to effectivelytranslate objects and concepts that do not exist in reality and how to recreate the otherness of theinvented world in the target language.
2. Difficulties in Translation
Treatment of culture-specific items in fantasy literature. Although several factors
influenced my translation of Progeny, treatment of items or concepts in the source text that do notexist in the target culture was the major challenge I faced while translating Progeny. Scholars oftranslation studies have called such terms by a variety of names, such as cultural terms, culturalreference, culture-specific items, culture-bound items, culture-markers, and realia (e.g., Klingberg,
1986; Leppihalme, 2001; Davis, 2003). The scope of these terms varies depending on thescholars who use them, but there seems to be a broad consensus that they include material items(e.g., food, clothes, flora and fauna) as well as cultural notions and phenomenon (e.g., customs,
institutions, proper names, weights and measures).
Some scholars distinguish fictional cultural elements from real ones in the source text. For
example, Loponen (2009) proposed the term “irrealia” as opposed to realia, and used it to refer toinvented items presented as real in the fictional world but do not exist in the real world. However,she points out that irrealia presents translation problems similar to those related to realia becauseof the factual non-existence of the referred objects and ideas (Loponen, 2009). She emphasized
the importance of rigorous cultural adaptation effort with irrealia, because “in fictional contexts,
irrealia can be seen as the cultural anchors of the fictional culture, creating implicit and explicit
references that can define the fictional culture on multiple simultaneous levels” (Loponen, 2009,p.5) . Other scholars do not make a distinction between real and fictional items in their discussionof cultural references as long as those items exist in the source text but are unknown to the target
readers (e.g., Klingberg, 1986; Franco, 1996; Davis, 2003). For example, Franco’s definition ofculture-specific items is very broad and does not limit its scope to real items:
Those textuary actualized items whose function and connotations in a source text involvea translation problem in their transference to a target text, whenever this problem is a
product of the nonexistence of the referred item or of its different intertextual status in
the cultural system of the readers of the target text (Franco, 1996, p. 57).
In this paper, I will use the term “culture-specific items” (henceforth CSIs) to refer to both realand fictional culture-bound items, because they both require cultural adaptation efforts due totheir non-existence in the target culture.
As Franco (1996) points out, a CSI does not exist by itself in isolation, but exists as a result of40

翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』

a difference between the source culture and the target culture. Therefore, when the gap between
the two cultures is wide, CSIs tend to be abundant and more difficult to translate. Whiletranslating Progeny, I had to deal with a number of CSIs, some of which were unique toAmerican culture, where the author is from, while others were unique to the invented world. I
believe treatment of CSIs in translation of children’s books requires special attention because of
the limited capacity of its readership: Children have less knowledge about foreign culture andtheir ability to understand unfamiliar concepts is limited compared to adults. Strategy decisions
made by translators regarding CSIs are important because they can have a great impact on thereadability of the target text for young readers.
3. Research Required for Translation
Studies on translation strategies and procedures. Before starting a translation project anddealing with individual CSIs, it is prudent for a translator to decide the overall translation strategy
for the translation project as a whole. The overall translation strategy can be described as adecision between which of two basic goals of translation should have priority: that of preserving
the characteristics of the source text as much as possible or that of producing a target text which
seems natural and easy to read. Some scholars have labeled these two goals differently: Toury(1995a) distinguishes adequacy from acceptability; and Venuti (1995) refers to foreignization anddomestication. An adequacy-oriented or foreignization approach places importance on thefaithfulness to the source text, while an acceptability-oriented or domestication approachprioritizes readability of the target text over faithfulness to the source. The choice between
adequacy (foreignization) and acceptability (domestication) is not a binary decision. Davis (2003),
among others, points out that those two aims are at opposite ends of a continuum and alltranslations are situated somewhere between the two endpoints.
It is important for translators to be conscious of the location of their translation projects on thistheoretical continuum, whether it is closer to the adequacy end or the acceptability end. It will
help the translator to make better decisions when faced with multiple choices for translating aword or a phrase. Lack of such an overall strategy may result in excessive inconsistency in thetarget text, such as choosing different translation procedures for the same category of CSIs for no
good reason. Even though it is not possible or even necessary to adhere to a particular translation
procedure throughout a text, there are instances in which consistent treatment of CSIs based on an
overall managing strategy is highly desirable. As I will explain in detail later in this paper, J. R. R.
Tolkien was especially concerned about the consistent treatment of proper names in translationsof The Lord of the Rings, which led him to issue a guide for translators. Tolkien was afraid that
ad-hoc decisions on translations of such terms would undermine coherence of the fictional world
which he had devoted a considerable amount of time and effort in constructing (Turner, 2005).
In an effort to produce a translation with reasonable coherence and avoid issues like that raisedby Tolkien, it is important to understand the influences various translation strategies can have on41

