The reason that を tends to be a somewhat easy particle to master is that it is only used to mark nouns that fall under a grammatical role that corresponds to the “direct object” argument in English: I kicked a ball; Michael lost a tooth last night; the quick fox jumped over the lazy dog; I went to the store and purchased some bread.

Examples:

中内さんは図書館で本を読みました。
“Nakauchi read a book at the library”

髪型を変えて、友達に会いに行った。
“I changed my hairstyle and went to meet with a friend.”

いつか夢を全部果たして、有名になるでしょう。
“I’ll someday achieve all of my dreams and become famous.”

私は穴を掘って、指輪を埋めたんだ。
“I dug a hole and buried the ring.”

最近新しいピアスをあけたよ。
“I recently got a new piercing.”

It’s very easy to see how を tends to be much less complicated than はand が; however don’t be fooled into thinking that を doesn’t have any tricks up its sleeve. Like は intrudes upon the territory ofが, に intrudes upon that of を. This is because を only works when preceding a transitive verb. Intransitive verbs must take に instead.

In case you might not remember what I have previously written about transitive and intransitive verbs, I’ll provide a short reminder. Transitive verbs are those that are able to take a direct object (they suggest that something or someone is doing something directly to another participant); intransitive verbs are those that do not have the ability to describe the relationship between a subject and a direct object. In Japanese, verbs are generally paired in transitive/intransitive forms. For example: 変える・変わる、する・なる、溶かす・溶ける、壊す・壊れる、割れる・割る、倒す・倒れる、転がす・転げる。

Observe the differences in the following sentences:

私はテレビを壊した。
“I broke the TV.” (Subject-Verb-Direct Object)

私にテレビが壊された。
“The TV was broken (directly) by me.” (Agent of Action-Subject-Passive Transitive Verb)
私にテレビが壊れた。
“Because of me, the TV broke.” (Source of Action-Subject-Intransitive Verb)

私はテレビが壊れた。
“My TV broke.” (Topic-Subject-Intransitive Verb)

私のテレビは壊れた。
“My TV broke.” (It was my TV that broke.) (Possessed topic of Discussion-Intransitive Verb)

私は敵を皆倒した。
“I defeated all of my enemies”

私に敵が皆倒された。
“All of my enemies were felled before (directly by) me.”

私に敵が皆倒れた。
“All of my enemies fell because of me.”

私は敵が皆倒れた。
“All my enemies fell.”

私の敵は、皆倒れた。
“All my enemies fell.” (I was my enemies that fell)

彼はあのトレンドを流している
“He’s spreading that trend.”

彼にあのトレンドが流されている。
“That trend is being propagated (directly) by him.”

彼にあのトレンドが流れている。
“Because of him, that trend is catching on.”

彼はあのトレンドが流れている。
“That trend of his is catching on.”

彼のあのトレンドが流れている。
“That trend of his is catching on.” (It’s his trend that is catching on)

Much of the above content tends to speak for itself; the を particle really is extremely straightforward, so long as the active verb is a transitive. Thankfully, a great deal of verbs dropped in every day conversation tend to be transitive in nature, so を is generally a pretty easy particle to master quickly.

To conclude this week’s entry, let’s take a look at a completely ridiculous sentence:

ギェリソン先生の性転換手術はサウス・パーク小学校の４年生の子供達を皆ショックした。
“Mr. Garrison’s sex change operation shocked everyone in South Park’s fourth grade class.”

ギェリソン先生の性転換手術にサウス・パーク小学校の４年生の子供達が皆ショックされた。
“Everyone in South Park’s fourth grade class was shocked (directly) by Mr. Garrison’s sex change operation.

ギェリソン先生の性転換手術にサウス・パーク小学校の４年生の子供達は皆ショックになった。
“Everyone in South Park’s fourth grade class was shocked because of Mr. Garrison’s sex change operation.”

