[Where the Poor Translations Are] 誤訳にまつわる問題

What is a Technical Translation? (技術翻訳って何?)

What is a technical translation? In all my years working as a translator (as well as a software engineer), this idea comes to my mind from time to time. Some people say it is easy once you get used to it, while some others say it is not the language skill that matters but a solid knowledge to any specific work field you are (will be) in.

The answer to this question should be as simple as this:

“Catch the ball, know what it is, and pass it to the next guy.”

Any professional translator is responsible for what he or she did. But, unfortunately, it is not the case sometimes. I recently came up with some Japanese-to-English translators who translated everything so wrong. They don’t even seem to know there are problems with it, but are proud to be able to turned in the translated documents earlier than the deadline. “This is it! Look! I did it fast!” It is meaningless to quickly pass along a totally wrong translation. - All 20 or 30 pages of it. I wish I were able to let them know of that. I would give them some advice.

I am not really sure what kind of negative impact it would cause if a translation is so poor. It would be up to how it will be used or who will be reading it. – An illegal pitch will not always make a dead ball. But once you give a dead ball, the problem will be made more explicit and worse, leaving even more negative impact not only to the batter but the fellow players as well as the audience.

When you translate a technical document, you don’t have to write it beautifully. (Of course, it is better if you can write it beautifully.) But it is much better to write it awkwardly but correctly, rather than translate it incorrectly using beautiful sentences. That translation I mentioned earlier was written incorrectly as well as awkwardly. Nothing can be done to it. All we are to do is to pass along any given information correctly to whom it will be delivered. That is one big difference between when you translate a novel and when you translate a technical document. - That’s what technical translation is about.

English-to-Japanese Translation

In Japan, when you hear about translation, most people will think it is an English-to-Japanese translation. In schools they spend most of their times in learning to translate from English to Japanese. Doing it to another direction (from Japanese to English) is not so common. This is because, historically speaking, they basically have been passive toward the western cultures. From ancient times, they would import goods, thoughts or religion from overseas. That is how they have become developed and prospered. Even more than 1,000 years ago, for example, highly-ranked government officials would take the risk of travelling to China across the sea to import foreign materials or thoughts. Buddhism is said to have imported to Japan in 538. The sutras (scriptures), of course, were not written in Japanese, so they needed to be translated into Japanese. Kanji (Chinese character) was imported from China to Japan. - There are currently other forms of characters in Japanese such as Hiragana and Katakana but it came into being through the process of simplification or customization of Kanji (Chinese character).

[PATTERN 1:]

Import => Translate it into Japanese => Customize

The pattern as shown above has been basically true until recently (or even up until now today). There is a classical anatomy book translated by Sugita Genpaku and other fellows in 1774, and it was a translation from Dutch to Japanese.

After the shogun era (the Edo period) was over in 1867, Japan took off to take the path to the modernization. Politicians adopted British or German concepts, and authors studied European literary works. Learning European ideas or purchasing foreign items was apparently a status symbol.

To summarize, things were imported and then customized according to their needs and taste. I think this “import” can involve “translation” in many ways. It also reminds me of the translation pattern carried out from English to Japanese.

Japanese-to-English Translation

This has seemed to be an "opposite" pattern to those who have believed an “English-to-Japanese” translation to be the "standard." The globalized economy is getting even more tremendous. Like it or not, Japan is facing the urge to shift their paradigm. (The same is true with any other countries.)

Facing the fast growing globalization trend and the necessity to compete with other countries, the traditional “Import => Translate it into Japanese => Customize” pattern is not almighty any more. The translation of the direction has become even much more necessary, and this pattern can be written as below.

[PATTERN 2:]

“Products, thoughts, ideas (made in Japan) => Export => Translate it into another language”

Although Japan has been said that they are not good at doing all this, this design is nothing new to be performed. They even performed this pattern during the World War II. I personally relate the today’s globalization to the situation of 70 years ago when Japan tried to be extended toward overseas.

It is generally considered that Japan during that war time was not doing things either well or right, but I think that experience will teach us something greatly important to let us think how this country will be successful in the globalized economy.

Now, getting back to the very poor translation, the following are the problems I have found:

1. The translator (and his/her supervisor) will not notice if there is a problem about the translated document or information. (They even think they are doing fairly well.)

2. So they are unable to predict or understand any impact that their translation may cause.

3. This may mislead them to a totally wrong direction, resulting in bad consequences to those who concerned.

I know it is much of a challenge to translate something into another language because it is not your first language. But there is no choice; it is unavoidable. Those translated documents from Japanese to English just reminded me how they were doing during the World War II. I believe, however, we will be made great if these issues are overcome. I want to stick to it.

