In the text, “Jumping Into the Pond,” I was interested in how “Doki Doki” can be translated into English. I quite like Carpenter’s interpretation with the accompanying text saying, “Your heart goes pitter patter when you see somebody you like.” I think this is clever because you don’t need to know what “pitter patter” means, and even a child can understand the feeling. Interestingly, when I was at the Osaka Expo earlier this year, the Luxembourg Pavilion was themed around heartbeats. They repeatedly said “Doki Doki” in the pavilion and presentation, instead of translating it, which I found to be unfitting. I think if they had said something along the lines of Carpenter’s translation, it would have made the pavilion experience a lot smoother.
A question I had was how to convey the significance of Japanese history and locations in a translation, since Western readers probably are not aware of the historical and geographical context. In the interview with Carpenter, she talked about how she did it with “Karuizawa.” I like how she asked the original author, Mizumura, to write it herself, and then she would rewrite it. For example, adding the phrase “Japanese prudishness” into the passage when Minae met Taro was very clever, I thought. For Western readers reading this, they would understand the awkwardness stemming from the cultural difference.
-Allen
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