(The first sentence sounds more natural than the third, which sounds more natural than the second)

Japanese is a case inflecting language. What is exactly is “case inflection,” you might ask; case inflection refers to a system by which a language inflects nouns—using either morphological affixes, or particles—to designate them with grammatical roles within a sentence, the end result typically being sentences in which word order is generally loose. (Interestingly enough, English—an Indo-European language of the West Germanic variety—was once case inflecting). In Japanese, this inflectional morphology is accomplished with the help of particles, little lexically-bound morphemes (semantic units) that follow the nouns they modify, such as: は、が、で、に、を、と、etc.

The mastery of particles for a second-language learner of Japanese is admirable; particles can be nasty little suckers for the unprepared learner. Over the next several weeks, I will be writing short guides with the intent of helping learners differentiate between basic particles. As a natural continuation of last week’s entry, I’d like to set aside some time to give some attention to が.

が might be looked upon as somewhat of a sister particle to は. If は is used to refer to the “topic” of a sentence in terms of how it applies to the conversation as a whole, が can be said to mark the specific subject of discussion. What primarily differentiates subject and topic in Japanese is specificity; が is a topic favored by nouns in questions and answers to questions in which specific information is requested:

今度のパーティに誰が来るか知っていますか。
“Do you know who will come to the next party?”

This question requests specific information: 誰, and so the correct particle to use here is clearly が. One might respond to this question with something like:

今回だって木村さんと岩川さんが来るでしょう。
“I do believe that Kimura and Ishikawa are coming this time around.”
Be sure to pay close attention to the fact that specific information was requested using が, and must then be provided in the answer, also using が.

Another example:
お金以外に理想な仕事のうえで、何が一番大切だと思いますか。
“Money aside, what to you suppose is the most important feature of a great job?”
An answer:
やっぱり楽しさや面白さなどが一番ですね。
“Naturally, enjoyability and interest(ingness) are the most (important features), right?”

Another big difference between は and が is that が is largely used to draw focus to given subject, whereas は is typically used to draw contrast. If we use the adjective 好き to illustrate this difference:　

私はりんごが好きだ。
“I like apples.” (As the subject concerns me, apples are likeable.)

りんごが好きだ
“(I) like apples.” (It is the apples that are liked.)

りんごは好きだ。
“(I) like apples.” (As the subject concerns apples, I like them. I don’t really like melons or oranges, though.)

が always illustrates a direct agent (performer of an action) relationship with a verb, or a patient (subject of a state or description) relationship with a adjective phrase. It is nearly 100% consistent with the role of “subject” in an English sentence. A problem that many English speakers, however, seem to encounter with this particle is knowing when exactly to differentiate between は and が.

For example:

奈津子ちゃんはめっちゃ可愛いんじゃないかって思わない。
“Don’t you think that Natsuko is totally adorable?”
奈津子ちゃんがめっちゃ可愛いんじゃないかって思わない。
“Don’t you think that it’s Natsuko that is totally adorable?”

The first sentence works well as a blatant statement shared between two guys at a bar; however, as a casual comment, the second sentence is lousy and lacks context. Whereas は is the preferred particle for changing the subject or introducing a new topic of conversation, が is a particle largely reserved for strong emphasis, context dependent specification, and focus. Therefore, the second sentence really only makes sense in the context of a conversation that looks something like:

恵美ちゃんは今夜凄くきれいだったな。
“Emi looked really beautiful tonight, huh?”

そっか。でも、奈津子ちゃんがめっちゃ可愛いんじゃないかって思わない。
“Oh Yeah? But don’t you think that it’s Natsuko that’s the totally cute one?”

で、付き合ってみるべきじゃん。
“Well, you should trying going out with her!”

嫌、結婚してるそうなので、無理かも。
“Nah, I hear she’s married; it might be impossible.”

