英訳された俳句の問題点

DOI Web Site

書誌事項

タイトル別名
  • SOME PROBLEMS OF <i>HAIKU</i> TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH
  • エイヤク サレタ ハイク ノ モンダイテン

この論文をさがす

抄録

<p>　If “ a translator, a traitor,” an English translator of Haiku must risk a great danger. Because Haiku persistently defies, in some of its characteristics, being rendered into any foreign language. A series of English translations of Basho’s piece “ Furu ike-ya .. ”, for example, will show the translators differ from each other in their expressions of the nuance. But I am not going to be a connoisseur of the English versions of Haiku ; I am more concerned here with the inevitable difficulties, the fundamental problems for English translators to encounter.</p><p>　My discussion covers the seventy-three years’ history of English translation of Haiku since 1889, but the examples are, for convenience sake, confined to those of Basho’s well-known pieces.</p><p>　Onomatopoeia and omission of personal pronoun of the Japanese language peculiarly lend themselves to Haiku,both of which arbitrarily taken do great harm. And the question of number is also puzzling. Is the “ semi ”（cicada) to be taken for singular or plural? The difference of word-order between Japanese and English is no less important.</p><p>　There has been a question whether or not a translated Haiku should conform to traditional English poetry. And several experiments to bring in rhyme and to preserve the syllable counts have not been quite successful.</p><p>　Though the fragmentariness of Haiku worries translators no longer, the difference of the environments seems almost fatal. There is an English equivalent to “ semi,” but I have met American students who could not even pronounce “ cicada.” Some insects and plants popular for Haiku have no English names at all. Latin substitutes are not commendable. Romanization of the Japanese names in not satisfactory, either. After a considerable achievement, translators are still indefatigably grappling with these problems.</p>

収録刊行物

  • 比較文学

    比較文学 8 (0), 20-27, 1965

    日本比較文学会

詳細情報 詳細情報について

問題の指摘

ページトップへ