『翻訳研究への招待』8 号

any translation project. In order to determine the translation strategy for Progeny, I referred to
Skopos theory and Descriptive Translation Studies and considered their implications for thetranslation strategy of children’s fantasy literature.
Skopos theory. The Skopos theory proposed by Hans Vermeer (e.g., Vermeer, 1989) purportsthat the dominant factor to consider for a translation project is the purpose of the target text
(Skopos is a Greek word which means “purpose”). The innovativeness and significance of thetheory lies in the fact that it denies the superiority of the source text over the target text. Instead, it
allows for the target text to have a different purpose from the one in the source text and accepts
the purpose of the target text to preside over the translation process.
The implication of this theory is that in order to determine the overall translation strategy ofchildren’s fantasy, it is necessary to identify the Skopos of the target text. Klingberg (1986)
argues that there are four pedagogical goals when children’s books are translated: (1) to makemore literature available to children, (2) to further international outlook and understanding of theyoung readers, (3) to give the readers a text that they can understand, and (4) to contribute to thedevelopment of the readers’ set of values. Klingberg (1986) maintains that goals (1) and (2)require close adherence to the original text, while (3) and (4) require cultural context adaptation
to facilitate understanding or to modify the content so that it conforms to the set of values of thetarget culture. In other words, goals (1) and (2) require more adequacy-oriented translation or
foreignization of the target text, while (3) and (4) require more acceptability-oriented translation,or domestication.
Due to such plurality of Skopos in translation of children’s fantasy literature, there is an
ongoing debate among translation scholars pertaining to the appropriate approach for dealing
with CSIs in children’s literature. Van Coillie (2006) points out that some translators advocatethat “translators can choose to modify foreign names because they think that children do nottolerate foreign elements in texts as well as adults.... Others are radically opposed to thisapproach.” (p.133) Some translators argue that it is necessary to moderate certain alienating
elements to enhance the understanding of child readers, while others claim that unfamiliar words
are an indispensable part of reading and children will tolerate difficulties if the story is exciting
enough (Van Coillie, 2006). Such variance indicates that translation of children’s fantasy can beadequacy-oriented or acceptability-oriented, depending on which of the abovementioned goals
has more priority in the particular translation project.
Descriptive Translation Studies. Gideon Toury led the development of Descriptive
Translation Studies (DTS). Whereas preceding translation studies were mainly prescriptive, thefocus of DTS is to describe actual translation practices and identify and investigate norms that
control those practices. Toury (1995b) argues that translation is a norm-governed activity, andtranslation behavior within a culture tends to manifest certain regularities. He says that deviation
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翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』

from the norm is possible, but the price for selecting the option may be “severe to the point oftaking away one’s earned recognition as a translator; which is precisely why non-normative
behavior tends to be the exception, in actual practice”(p. 206).
Desmidt (2006) points out that all translators are confronted with a wide variety of norms,
some of which are conflicting. The situation, however, is especially complex for translators ofchildren’s literature because they are not only governed by general translational norms(source-text related norms, literary and aesthetic norms, business norms), but also by genre
specific norms such as didactic, pedagogical and technical norms (p. 86). For example,
source-text related norms would require allegiance to the original text, while pedagogical norms
might require adjustment to the language skills as well as the conceptual knowledge of thechildren. Accordingly, it is “very hard, if not impossible, to do justice to all partners involved andthe norms they impose” (Desmidt, 2006, p. 87). Bearing in mind these types of conditions
surrounding translators of children’s literature, in the next section, I will examine some ofdescriptive studies on the treatment of CSIs in children’s fantasy as well as examples of Japanesetranslations of children’s fantasy in order to identify translation strategy employed by translatorsof the genre.
Treatment of CSIs by translators of fantasy literature. In this section, I will examine thetreatment of CSIs by translators of various languages. One of the purposes of this section is to
examine various translation options available and their potential effects on the target audience.
Another aim is to highlight the characteristics of translation strategies employed by Japanesetranslators through comparison with translators of other languages.
Treatment of CSIs in The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien was amilestone in children’s fantasy. Attebery (1980) maintains that “indeed, no important work offantasy written after Tolkien is free of his influence and many are merely halting imitations of his
style and substance” (p. 10). The Lord of the Rings was translated into Japanese by Teiji Seta in
the 1970s. Seta, a well-known author and critic of children’s literature, was also the translator of
The Chronicles of Narnia series. Seta repeatedly received prestigious literary awards in Japan1,
and he is regarded as a pioneer in the genre of children’s books in post-war Japan (“Seta Teiji,”n.d.). Given these facts, it is assumed that Seta contributed to the formation and enhancement of
the norms in translation of children’s literature in Japan. Seta’s translation of The Lord of theRings was revised in the early 1990s by Akiko Tanaka, who was a partner of Seta during theoriginal translation, in order to adjust some errors and expressions that had become obsolete.
Turner (2005) compares the translation of CSIs in The Lord of the Rings in various languages
1

Examples include 産経児童文学出版文化賞 (Sankei Jidou Shuppan Bunka Sho , Sankei Children’s Book Award.
http://www.eventsankei.jp/child_award/old_prize.html) in 1963 and 1966 as well as 日本翻訳文化賞 (Nihon Honyaku
Bunka Sho, Japan Translation Culture Award. http://www.japan-s-translators.org/sub4.html) in 1975.