It’s also important to note here that が is almost always the particle used to designate a subject appearing within a relative clause:
私は、Gが引くギターを聴くことが本当に好きだ。
“I really like listening to the guitar (parts) that G plays.”
が is actually used twice in the above sentence: once as the subject modifier of a relative clause, and once as a described subject of the adjective, 好き。

Due to the fact that Japanese is a noun-drop language (a language that doesn’t actually require any nouns in a sentence, and therefore tends to reduce its sentences to a single verb whenever possible), nouns are often dropped from sentences during normal conversation. This, naturally, occurs when the subject of conversation is clearly understood by all parties; because subject nouns are easily dropped in Japanese, が is really only ever used in conversation when specific information is required.

Japanese is a case inflecting language. What exactly is “case inflection,” you might ask; case inflection refers to a system by which a language inflects nouns—using either morphological affixes, or particles—to designate them with grammatical roles within a sentence, the end result typically being sentences in which word order is generally loose. Interestingly enough, English—an Indo-European language of the West Germanic variety—was once case inflecting. Check out Beowulf in Old English, if you’re interested. In Japanese, this inflectional morphology is accomplished with the help of particles, little lexically-bound morphemes (semantic units unable to exist as free standing words that must be attached to an independent noun) that follow the nouns they modify, such as: は、が、で、に、を、と、etc.

The mastery of Japanese particles for a second-language learner of Japanese is admirable; particles can be nasty little suckers for the unprepared learner. Over the next several weeks, I will be writing short guides with the intent of helping learners differentiate between basic particles. This week, we tackle は.

Particle: は

は is perhaps the most commonly misused particle in the Japanese language; it is biffed by second language learners about as often as “the” is fumbled over by native Japanese speakers. は, a topic marking particle, marks a word for contextual significance. In English, the topic of a sentence typically appears at the beginning of the sentence and is grammatically identical to its subject. Thus, in a sentence like “My legs hurt,” the noun phrase “my legs” is both the topic of conversation, as well as the grammatical subject of the sentence. Japanese, however, does make a very clear distinction between the topic and the subject. Take for example: 「私は足が痛いです」(My legs hurt). This sentence marks 「私」as its topic; the listener should, first and foremost, be concerned with how the rest of the sentence relates to the topic, which is myself. 「足」is marked by the subject marking particle, 「が」, which communicates to a listener that meaning of the sentence now revolves around either: what my leg is doing, or what is happening to my leg. To put it simple, 「私は足が痛いです。」is a sentence about a leg hurting that concerns the speaker. “A leg hurts, and this fact is significant to me.”

This sentence can be contrasted with: 「私の足は痛いです。」, in which “my leg” becomes the topic of the sentence: “It hurts, and this fact is significant for my leg.” This sentence carries the nuance that it is less concerned with the implication that my wounded leg has on me (as in the first sentence), and more concerned with the implication that my wound has for my leg itself.

As a topic marking particle, は can be used alongside, or in place of other particles, as detailed below:

で：屋内ではタバコを吸っていけないことになっています。
“(According to the rules) you can not smoke inside.”
This sentence pairs はwithで to draw attention to 屋内 as a significant detail. It is completely fine to smoke outside, but inside smoking will not be tolerated.

あなたのおかげではこの関係が良くいってるよ。
“It’s because of you (and not anybody else) that this relationship is going well.”

を：空手をするんだけど、合気道はしない。
“I do karate, but I do not do aikido (as opposed to other martial arts that I practice).”
This sentence replaces を with は to illustrate that aikido is a significant detail, one that stands in contrast to any other form of martial arts. If a native speaker were to hear the second clause of this sentence in isolation, they would get the impression that the speaker of the sentence is, in fact, a martial artist that practices forms other than aikido. This is in contrast to: 「合気道をしない。」, which simply states that the speaker does not do aikido (and may or may not practice other forms).

に：日本には行ったことがない。
“I have never been to Japan (but I’ve totally been to other countries).”
This sentence augments にwith は to draw contrast between the country of Japan and other countries of the world. It is clear from context that the speaker is an (at least somewhat) experienced traveler. Compare with: 「日本に行ったことがない。」, “I have never been to Japan (and may or may not have ever been anywhere else).”

