Ask John: What Are The Ideal Principles of Translating?

Question:
How should anime be translated? Should it be translated as literally as possible without appearing “wooden,” or should it be translated to be readable without interpretation or cultural bias? Is there always a concern that the anime translators, whether they are professionals or fansubbers, are providing their own commentary and cultural biases in their translations? Should translators translate anime so the anime speaks for itself (i.e. the anime tells viewers what it is about), instead of making the anime speak for the translators (i.e. the translators tell viewers what they think the anime is saying)?

Answer:
My simple opinion is that a translation should attempt to allow a foreign viewer to appreciate a film, as much as possible, the way the film’s intended audience enjoyed the film. With Japanese in particular, it’s impossible to use a strictly literal translation because literal translation results in awkwardness and imprecision such as Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) becoming “Neighborhood of Totoro” or “Totoro’s Neighborhood.” So it’s absolutely necessary to have some interpretation in a translation. I also believe that a translation should reflect cultural bias. When I watch a Japanese film, I think the translation should respect the fact that the original spoken dialogue is Japanese. In other words, I don’t want to see, read, or hear American cultural references or jokes in a subtitled translation of a Japanese film because I know that the original Japanese dialogue didn’t contain such references. I’m aware that one argument posits that localizing jokes and dialogue makes a translation more accessible. But at that point what the viewer sees is no longer a faithful translation, but rather a new work – a version of the film that is not what the original creator created.

A subtitle translation should subvert itself to the goal of translating. When a subtitle translation becomes distinguishable as a script on its own, it becomes distracting and no longer serves its intended purpose. A translator is a medium for the conveyance of an artist’s ideas to a viewer, so a good translator is a writer able to make his/her efforts virtually invisible. A good translation, in my opinion, is one that presents the original dialogue and allows viewers themselves to interpret it themselves. Localizing cultural jokes and references certainly makes anime more easily digestible, but by definition eliminates elements the original cultural and artistic content of the film. Speaking only for myself, I’d rather read a subtitled translation of a Japanese joke then research it and educate myself about a new aspect of Japanese culture than read, instead, an American joke and get a laugh at the expense of any insight into the Japanese culture and society that created the foreign film I’m watching.

A good translator absolutely should use his/her own judgement and experience and bias to enhance the immersion of the viewer in a film, but enhancing or supplementing the film’s original script is, I believe, an irresponsible and inappropriate liberty that obscures the artwork of the original writer, which is presumably what I’m interested in seeing. The presentation of story and dialogue is the job of the original writer. A translator’s role is to convey that writer’s message; not replace the original writer’s words with those of the translator.