Kurodahan Press Translation Prize

[Edward Lipsett /t]

The Kurodahan Press Translation Prize

It gives us great pleasure to announce the Kurodahan Press Translation
Prize, awarded for excellence in translation of a selected Japanese short
story into English. We hope that it will be possible to continue this prize
as an annual event.
Kurodahan Press was established to preserve and circulate contemporary and
historical observations of Asia, and to produce informative and entertaining
translations. The Japanese literary world needs no help from us in producing
outstanding works, but they cannot be introduced to a broader, global
audience without skilled translators capable of rendering delicate nuances
and atmospheres into another language.
The Kurodahan Press Translation Prize is held to help locate and encourage
these translators.

The short story to be translated is 笛塚 by 岡本綺堂, and is about 9500
characters in length.
Submissions will be accepted through September 30, 2008, Japan time.

Three judges will select the winning entry (alphabetical order by surname):
- Juliet Winters Carpenter, Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts
- Meredith McKinney, Visiting Fellow, Japan Centre, Australian National
University
- Royall Tyler

The winning entry will receive a cash prize, and an additional payment for
first English publication rights in the upcoming kaiki anthology.
Submissions will not be returned, but translators will retain all applicable
rights to their work.

For additional information and a complete contest package download, please
see our website:
http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/khpprize/

or write us at:

Kurodahan Press
3-9-10-403 Tenjin
Chuo-ku, Fukuoka
810-0001 JAPAN

====
Please distribute this email to other lists. The website has a downloadable
PDF with complete details which can also be printed out and distributed.

[Alan Siegrist]

Hi Edward,

May I assume, by your renewed efforts what with the translation prize and
such, that you will not be giving up Kurodahan Press anytime soon?

By the way, on a lark, I thought I might go ahead and enter the translation
contest. So I downloaded the short story and read it last night. I couldn't
help but notice what looked like typos. What should we do about them?

Specifically, I noticed 「だんだに」 which I think should be 「だんだんに」.
It appears in the following sentence on page 4:

と思うと、内では低い唸（うな）り声がきこえた。それがだんだに高くなって、弥次
右衛門はしきりに苦しんでいるらしい。

Is an original copy of the text to be translated available somewhere? If so,
we could compare possible typos in the PDF against the original.

Regards,

Alan

Alan Siegrist
Orinda, CA, USA

[Alan Siegrist]

Oops, that was supposed to be private. Sorry about that, folks.

I wrote:

> Hi Edward,

Regards,

[Manako Ihaya]

Well, since you made it public... :-)

Actually, I think だんだに is perfectly legitimate Japanese in this case. It sounds a lot better than だんだんに, too. Reminds me of the way 昔話 was read to me.

Manako


--
Manako Ihaya (aka Monica)
ATA-Certified Japanese-English Translator
Lake Forest, California

[Marc Adler]

2008/6/3 Manako Ihaya <man...@ihaya.org>:

> Actually, I think だんだに is perfectly legitimate Japanese in this case. It
> sounds a lot better than だんだんに, too. Reminds me of the way 昔話 was read to
> me.

That's interesting. This must be one of those cases where a word just
slipped through all the lexicologists' fingers, since I can't find it
in Kojien (5th/6th eds.), Eijiro, my Oubunsha Kogo Jiten. There are a
few hits on Google, though, although they don't seem particularly to
be archaic language. (One is about hair styling.) Could it be a
dialectal thing?

--
Marc Adler @ 言葉狩り中
Austin, TX

لا شيء إلا الضوء

[Alan Siegrist]

Manako Ihaya writes:

> Actually, I think だんだに is perfectly legitimate Japanese in this case.
> It sounds a lot better than だんだんに, too. Reminds me of the way 昔話
was
> read to me.

Aha. Thanks for that. So what does だんだに mean? Does だんだに高くなる mean
"to become higher and higher"? I can see that 段々高くなる (without に)
would mean that.

Perhaps my suggestion of だんだんに was not very good.