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and points out that the notable fact about the translation of The Lord of the Rings is that Tolkien,
who was a linguist and translator himself, issued guidance to translators about the treatment ofproper names. Tolkien considered the nomenclature his intellectual property and showed strong
dissatisfaction when Dutch and Swedish translators modified proper names. After his death,
Tolkien’s instructions were published by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1975 under the title“Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings.” According to Turner (2005), the guide begins
with a very clear prescription declaring that “All names not in the following list should be leftentirely unchanged in any language used in translation” (p. 49). Turner believes that Tolkien’s
note had a great influence on the decision-making of the translators.
According to Turner, Tolkien basically advises translators to translate the meaningful elements
and leave others untouched. That means, names that are meaningful in modern English should betranslated, while names that have meanings in Old English or other archaic languages should not
be translated. For example, as for locations in Rohan, one of the countries in the story, Tolkien
explains the philological background, and recommends translating the transparent elements but
leaving the Celtic derivatives untranslated because they no longer have a recognizable meaning in
English (Turner, 2005, p. 109). Accordingly, place names such as Folde and Fenmarch in Rohanremained as Folde and Fenmark, respectively, in the German translation, and were rendered as leForde and le Fenmarche, respectively, in the French version. Turner points out that all translators
examined (i.e., French, German, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish) followed Tolkien’s
instructions rather faithfully, even though there is difference in the degree.
In the Japanese version, Seta also followed Tolkien’s instructions faithfully, and extensively
domesticated the place names with apparent meanings. Thus, Middle Earth became 中つ国(nakatsu-kuni, middle land), Hobbiton became ホビット村 (Hobbit-mura, Hobbit village) and
Bywater became 水の辺村 (Mizunobe-mura, Waterside village) . In contrast, names with opaquemeanings are transliterated using katakana, the Japanese phonetic alphabet commonly used towrite foreign names. As a result, among place names in the Japanese version of The Lord of theRings, there is a mixture of Japanese and foreign names.
With regard to other CSIs not covered by Tolkien’s instruction, Seta also localized them. For
example, squibs, crackers, backarappers, sparklers, claps used in a birthday party in the originaltext were localized as 爆竹 (bakuchiku, firecracker), かんしゃく玉 (kanshaku-dama, cracker),
百雷 (hyakurai, Hundred Thunders), 流星 (ryusei, meteor), 炬火 (roka, flare in fireplace)respectively. The first two are traditional Japanese firecrackers, while the other three are made up
by Seta and sound like the names of Japanese fireworks.
It seems that Seta followed Tolkien’s instructions as faithfully as possible, although it is
impossible to unconditionally confirm this without further investigation. What is clearly apparent
is that there is a strong inclination to localize the CSIs to make the target text familiar to theJapanese children. The same strategy is observed in his translation of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Rumblebuffin, a giant who appears in the first book became ご ろ ご ろ 八 郎 太
44

翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』(Goro-goro-hachirouta, Rumbling Eighth Boy), a very old-fashioned Japanese name. In thetranslator’s acknowledgement, Seta explained his translation policy as follows:
I tried to represent the original author’s intention faithfully. As for proper nouns,
however, I simplified unfamiliar ones and gave decidedly comical translation tomeaningful names. Also, unfamiliar items such as a dessert called Turkish Delight was
substituted with pudding (Seta, 1992, p. 275, translated by the author).
Treatment of CSIs in Harry Potter series. It is difficult to dispute that the Harry Potter series
by J. K. Rowling is one of the most successful children’s fantasy of all times. Referring to the factthat the Harry Potter books have been translated into more than forty languages within the spanof five years, Davis (2003) points out that the series offers the opportunity to compare thestrategies adopted in the different translations. According to Davis, what makes such comparison
especially interesting is the abundance of culture-specific content. She states that “Without doubt
the books offer a rich source of material for anyone interested in looking at how professionaltranslators choose to deal with culture specific content” (p. 65).
In order to gather examples of treatment of CSIs in Harry Potter series in various languages, I
referred to Davis (2003), Feral (2006), and Liang (2007). All of these works are based on themethodology of DTS: Davis examines the treatment of CSIs mainly in French and Germantranslations, Feral examines the French version, and Liang examines the Taiwanese version. As
for the treatment of CSIs in the Japanese translation, I referred to the Japanese version of the first
volume of the series ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 (Harry Potter- to-Kenja-no- ishi, Harry Potter
and the Philosopher’s Stone) by Yuko Matsuoka published in 1999.
A number of scholars have proposed taxonomies designed specifically for treatments of CSIs.
Klingberg (1986) proposed ten “ways to effect cultural context adaptation” (p. 18). Newmark(1988) distinguished twelve and Franco (1996) proposed eleven procedures, respectively, fortranslating CSIs. Davis (2003) offered a taxonomy which consists of seven procedures for dealing
with CSIs. There is great similarity among these taxonomies, but while Klingberg and Franco
rank the procedures according to their degree of adaptation to the target culture, Davis (2003)
argues that there is not a clear correlation between the use of a particular procedure and thedegree of adaptation obtained in the target text. In this paper I will adopt Davis’ taxonomy
because it is widely adopted among studies on treatment of CSIs in Harry Potter translations.
Davis’s taxonomy consists of the following seven categories: preservation, addition, omission,
globalization, localization, transformation and creation. I created Table 1 to clarify Davis’s
taxonomy.

