When translating a work, should you translate everything verbatim or should you change words so that the intent is carried across? This is a question that I have seen arise again and again and, while I have a strong preference on the matter, I thought it might be worth examining the pros and cons of each and why some people might prefer one over the other. While much of this can be applied to any medium that is translated from one language to another, my focus is going to be primarily on manga and anime.
Before we begin analyzing translation, I should first explain that there is no “one true translation” from Japanese to English. Japanese is from the Japonic language family while English is part of the Indo-European language family. Along with the geographical distance between their points of origin, this inherently means that many sentences can be translated in multiple ways and still be correct.
A map of the Japonic language family.
There are many fans who desire a literal translation of everything they watch and will become upset and angry if they discover that a translation has changed some dialogue. While I cannot say this with absolute certainty, my suspicion is that much of this anger comes from back when most anime and manga were censored in the west and not only the dialogue but the entire storyline would be changed until it became nearly unrecognizable.
However, there is an excellent reason to adapt dialogue and that is to maintain the intent in a way that a literal translation might not be able to. To explain this, I usually point to the example provided by Justin Sevakis in this Answerman article. The joke involves the word “stick” (sutikku in Japanese) and its similarity to the word “suteki” (wonderful or lovely in Japanese). The question is whether to translate the joke in a literal manner and lose the humour of it or to create a new joke involving sticks that can be understood by English readers and, thereby, maintain the tone and meaning of the scene.
While particularly easy to apply to jokes or specifically Japanese concepts, adaptive translation applies to the entirety of the translation and can be as simple as making a sentence flow better in English than if it were to be translated literally. There are some extreme examples of adaptive translation (the English dub of Ghost Stories for one) but, in general, the intent is to allow English viewers or readers to enjoy the content in the same way as Japanese audiences.
As might have become clear at this point, my preference is adaptive translation that retains the feeling of the original. However, it is perfectly fine to prefer literal translations once you understand that you may not be getting the full meaning of the original (and as long as you don’t harass professional translators who are doing their best to translate anime and manga in an adaptive manner).
Ultimately, whether or not you prefer literal or adaptive translation is an individual taste. What’s important is to understand why people may prefer one over the other and to engage them in a sensible and polite manner. Let me know which you prefer and why.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk, amazon.com or bookdepository.com for all of your needs!