In Jumping into the Pond, I found it particularly interesting how Carpenter translated the onomatopoeia in Welcome to Mozart. I found it fascinating to read about her thought process for why she selected the words she did for things such as わくわく, どきどき, and もりもり. There are definitely so many subtleties within Japanese onomatopoeia that make it difficult to translate into another language such as English, especially when that language does not utilize onomatopoeia to the same extent.
I also really enjoyed Carpenter’s analogy for translation, when she compared it to a coloring book. She explained, “You’re stuck with this picture that somebody else drew, and you can give life to it in your own way.” I found that to be quite profound, as it provided me with a new way of approaching translation and a new way of viewing the process of translating a piece of work. I also found it extremely interesting when she talked about Arthur Binard translating his own work into English from Japanese. I had never really considered what it would be like to translate something that you had personally written. I feel as though since you know the work better than anybody else, you could get away with omitting or adding more content since you yourself know how you want the story, poem, etc to be received.
From the interview, what I found to be most interesting was the process through which Mizumura, Stephen Shaw, and Carpenter would all develop a rough draft into the final product. I found it fascinating to see how certain parts were cut out, altered, and even put back in the final version. It really showed me how sometimes tedious translating is, but also how organic and fluid the creative process can be.
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