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技術翻訳とは何か？翻訳(またはソフトエンジニア)の仕事をずっとやっていると、しばしばそのことが頭に浮かびます。「一旦慣れてしまえば簡単だ」という人もいれば、いや、「語学力は問題ではない。その専門の領域に関してしっかりした知識が物をいうのだ」という人もおります。

答えは単純で下記のようなものです。

「受けとる。しっかり分かる。正しく次に渡す。」

翻訳を仕事としている人であれば、自分の仕事に関して責任を負っています。しかし残念なことに、そうでない場合もあります。先日、他人がやった日英翻訳を目にしたのでしたが、あらゆる箇所が間違いでした。翻訳者本人からしたら、無自覚でありましょう。「英訳終わりました！ご覧ください、こんなに早く仕上がりました！」

ただ、間違った翻訳を早急に渡されても意味がありません。しかも、20～30ページがズラーっと間違いだらけでは。そのことを翻訳者に知らせ、何かアドバイスができたら、と思いますが、現在の立場上、私にそれができません。

質の悪い翻訳がどのような悪影響を及ぼすのか、私にはよく分かりません。それは翻訳がどのようにその後使われるのか、または誰がそれを読むのか、によるとは思います。- 暴投したからといって必ずデッドボールになるとは限りません。ただ、実際デッドボールを起こすと、問題はさらに明示的になり、悪い方向に行くでしょう。打者のみならずその仲間や観客にまで影響を及ぼすといったような。

技術書の翻訳にあたっては、美しい文章を書く必要はありません。（確かに美しく書ければそれに越したことはありません。）不正確な情報を美しく書くよりは、不格好でも正しく書いたほうがずっとマシです。情報を不正確にかつ不格好に書いたものが、その翻訳でしたから、残念なことです。

翻訳者がすべきことは、与えられた情報を正しく読み手に渡す、ということです。これが小説の翻訳と技術翻訳との違いかと思います。- 技術翻訳とは、結局そういうものです。

英日翻訳

日本で「翻訳」と聞くと、ほとんどの人からは英語から日本語への翻訳だと思われています。学校ではほとんどの場合、英語から日本語に翻訳するのを学習します。その反対の方向（日本語から英語への翻訳）はそれほど一般的ではありません。これは、歴史的にいって、日本人が西洋文化に対して受け身で来たためでしょう。古来より、海外から物品、思考、宗教を輸入してきました。これによって日本は発展、繁栄してきたわけです。たとえば1,000年もの昔、身分の高い役人が危険を冒してまで海を渡って中国に行き、物資や思想を持ってきたのです。仏教が日本に輸入されたのは538年と言われていますが、お経は当然日本語で書かれていないため、日本語に翻訳する必要がありました。漢字は中国から輸入されたものです。ひらがなやカタカナといった別の形式文字がありますが、これらは漢字の簡略化やカスタマイズを経て今日の形になっているわけです。

[パターン1:]

輸入 => 日本語訳 => カスタマイズ

上記のパターンはつい最近まで（あるいは、この今も）基本的に有効でした。杉田玄白その他が解剖学についての古典的書物を日本語に翻訳したのが1774年でした。それはオランダ語から日本語への翻訳でした。

1867年に江戸時代という将軍の時代が終わり、日本は近代化への道を歩み始めました。政治家はイギリスやドイツの考えを取り入れましたし、作家は西洋の文学を研究しました。西洋の考えや物品を取り入れることは、同時に、分かりやすいステータス・シンボルでした。

以上をまとめると、物事は輸入され、必要と趣味に応じてカスタマイズされてきた、といえます。この「輸入」はいろんな意味で「翻訳」をも含んでいると私は思います。それは私に「英=>日」パターンによる翻訳を連想させます。

日英翻訳

英日翻訳を「正」としてきた人々には、このパターンは「逆」パターンだと思われるかと思います。グローバル化はすさまじいものです。好むと好まざるとにかかわらず、日本はパラダイムの変更を迫られています。（他の国においてもそうですが。）

急速に進むグローバル化と他国との競争に際して、従来の”輸入 => 日本語訳 => カスタマイズ”というパターンがすべて、というわけには、もはやいかなくなりました。「逆方向」の翻訳がさらに必要となりました。つまり、下のような形です。

[PATTERN 2:]

“製品・考え (国産) => 輸出 => 多言語への翻訳”

日本はこういったことが不得手だといわれています。しかしこの様式は何も新しいことではありません。第二次大戦の際にこういったことを実行していました。私は今日のグローバル化社会が、海外に進出しようとした70年前の日本と重なります。一般的に戦争当時の日本はうまく正しくやれなかった、という認識となっています。ただし、その時の失敗経験は、このグローバル化経済戦争で成功するための重要なことを教えてくれると思います。

さて、あのひどい日英翻訳に戻っていきますが、私は次のことに気が付きました：

1. 翻訳者(とその上司)は自分が翻訳したドキュメントや情報の翻訳の質について問題があると気づかない。(むしろ、良くやっていると誤認識する。)

2. よって、その翻訳が引き起こす負の影響を予測することが出来ない。

3. これが完全に誤った方向や結果につながり、関係者に不利益をもたらす。
.