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Table 1 Davis’s Taxonomy of Translation Procedures for Culture-Specific Items
Procedure

Explanation

Note

Preservation

The source text term is maintained.

e.g., Porridge in English

It is also considered as preservation when original text is reproduced
the actual source text word is not preserved, as

porridgeinFrenchbut a cultural reference receives a literal translation.
translation with no further explanation.
Addition

The source text term is preserved but Information can be inserted
supplemented with information judged in the text or provided innecessary when simple preservation may footnotes.
lead to obscurity.

Omission

A CSI is omitted from the text.

Globalization

A CSI is replaced with a term that is more e.g., Mars bars becomesgeneral or ‘culture-free,’ so as to make it barresdechocolat

accessible to audience from different (chocolate bar) in French.
cultural background.
Localization

A CSI is replaced with a target text term e.g.,that is familiar to the audience.

Christmas

cakebecomes buches de Noel

Modification of proper names is also (Christmas logs) in French.
considered as instances of localization.
Transformation

A CSI is modified to the extent that it is Harry

Potterandseen as an alternation or distortion of the Philosopher’soriginal.

the
Stone

becomes Harry Potter à
l’Ecole des Sorciers (Harry
Potter in the school ofSorcerers) in French.

Creation

A CSI that is not present in the source text
is created by a translator.

Note. This table is created for this paper by the author and is based on Davis (2003).

Further collection and analysis of data is necessary to perform a more comprehensive
examination of translation strategies employed by these translators. However, there are a few
noteworthy observations from the examination. It is clear from the abovementioned referencesthat all translators examined (i.e., French, German, Taiwanese, Japanese) resort to different kindsof translation procedures throughout the target text. After examining examples of translations offood items, which are typically British, it is clear that translators make situational decisions
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翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』

regardless of the overall translation strategy. As for the term porridge, a traditional English
breakfast menu in the source text, the French translator chose the “preservation” procedure andput porridge in the target French text. The Japanese translator chose to “localize” by changing it
to お粥 (okayu, rice porridge), which is similar but not exactly the same as English porridge. On
the other hand, as for Yorkshire pudding that appears in a banquet at Harry’s school, the Frenchtranslator opts to simply omit the term (omission), while the Japanese translator resorts to“preservation” by transliterating it as ヨークシャープディング (Yokusha-puddingu ). As for Mars
Bars in the source text, which is a popular chocolate bar brand in Britain, the French translator
resorts to “globalization” by changing it to barres de chocolat (chocolate bar). The Japanesetranslator resorts to a combination of “preservation” and “addition” by translating it as マーズ・チョコレート・バー(Mazu Chokoreito Ba, Mars Chocolate Bar).

Davis points out that “similar examples may be dealt with sometimes one way and sometimes
another” (Davis, 2003, p. 96). Toury (1995b) also justifies these seemingly ad-hoc decisions bytranslators by saying “in cases where an overall choice has been made, it is not necessary thatevery single lower-level decision be made in full accord with it….It is unrealistic to expect
absolute regularities anyway, in any behavioral domain” (p. 201).
Another finding is that, even though each translator resorts to a variety of translation
procedures for CSIs, there seems to be a tendency or preference that is peculiar to each language
version in comparison to others. This may be regarded as representation of the norms present in
the particular target culture as well as representation of personal preference of the translator. Feral(2006) asserts that “In the light of the ideological and cultural reality of the receiving corpus,
patterns of translation techniques do appear” (p. 459). The most prominent case is the French
version, where the translator aggressively modifies the source text to produce a target text that is
acceptable to the target readers. For example, the translator goes as far as creating an exchange
between main characters to explain the meaning of the term “prefect.” Prefect is a CSI that refers
to a head student in British public schools. When his friend Ron first refers to the term “prefect,”the French Harry asks what it is, and Ron gives long explanation. This exchange does not exist in
the original text. Also, the French translator often omits words and even sentences that he finds
unnecessary or pedagogically unsuitable for children.
Another interesting case is the mainland Chinese version. According to Davis (2003), Chinesetranslators tend to use the combination of preservation and addition. Davis (2003) states:
The mainland Chinese translators make extensive use of footnotes to explain English
terms which are simply transliterated in the text, and evidently expect children to pause
and consult these in order to make sense of what would otherwise be completely
unfathomable terms (p. 77).
For example, when there is a reference to Dundee, a city in Scotland in the original text, the47