と：「Sadness」とは、「悲しい」の名詞形、「悲しみ」という意味である。
““Sadness,” a nominalized form of “kanashii,” means “kanashimi” (in Japanese).”

とは is a common particle construction typically used when providing the definition of a word or phrase, or otherwise clarifying a statement.

The above uses of は all share one thing in common; they all draw contrast to or away from a topical point of conversation. But は has some further uses.

In a compound sentence—a sentence with more than one major clause— は functions to mark the noun serving as the most important argument in the sentence:

彼が作ってくれた料理をちょっと食ってみたんだけど、私は全然好きではなかった。
“I tried eating a little bit of the food he made us, but I didn’t like it at all.”

彼, being the less important of the subjects deployed throughout the two clauses is marked by the subject marking particleが (which we will discuss more next week); however, 私, being the main focus of the sentence, takes は as its particle; this happens because, at its heart, this sentence ultimately boils down to mean: 「全然好きではなかった」, “(I) didn’t like (it).” It is a sentence about my reaction—anything else appearing in the sentence is auxiliary information, and for this reason,, は is used.

は can also be used with ～て　inflected verbs:

ガムを噛んではならない。
“You can’t chew gum. (But you can keep it in your pocket, or save a stick for later.)”

足を踏んじゃってはごめん。
“I’m sorry for stepping on your foot. (But not for tapping it to get your attention earlier).”

また今度同じ所に行ってはどう。
“How about we go to the same place again next time (instead of staying at home)?”

Hopefully I cleared up some fog on Japanese particles. Part 2 of this series coming soon!

A relative clause is a construction of language that refers to an adjective phrase containing an inflected verb. In English, this often involves usage of the words “that” or “which,” and modifies the tail end of a noun as a multilexical, post-position adjective phrase. For example: the man who ate my chicken is a real jerk; the car I bought last week already needs to be serviced; the lunch you packed me was delicious; the little bit of skin attached to my hangnail is stopping me from removing it. All English relative clauses are subjunctive (dependent upon a main clause).

As a native speaker of English, one hardly requires a lesson in the construction and deployment of such utterances; however, in Japanese, relative clauses don’t line up with their English counterparts in terms of their grammatical form. Japanese relative clauses are simple enough to get the hang of, however, providing a student is given adequate instruction.

In Japanese, relative clauses are placed prior to the onset of the nouns they modify; they are grammatically identical to Japanese adjectives in terms of word order. Being that Japanese clauses require only a verb to be considered independent, Japanese relative clauses are distinct from English clauses in that every one of them is an independent clause. For example, taking into consideration the meaning of the relative clauses as independent utterances, observe the following sentences and their respective relative clauses:

昨夜作ってくれた飯は本当に美味しかった。
“The food you cooked for me yesterday was really good.”
「昨夜作ってくれた」 (“[you] cooked [it] for me yesterday.”)

行ったことがあるところだから、今度そこへ連れてもらえない。
“It’s a place you’ve been before, so would you mind taking me along this time?”
「行ったことがある」(“[you] have been [there].”)

一昨日観ていたあのテレビ番組は何と言うか知ってるだろう。
“Do you perhaps know the name of that show we were watching two days back?”
「一昨日観ていた」(“[we] were watching [it] two days ago.”

As you can see by now, using a relative clause in Japanese basically involves using an entire sentence—ending as per usual in an inflected verb—as an adjective. The verb in this “sentence” is able to take any temporal inflection; it can also take a passive inflection or a causative inflection.