母国語でない言葉に訳すことは大変な課題であることは私も分かります。しかし、それは避けられないことであり、選択の余地はないと思います。最近個人的に目にした間違いを多く含んだ日英翻訳で、第二次大戦当時の日本の状況を連想した次第です。
しかしながら、このことが克服されれば、とても素晴らしい方向にむかうと私は信じています。私はこのことを追及していきたいと思います。

[What Ryoma Sakamoto Means to the Japan Today] 坂本竜馬と最近の日本

Japan has been subject to the changes of the surroundings more than others. The people & the government have encountered with the changes quite passively. People feel that it is against their culture or tradition that they speak directly to someone, ask questions to someone, or express your opinions clearly. It doesn't mean they are quiet or modest. - They are aggressive people, but it is more like being “passive aggressive.” For example, they don’t look at another person and say, “Don’t sit beside me.” They would most likely ignore, be preoccupied or pretend not seeing anybody so as not to let anybody in.

They will hear or listen in order to learn things. But they are not good at debating with someone or persuading someone. Because of the group-oriented culture, it is considered well-mannered to be shy and not to say things so well.

The person I want to pick up this time is Ryoma Sakamoto (坂本竜馬), one of the popular activists in Japanese history, who lived from 1836 to 1867. He was engaged with political activities until he was assassinated a little before the shogun era came to an end.

I actually didn’t have a keen interest toward this historical person, but hearing a lot about him through media made me think I wanted to look up some information on him. I began to think it understandable why this man has been regarded as one of the heros.

Wikepedia describes as the following:
When Ryoma finished his schools, he returned to Tosa, his hometown. One of his friends, Takechi organized the Tosa Loyalist Party with a political slogan "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Foreigners." This group was not accepted by the Tosa lord, so they plotted to an assassination. Ryoma is said to have participated in name only. Ryoma thought Takechi demanded a revolution for only the Tosa clan, but not for Japan.

Due to this fact, “(h)e decided to leave Tosa and separate from Takechi. In those days, nobody was permitted to leave their clan without permission, on penalty of death. One of Ryoma’s sisters committed suicide because he left without permission.

It is incredible that nobody was permitted at that time to leave their clan without permission, on penalty of death. But similar kind of atmosphere can be observed even now today. There are many should-dos and should-not-dos that don’t stand on reason.
 
The last part of the shogun period and Ryoma are relatively described like this:
"While a ronin, Ryōma decided to assassinate Katsu Kaishū, a high-ranking official in the Tokugawa shogunate and a supporter of both modernization and westernization. However, Katsu Kaishū persuaded Ryōma of the necessity of a long-term plan to increase Japan’s military strength. Instead of killing Katsu Kaishū, Ryōma started working as his assistant and protégé."

I like what he did here. Once he was going to kill Katsu but he became an assistant to him after some persuasion.

Wikepedia continues:
"In 1864, as the Tokugawa shogunate started taking a hard line, Ryoma fled to Kagoshima in Satsuma domain, which was developing as a major centre for the anti-Tokugawa movement. Ryoma negotiated the secret alliance between Chōshū and Satsuma provinces. Satsuma and Chōshū historically had been absolute enemies, and Ryoma's position as a "neutral outsider" was critical in bridging the gap in trust."

I personally liked the following description most. He tries to stand out so as to make a change. He is really a Samurai. A real Samurai will not just hide yourself to be like everyone else, and follow and obey how everyone does. He or she will have to be determined and courageous.

“Ryoma was a visionary who envisioned a Japan without any feudal trappings. He read about and was inspired by the example of the United States where "all men are created equal". He realized that in order to compete with an industrially and technologically advanced outside world, the Japanese people needed to modernize. He has also been seen as an intriguing mix of the traditional and modern, symbolized by his preference for samurai dress while favoring western footwear.”

I don’t think the same concept or idea should be followed this time today. We are in 21st century, where people and societies are connected to the internet. We will have to do more than that with more thoughts and ideas. – We need to start from stopping to wear a T-shirt with weird or wrong English, or from playing English pop music without even knowing what it‘s all about and what’s really there.