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Chinese translator transliterates the name of the city, and indicates the location in the footnote.
Compared to translators of other languages, Yuko Matsuoka, the Japanese translator is rather
faithful to the original text. Omission of CSIs is hardly found and localization is less common in
the Japanese version compared to other versions. Preservation, either by transliteration or literaltranslation, seems to be the preferred method in the Japanese version. A telling example is thetreatment of an old British song. When Harry starts receiving letters from Hogwarts, the wizard
school, his uncle becomes nervous and boards up every door of the house. Then he sings “Tiptoe
through the Tulips,” pretending to be relaxed. Davis (2003) explains that “Tiptoe through the
Tulips” is a decidedly old-fashioned song from 1968, which has untrendy connotations. The
French translator completely omits the sentence that describes the uncle singing. The Germantranslator localizes by substituting the song with an old German hit. Matsuoka literally translates
the title of the song as チューリップ畑を忍び足 (Chulippu-batake-wo-shinobi-ashi, Tip-toe in the
Tulip field), which is a way of preservation according to Davis’ definition. Also, when theoriginal text refers to a British children’s game “musical statues,” the Taiwanese translator
localizes it to 大風吹(Da-feng-chui), a well-known childhood game of the target culture. In
contrast, Matsuoka literally translates the name of the game and adds an explanation as 「動いたら負け」というゲーム (ugoitara-make-to-iu-geimu, a game named ‘you lose if you move’), which

by Davis’ definition is a combination of preservation and addition.
Matsuoka’s tendency to preserve is most prominent in the treatment of the proper nouns,
including personal names and place names. The name of Harry Potter himself tends to remain
untranslated in all translations partly because it is a registered trademark. On the other hand,names of other characters are often changed, especially when they have semantic meanings. For
example, Moony becomes Luna in Norweigian and Lunard in French. Davis (2003) points outthat “where a name contains clearly recognizable descriptive elements, translators opt to preserve
the descriptive meaning of a name rather than its form, and use literal translation” (p. 75). Even
with proper names that have no semantic meanings, translators of European languages oftenchoose to localize in order to make them look more familiar to the target readers. Thus, Minerva
McGonagall’s surname becomes McSnurp in Norwegian, McGranitt in Italian, McGarmiva in
Finnish and McGalagony in Hungarian. Cees Buddingh, the Dutch translator of the Harry Potter
series, stated that originally she kept all of English names and references, but as a result a lot of
the humor was lost, so she decided to make the names Dutch-sounding and thereby making
things more comical (cited in Van Coillie, 2006, p. 136).
On the other hand, Matsuoka transliterates all proper names using katakana. Davis (2003)
states:Japanese children, for instance, are apparently quite used to coping with sometimes
long and unwieldy transliterations of English names, and the translator of the series,
Yuko Matsuoka, has followed this convention; for such readers, it would perhaps be48