[Manako Ihaya]

I believe it means the same as だんだんに. But it's just a softer (perhaps dialectic?) way of saying it. Story-telling way of pronouncing it. 日本語を母国語となさる方、そう思われませんか？それとも私の思い違い？？

井隼眞奈子

2008/6/3 Alan Siegrist <AlanFS...@comcast.net>:

[Mika Jarmusz]

はーい、思いまーす。
「段々に」は三拍子で、いわゆる拍子抜けになるので短縮させたのではないでしょうか。
「だんだに」が「段々に」と同義であることは、読み手には迷わず伝わると思います。

 と思うと、内では低い唸（うな）り声がきこえた。それがだんだに

高くなって、弥次右衛門はしきりに苦しんでいるらしい。

リズム的には「次第に」とも置換できそうですが、
より庶民的な「段々に」を変じた「だんだに」の二拍子が
キリっと引き締まって読み手を誘（いざな）います。

dan-dan-ni　(三拍子）
dan-dani　(二拍子）

2008/6/3 Manako Ihaya <man...@ihaya.org>:

--
Mika Jarmusz 清水美香
English to Japanese Translator
inJapanese.us

[Richard VanHouten]

Alan Siegrist wrote:
> Hi Edward,
>
> May I assume, by your renewed efforts what with the translation prize and
> such, that you will not be giving up Kurodahan Press anytime soon?
>
> By the way, on a lark, I thought I might go ahead and enter the translation
> contest. So I downloaded the short story and read it last night. I couldn't
> help but notice what looked like typos. What should we do about them?
>
> Specifically, I noticed 「だんだに」 which I think should be 「だんだんに」.
> It appears in the following sentence on page 4:
>
> と思うと、内では低い唸（うな）り声がきこえた。それがだんだに高くなって、弥次
> 右衛門はしきりに苦しんでいるらしい。
>
> Is an original copy of the text to be translated available somewhere? If so,
> we could compare possible typos in the PDF against the original.
>
> Regards,
>
> Alan
>
> Alan Siegrist
> Orinda, CA, USA
>

Well, it doesn't seem to be on Aozora Bunko (unless it's part of a
larger work that is on there.)

[Mika Jarmusz]

「拍子抜け」ではなくて、
「拍子はずれ」でした。

--
Mika Jarmusz 清水美香 　＠拍子抜けさせちゃったかしらん。

[mt_scratch]

私は一応NSJですが、「だんだに」は聞いたり、読んだことはありませんし、
読んでも不自然に感じます。Googleでは多少ヒットするようですが。
私は東京生まれの東京育ちで、戦後っ子ですので、地方の方言で、
あるいはもう少し昔の人は使っていたかもしれませんが。

一応、１人のNSJとしての２セント。

桜内実
M. Sakurauchi

[mt_scratch]

先ほどの投稿への補遺：

「それがだんだに高くなって」もやはり少しおかしく聞こえます。
自然なのは、
「それがだんだん(段々)高くなって」
「それがだんだん***と***高くなって」
だと思います。

日本に長年住んでいるNSJの意見でした。

桜内実
M. Sakurauchi

[Edward Lipsett /t]

Hi, Alan,

Since you wrote me white, I may as well reply there.

> May I assume, by your renewed efforts what with the translation prize and
> such, that you will not be giving up Kurodahan Press anytime soon?

Depends on how much I lose... If losses stay reasonable, I get far more
enjoyment (and have a better chance at improving my life in the future) than
from technical translation. Unless anything changes for the worse rapidly,
though, I'm still in.

> By the way, on a lark, I thought I might go ahead and enter the translation
> contest. So I downloaded the short story and read it last night. I couldn't
> help but notice what looked like typos. What should we do about them?

Typos are possible, yup. If you see one please tell me and I will try to
find out ASAP. After that, I guess I'll have to update the PDF and post
errata on the announcement page, which is going to get pretty messy...

> Specifically, I noticed 「だんだに」 which I think should be 「だんだんに」.
> It appears in the following sentence on page 4:
> と思うと、内では低い唸（うな）り声がきこえた。それがだんだに高くなって、弥次
> 右衛門はしきりに苦しんでいるらしい。
>
> Is an original copy of the text to be translated available somewhere? If so,
> we could compare possible typos in the PDF against the original.

Since it is in the public domain now, I should be able to post a scan to thw
website, too, which would solve a lot of such problems. I don't have one
right handy, but if anyone if trucking off to the library sometime soon
could you please drop me a note offlist?
I will get hold of a copy soon in any case, however, and scan it.

