The nature of translation is that nuance will be lost. You want the text to be understood by people who live within a different cultural context and in a language with different sentence structures, idioms, and that sometimes just cannot convey all of the nuances and connotations in the original text. Reading this text in its original language, however clumsily and slowly I’m doing it, is shedding light on all of the color and connotation I’ve been missing. And I feel like I’m getting to know (and falling in love with) these characters all over again.
Tag Archives: hiragana
Piano no Mori – No Discussion Needed
Lots of new kanji here, and also a fun phrase. もちろん(mochiron) is a super common Japanese phrase that means “of course”. The phrase is generally written in kana, but does have associated kanji: 勿論(chi: wu4lun4). The phrase literally means “do not discuss it,” or, in English, “to go without saying.”
Japanese Etymology: Piano no Mori
I find the etymology of Japanese words super interesting, partly because it helps me remember my vocab, and partly for its own sake. I’m going to try to work my way through translating the first volume of Piano no Mori, a manga about two boys of very different backgrounds who grow up playing the piano. I love this story, and I hope that will motivate me to put time into this project. Just on the first page, we see quite a few interesting etymologies. 宮 (miya) means palace or shrine. (In Chinese, 宮 (gong1) also means palace.) Miya is actually a compound word in Japanese, from 神 (kami, meaning god or spirit) and 屋 (ya, meaning house).
Etymology Adventures 