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quite surprising to come across characters with authentically Japanese-sounding names
functioning within a clearly British context” (p. 76).
Transliteration of proper nouns in Japan has not always been the norm, as discussed previously,
but Toury (1995b) makes it clear that the norms are subject to change.
Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that there is a notable exception to Matsuoka’s tendency
to preserve the original text: the nomenclature related to measurement. In the Harry Potter series,
Matsuoka consistently converts “inches” and “feet” in the original text into “centimeters” and“meters,” respectively, in order to match the standard measurement system in Japan. I believe
Matsuoka’s decision to convert “inches” into “centimeters” was appropriate, because it enabled
Japanese young people to visualize Harry’s world better by showing, for example, the length of
his magic wand.
Findings. It has been observed that translators of all languages resort to various translation
procedures when they deal with CSIs in a single project. Adherence to particular procedures does
not seem to be a priority, and translators seem to make situational decisions whenever they are
confronted with a CSI. Japanese translators are no exception with regard to this tendency.
In addition, through comparison of translation procedures adopted in the Japanese translationsof The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, it became clear that the preferred procedures aredifferent: Seta tends to localize CSIs while Matsuoka tends to preserve them. This observation
might represent the fact that compared to the 1970s when Seta translated The Lord of the Rings,
Japanese readers of fantasy books became more accustomed to foreign sounding words in the
2000s when Matsuoka translated Harry Potter series. One interesting point is that, even though
Matsuoka was more inclined to choose “preservation” than Seta, Matsuoka’s translation has been
severely criticized for making Harry Potter “too Japanese.” These criticisms mainly come fromavid fans of the Harry Potter series, and there are a number of websites that claim the exotic
atmosphere in the original text was lost because of Matsuoka’s inappropriate translation2. Her
renditions of CSIs, especially those of fictional items, are among factors that are criticized.
When translating fictional items, Matsuoka often created new expressions by combining
Japanese words, trying to reproduce the author’s intended meaning of the original term. For
example, house elf was rendered as 屋敷しもべ妖精 (yashiki-shimobe-yousei, house servant elf)and Pepperup Potion as 元気爆発薬 (genki-bakuhatsu-yaku, vibrancy explosion potion). As
shown earlier in Table 1, Davis considers the literal translation of the original term “preservation”.
Therefore, it seems appropriate to categorize Matsuoka’s approach to translation of these terms as“preservation”. Critiques of Matsuoka’s translation, however, argue that these renditions distortthe image of the original words. Such critiques might categorize Matsuoka’s translation as“transformation” rather than “preservation” in Davis’s taxonomy.
Examples of such websites include the following: http://www.geocities.jp/tomo_38jp/top.htm;
http://www.geocities.jp/hendayo_hp/shiteki.html
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Criticism of Matsuoka’s translation might imply that some Japanese fantasy readers prefer atarget text that deliberately preserves the atmosphere of the original text. In order to respond tosuch an audience, a translation strategy that is closer to the adequacy end of the aforementioned
continuum rather than the acceptability end may be appropriate. Severe criticism toward
Matsuoka’s version can be considered general disapproval against a translator who did not fulfill
the expectation from the target culture, which, as mentioned earlier, Toury (1995b) cautions
against. However, severe criticism itself does not mean that Matsuoka’s renditions were
inappropriate. Firstly, most of criticism against Matsuoka’s translation is not methodological andshould be regarded as subjective judgment. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, translators ofchildren’s literature are faced with a variety of norms that are sometimes conflicting. Matsuoka
seems to have made a deliberate decision to prioritize readability to satisfy one of those norms.
Alvstad (2010) points out that most studies on culture-specific phenomena in translations ofchildren’s literature show that there is a certain loss for the child reader when cultural phenomena
are reproduced without context adaptation. Alvstad maintains that these findings point to a needfor cultural context adaptation in translation for children.
For translators of children’s fantasy in Japan, it is important to be aware of the
expectation from fantasy fans to preserve the exotic atmosphere of the original text as well as thepertinent need of young readers for familiar and accessible texts.
4. Translation Strategy
Strategy for translating CSIs in Progeny. In this section, I will describe the strategy I
adopted for translating CSIs in Progeny. For the purposes of this study, I have divided the CSIs in
Progeny into the following categories: place names, personal names, Oaken Duchies language,and units of measure. I have chosen a translation strategy for each of the group based on thefindings from preceding discussion, which I will describe in the subsequent subsections.
Place names. This group includes names of countries and cities (e.g., Oaken Duchies, Great
Lake Duchy, Yellow Mud, Smithhill) as well as names of geographical features, such as rivers,
lakes, roads, and mountains. Most place names in Progeny carry meaningful connotations; thus,
literal translation is one option, which as mentioned earlier, is the strategy employed by Seta in
The Lord of the Rings. Literal translation would help Japanese readers to visualize the setting of
the story better, because most Japanese children would not understand the intended meaning of“oak” or “yellow mud” unless the terms are translated. Examination of the Harry Pottertranslation, however, shows that another acceptable option is to preserve proper nouns because
this strategy will maintain foreign atmosphere of the original text.
Considering these examples, I opted to combine both approaches: I transliterated major place
names with katakana and added the Japanese translation in the form of rubi (Japanese ruby
黄

色

い

泥

むら

characters). For example, the village of Yellow Mud was rendered as イエローマッド 村(ierou-maddo-mura, Yellow Mud village). In this way, I could convey the meaning of the names
50

翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』

while maintaining an exotic feeling. Because overuse of rubi makes the target text look cluttered,
I used this form only when the name appeared for the first time in the text. Names of lakes, rivers
and roads were judged to be of secondary importance and were literally translated to avoid
overuse of rubi and convey the images of these places. Thus, White Falls became 白き滝(shiroki-taki, White Fall), Sea of Kings became 王者の海 (Ouja-no-umi, sea of kings), andSouthern Road became 南街道 (minami-kaidou, southern road).
Personal names. All personal names were transliterated using katakana per the discussion in
the previous section. Personal names include the names of protagonists and secondary charactersas well as gods and goddess. They are decidedly non-American names (i.e., Nikalys, Kenders,Jak, Taddeus, Broedi, Sutri, Maeana), and it seems that Kaelin, the author, is trying to create asense of otherness through this nomenclature. Simple transliteration of these names may not
reproduce the same degree of otherness which American readers would feel, but at least there islittle doubt that the transliterated names sound exotic to Japanese readers.
Oaken Duchies language. In order to emphasize that the story takes place in an invented
world, Kaelin occasionally inserts words or expressions that are not used in standard English or
used in a way that deviates from the standard use. I have termed this non-standard language use“Oaken Duchies language.”
Examples include seventhday (Sunday), yearday (birthday), turn (season), firestick (match),and red fosseride (red phosphorus). Even though they are not used in standard English, theintended meanings are sufficiently transparent because an average English reader would likely
understand their meanings. I opted to translate them into Japanese, but deliberately avoided using
standard Japanese words in order to reproduce the sense of otherness Kaelin tried to convey. Also,
I tried to invent words that sound archaic because I believe it was the effect intended by theauthor. Thus, seventhday became 第七曜日(dai-nana-youbi, seventh day), yearday became 歳め
ぐりの日(toshi-meguri-no-hi, year turning day), turn became 暦 (koyomi, calender), firestick