One might ask, when is it proper to use past tense and when is it proper to use the Japanese non-past? Much like in a free standing sentence, the past/non-past distinction in Japanese is less concerned with the specifics of relative time, and more concerned with completion or non-completion; that is to say, Japanese past/non-past tenses are really better described as perfective/imperfective aspect markers; this is especially true when they exist in a relative clause:

日本に行く時、贈り物をいっぱい買っておきました。
“When I went to Japan (before I departed on my flight), I purchased many gifts (that I could present to my friends in Japan).
日本に行った時、贈り物をいっぱい買っておきました。
“When I went to Japan (after I had landed in Japan), I purchased many gifts (that I could bring home to my friends in my home country.”

This distinction is very subtle: the only difference being the use of the non-past tense in the relative clause of the first sentence, and the past tense in the relative clause of the latter sentence; however, the meaning between these two sentences is very different indeed. This is possible because of the imperfective/perfective nuance of the respective tenses. In the initial sentence, the non-past tense is used because it suggests that I had not yet (completed) my arrival in Japan, so the sentence as a whole is interpreted as having occurred somewhere in my home country; in the second sentence, the past tense of the verb in the relative clause suggests that the clause itself has been completed—i.e. I have arrived in Japan—thus, the entire sentence is understood as referring to an action that took place somewhere in Japan. This distinction is important to any relative clause in Japanese.

One aspect of Japanese with which many foreign language speakers seem to struggle is that of verb-argument relations. What is an argument? An argument, in the context of Japanese, is any noun marked by 助詞 (particles) such as: は、が、で、を、に、とした, etc. Every language, within the context of an utterance, assigns its verbs in accordance to what linguists describe as “valence.” Simply put, valence is a fancy word that describes the number of arguments a verb requires to make sense in a sentence; valence is often described in terms of one, two, or three. A verb with a valence of one is any verb that is only able to take a single argument relation, it is known as an intransitive verb in English, and includes examples such as: fall (“I fall-”- “I fall him” does not make any sense), or sleep (“He sleeps”; a transitive verb is any verb that requires two arguments, generally some kind of subject and some kind of object: kick (“I kick a ball”); lastly, a ditransitive verb requires a subject, a direct object, and an indirect object; it has a valence of three, and includes verbs such as: give (“I gave you a book”–”I gave,” I gave you,” and “I gave a book” all require more information to make clear sense).

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

While English does not lexically differentiate verbs of differing valence values, Japanese does, making a lexical difference between intransitive verbs (自動詞; ji-dou-shi) and transitive verbs (他動詞; ta-dou-shi).Transitives and ditransitives are treated as one in the same in Japanese. What this means is that a second language speaker of Japanese must learn which verb to use in accordance with the context of the sentence, actively using different forms of the same verb for different sentences: 私は強敵を倒した(I felled a strong opponent)　vs 私が(強敵に)倒れた。(I was defeated [by a strong opponent])

Examples

Japanese intransitives include verbs that cannot be used to refer to a direct object that takes the particle, を; rather, these verbs can only refer to indirect or auxiliary objects that take the particle, に. These verbs always tend to act upon the subject of as sentence rather than the object.

変わる　　天気が変わってきたな。
Change – The weather changed

抜ける　　ビンが抜けた。
Remove – The cap came off.

起きる　　事故がたまに起きるものです。
Occur – Accidents sometimes happen.

壊れる　　今朝テレビが壊れちゃってさ。
Break Well - the TV broke this morning…

零れる　　ビールが零れた。
Spill – The beer got spilled.

By contrast, Japanese transitives always act upon an object marked by the particle, を.

It is important to note that no arguments need be explicitly stated in Japanese, being that Japanese tends to be a language that likes to drop its arguments in everyday speech; however, regardless as to whether or not a particular sentence happens to omit its arguments, semantically the value of a transitive sentence is the same. i.e. 「忘れて残してしまった。」　and　「私はノートを忘れて残してしまった。」have the exact same meaning in the context that one is running toward class and realizes one forgot one’s notebook at home.