----------
Edward Lipsett, Intercom, Ltd.
translation @intercomltd.com
Publishing: http://www.kurodahan.com
Translation & layout: http://www.intercomltd.com

[Manako Ihaya]

ふ～む、私は関西育ちで、親戚は皆関西系の方言ですが（宮津弁など）、それこそ伯母の語りかけが「だんだに」聞こえてくるような気がするのですが。

美香さんも関西ですか？

井隼眞奈子（関西は10歳までででした。）

2008/6/3 mt_scratch <mt_sc...@mbm.nifty.com>:

[mt_scratch]

Manakoさん、Mikaさん。

「だんだに」が関西方面で通用しているのでしたら、「脱帽」です。
一応、NSJの意見を、自分の経験した範囲で即答したものです。

それから、先ほどの投稿で、
「それがだんだに高くなって」もやはり少しおかしく聞こえます。
は書き間違いで、
「それがだんだ***ん***に高くなって」もやはり少しおかしく聞こえます。
のつもりでした。
要するに、「だんだんに」よりも「だんだん」だけ、あるいは「だんだんと」
のほうがよく耳にするということを言いたかったのです。

[Mika Jarmusz]

図書館の原本確認も待たずにまた
早とちりしているだけかもしれませんが、
今回の日本語クイズの一般参加者として、
もう一度回答を修正しておきたいと思います。

まなこさんとMarcさんも書かれていましたが、「だんだに」とすると
方言混じりの、昔話風の口調になりますね。
原文全体を見ずに抜粋のみを見て「ありうる」と書きましたが、
エドワードさんのコンテスト原文ＰＤＦで前後の文章を
改めて見てみるとAlanさん、「だんだに」はやはりおかしいです。

ここは私なら「と」も「に」も入れずに、
「だんだん高くなって」
とすると思います。

ちなみに私は神戸生まれ神戸育ちの関西ですが
（アメリカには大学卒業してから渡りました。）
「だんだに」は私のボキャブラリーにも存在しません。
と、今時分になってぬけぬけと白状したら、
もっと拍子抜けかしらん。

--
Mika Jarmusz 清水美香

[Andreas Rusterholz]

On 6月4日, 午前8:05, Richard VanHouten <ric...@citlink.net> wrote:
> Well, it doesn't seem to be on Aozora Bunko (unless it's part of a

> larger work that is on there.)- 引用テキストを表示しない -
>

See: http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000082/card1307.html

Andreas

[Alan Siegrist]

Andreas Rusterholz writes:

I found this myself. The format here appears to be a little nicer, since the
ruby characters are actually attached to the kanji instead of being appended
in-line, but the text itself appears to be identical to that in the
Kurodahan prize pdf. So this unfortunately may not be very useful in
checking for typos in the input. (Unless an image file appears somewhere in
the Aozora Bunko files, which I have yet to find.)

Regards,

[Edward Lipsett /t]

on 08.6.5 9:44 AM, Alan Siegrist wrote:

> The format here appears to be a little nicer, since the
> ruby characters are actually attached to the kanji instead of being appended
> in-line, but the text itself appears to be identical to that in the
> Kurodahan prize pdf. So this unfortunately may not be very useful in
> checking for typos in the input. (Unless an image file appears somewhere in
> the Aozora Bunko files, which I have yet to find.)

Aozora files are checked very closely against the original, which means
mistakes are unlikely (but obviously not impossble).
However, I will post clear scans of the actual book in a day or two which
will at least guarantee translators can see the published version.

[Edward Lipsett]

I checked in the printed book, Alan, and you are correct.

It should be だんだんに.

Sorry!

I will post scans of the book Monday at the latest.

On Jun 4, 5:57 am, "Alan Siegrist" <AlanFSiegr...@Comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Specifically, I noticed 「だんだに」 which I think should be 「だんだんに」.
> It appears in the following sentence on page 4:
>
> と思うと、内では低い唸（うな）り声がきこえた。それがだんだに高くなって、弥次
> 右衛門はしきりに苦しんでいるらしい。

Edward Lipsett
Fukuoka, Japan