became 火 お こ し 棒 (hiokoshi-bou, fire-starting stick), and red fosseride became 赤 き 炭(akaki-sumi, red coal).

According to Davis’ (2003) taxonomy, this approach is considered “preservation,” as CSIs
receive literal translations with no further explanation. This approach is in accordance with one
adopted by Matsuoka when she translated uniquely British items in Harry Potter books.
What turned out to be particularly difficult were idioms that do not exist in standard English. In
the original text, the characters occasionally exclaim “Nine Hells!” or “Gods!” They are derived
from English idioms “Hell!” or “God!”, but made into plural forms to represent polytheism in theinvented world. “Hell!” may be translated as ちくしょう (chikushou) or くそ (kuso)3, and “God!”may be rendered as やれやれ (yareyare) or なんてこった (nante-kotta)4. It is impossible to turn
These are renditions offered in the popular online dictionary 英辞郎 on the WEB (Eijiro on the WEB),
retrieved on March 22, 2012. http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=Hell
4 These are also renditions offered in the online dictionary 英辞郎 on the WEB (Eijiro on the WEB),
retrieved on March 22, 2012. http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=God
3

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them into plural forms because there is no distinction between singular and plural forms inJapanese. Because polytheism is clearly presented through other parts of the narrative, I opted totranslate these idioms in the same way as their conventional English versions.
The units of measure. The units of measure used in Progeny are inches and feet. For example,
when wizards create a gigantic water creature to destroy the village of Yellow Mud, it isexplained that the creature was at least two hundred feet tall and at least a quarter of a mile wide.
Most Japanese readers would not be able to imagine the size of the water creature if the height
and width are expressed in feet and miles. Therefore, I opted to convert the numbers in meters tomatch the metric system commonly used in Japan. Klingberg (1986) argues that formallyincorrect translation of measures is sometimes acceptable, since they are only approximate:
C.S. Lewis’ “more than ten miles away from the great temple in Tashbaan” (The Horseand His Boy) is in the Swedish target text rendered as “more than a mil,” that is, morethan 10 kms. Ten miles is of course about 16 kms, but Lewis here means a radius within
which Rabadash can move freely, and there is no necessity for an exact translation (p.
54).
Considering Klingberg’s proposition as well as readability in Japanese, I did not place too muchemphasis on the mathematical correctness of the conversion. If I were to convert a quarter of amile into meters, for example, it becomes 402.3 meters. As readers are generally accustomed toseeing round numbers in narratives, they might consider the number as having a special meaning
if I wrote 402.3 meters or even 400 meters. Such an exact number is not an appropriate
translation because “a quarter of a mile” in the source text is a rough estimate of the size of thewater creature and a round number. Therefore, as a translation of “a quarter of a mile” in thiscontext, I opted to write “500 meters,” which is actually 0.31 miles. With the same logic, when
the original text says “more than a mile away”, I translated it as “more than 1 km away” (優に 1 キロ以上は離れた, yuni-ichikiro-ijou-wa-hanareta) instead of the mathematically correct “1.6 km

away.”
5. Other Problems
Difficulties arising from cultural difference. In Progeny, there were some instances where
direct translation from the source text would have produced a target text that appears unnatural inlight of the conventions of the target culture. For example, in the original text the author always
writes “Mother and Father.” In Japanese, when both parents are referred to, it is usually Father
that comes first. Also, the way people address one another is different from culture to culture. In
the source text, a father calls to his son saying “son”, and a mother calls her son “my little
gentleman,” both of which would sound strange if literally translated into Japanese. In such cases,in order to ensure readability for the target reader, I opted for domestication and modified the52

翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』

source text in accordance with the target culture.
Difficulties arising from differences in language systems. Because of differences in the
English and Japanese language systems, deliberate efforts were required to ensure naturalness andreadability in the target text while respecting the meaning of the source text. For example, in thesource text, past tense is used consistently in accordance with the convention of English language.
If all the sentences are translated into Japanese using past tense, however, the target text would
give an excessively monotonous impression. To overcome this problem, Japanese translators
have opted to mix present tense with past tense in the target text (e.g., Tenma, 1997; Miyawaki,
2000; Kotaka, 2001). In accordance with this convention, I basically opted to use the past tense in
the target text when a sentence in the source text described an action by a character (e.g., “Twofigures braved the day, hurrying up a sloping hill,” p. 1) and used present tense in the target text
for a source text sentence that described a state in the past (e.g., “Small bushes with yellowing,
crisped-edged leaves … littered the right side of the path,” p. 1).
Another major difference between English and Japanese is the treatment of the subject. In
English, each sentence basically has to have a subject. In Japanese sentences, on the other hand,subjects are often omitted when they are obvious from the context. To ensure naturalness of thetarget text, I did not translate the subject in the source text where it was obvious from the context.
For example, when the original text read “Leading the pair was a young man in his seventeenthsummer, caught between being a boy and a man. He was tall and a little lanky,” I omitted thesubject in the second sentence in the target text.
Overall, I believe I succeeded in respecting the conventions of the target culture in the
production of the target text. One notable exception is the treatment of paragraphs. It is often said
that the length of paragraphs in English literature is longer than that of Japanese counterparts (e.g.,
Miyawaki, 2000; Kotaka, 2001, Inoue, 2004). Some editors advise translators to break up longparagraphs based on the assumption that long paragraphs are tiring for the reader. On the other
hand, there is an argument that the original form of paragraphs should be maintained because it
represents the original author’s intentions (e.g., Miyawaki, 2000; Kotaka, 2001). Miyawaki(2000) argues that sense of urgency in well-written English texts is often lost in Japanesetranslations because of ad-hoc paragraph-chopping by the translator. In Progeny, there are someparagraphs that continue for more than ten lines, which make its Japanese translation at least as
long, undermining readability to some extent. Considering the possible side-effects ofmanipulating paragraph settings, however, I have chosen to reproduce the paragraph settings in
the original text consistently, except for remarks of the characters which are conventionally
written on new lines in Japanese texts.
Choice of writing style. The writing of Japanese is generally divided into two distinct styles:
the formal form (敬体, keitai) and the assertive form (常体, joutai). The formal style carries asofter and more formal impression and, as a result, books for small children are mostly written inthis style. The assertive form is more laconic and commonly used in texts aimed at adult readers.
53『翻訳研究への招待』8 号

For example, the first sentence of Progeny (“The day was unbearably hot.”) can be rendered as
どうしようもなく暑い日でした。 (doushiyoumo-naku-atsui-hi-deshita.) in the formal style and どう
しようもなく暑い日だった。(doushiyoumo-naku-atsui-hi-datta.) in the assertive form. They bothconvey exactly the same meanings, but give completely different impressions: the former israther benign and laid-back whereas the latter is curt and more direct. The choice between the twostyles is significant as it greatly influences the overall impression of the translated texts.
In the past, children’s fantasy books were often translated using the formal form, presumably
aiming to produce a friendly tone for a young audience. For instance, The Lord of the Rings andthe The Chronicles of Narnia series were both translated using the formal form in the 1970s and1980s, respectively. On the other hand, the Harry Potter series, which was first translated into
Japanese in 1999, was published in the assertive form. Fujimoto (2009) points out that thedistinction between juvenile and adult literature markets has been blurred since the foreign
fantasy boom triggered by the success of Harry Potter series in the early 2000s. The fact that
fantasy books came to be regarded as products aimed not only at children but also at adults
should affect the choice of style, and it is likely that the more direct assertive form would be
preferred over the amiable formal form.
To determine which style to use in the translation of Progeny, I conducted a research project
wherein 13 Japanese people of various ages read two versions of the translation of Progeny, one
using the formal form and the other using the assertive form. Among 13 participants, four werechildren (all nine years old boys) and nine were adults (seven women and two men from their 20s
to 70s). Of all participants, ten readers (three child readers and seven adult readers) said they
liked the assertive form better while two readers (two adult readers, both female) said they
preferred the formal form, and one reader (one child reader) said there was no difference in thereadability of the two versions. One interesting finding was that out of four children who
participated, three said they preferred the assertive form to the formal form. They were all nine
years old, which meant they would be among the youngest in the supposed readership of a
fantasy book of more than 600 pages. The participants in this research are too few to draw any
definite conclusion, but the study may suggest that choosing the formal form does not necessarycontribute to enhanced readability for a young audience. Considering this finding as well as thecontent of Progeny, which deals with a clash between the good and the evil, I opted for theassertive form over the formal form.
.........................................................................
【著者紹介】
土方奈美（HIJIKATA Nami）:2012 年 5 月、モントレー国際大学翻訳修士課程修了。フリーランス翻訳者。
主な訳書はケン・オーレッタ著『グーグル秘録：完全なる破壊』（文藝春秋、2010 年）、デビッド・キャリー、
ジョン・Ｅ・モリス著『ブラックストーン』（東洋経済新報社、2011 年）。
...................................................................................

54

翻訳者コメンタリー：『白き獅子の継承者』

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The