Some transitives:
変える 気分を変えて、このパーティを楽しんでみた。
Change – I changed my mood and tried to enjoy the party.
抜く 私はビンを抜いて飲んだ。
Remove – I removed the cap and drank it.
起こす　　　事故を起こせないようにきを付けてください。
Cause – So as not to cause an accident, please be careful.
壊す 友達の車を壊してしまった。
Break – I broke my friend’s car.
零す ビールの零したや不や皆を秘密にすると約束させた。
Spill – I spilled my beer and immediately forced everybody to promise to keep it a secret.

Keeping track of verbs with differing valence values can sometimes be difficult for learners of Japanese; however, with a little practice, it doesn’t have to be impossible.

Learning new vocabulary is a necessity for learning any language. It also happens to be one aspect of acquiring functionality in a new language that proves daunting for many students. In large, this is due to the fact that learning and recalling information are two separate actions. While many people experience the differences between these two actions with a great deal of frustration, learning and retaining new lexical information doesn’t have to be a painstaking process.

There are a variety of techniques that are useful for learning new vocabulary, and this article is written with the intent of spreading knowledge of these techniques.

Language Learning Psychology

Fundamentally, retaining new vocabulary is a process that hinges on a student’s ability to create strong neurological highways; this is because, before converting knowledge to long term memory, the human brain first must retain information as short term memory. Short term memory, if reflected upon enough, is eventually converted into long term memory, and stored within gray matter, a vast network of nerve tissue in the cortex analogous to a kind of mental file cabinet. Much in the same way that pulling information from a file cabinet is made easy or difficult by the organization of said cabinet, pulling information from long term memory depends on the organization of that knowledge. When we create memories, they are organized by association within our brain; for this very same reason, the processes of learning and recalling new vocabulary are made simple through well organized, methodical acquisition.

What this ultimately boils down to, put simply: information stored effectively is information easily retained and recalled. The most effective way to learn new vocabulary is through association. For example, reading through a dictionary and picking—at random—words that speak to a students interests will always result in a lower rate of retention than learning words with related meanings, similar kanji, or general subject matter.

Allow me to use the example of organizing new vocabulary in terms of Kanji.

Examples of Japanese Word Association

The kanji, 気 (ki—spirit, air) is very common; in fact, without learning such a kanji, or any words containing such a kanji, it is highly unlikely that a student of Japanese would ever be able to obtain even a low degree of fluency. Naturally, this character is often times one of the first that new students of Japanese come to recognize. What most people do not, however, realize initially, is that this character provides a wealth of potential for learning new, common vocabulary.

For example:
気(ki—spirit, feeling, intention, mind, atmosphere)、気味(kimi—feeling, sensation)、気質(katagi, kishitsu—temperment, disposition)、気合(kiai—yell, scream, fighting spirit)、気圧(kiatsu—atmospheric pressure)、気管(kikan—windpipe, trachea)、気軽(kigaru—carefree, lighthearted)、気候(kikou—climate), 気勢(kisei—vigor)、気絶(kizetsu—faint)、気が遠くなる(ki ga tooku naru—to become dizzy)、気体(kitai—gas, vapor)、気分(kibun—feeling, mood)、気楽(kiraku—ease, comfort)、気付く(kizuku—to notice)。

Because all of these words share the common element 気, it is much easier to remember them if grouped in accordance to their association.

Another way to group words together so that they can be learned by association is to learn words that relate to a given subject.

For example, nouns that refer to items found in a kitchen:
棚(tana—shelf)、冷蔵庫(reizouko—refrigerator)、オーブン(oobun—oven)、台所(daidokoro—kitchen)、テーブル(teeburu—table)、椅子(isu—chair)、フライパン(furaipan—frying pan)、なべ(nabe—pot)、包丁(houchou—knife)、石鹸(sekken—soap)、蛇口(jaguchi—faucet)、流し(nagashi—sink, drain).

A final technique that can prove useful for grouping words is to choose those that follow a predictable shape, form, or grammatical category. For example, there is a (rather large) set of adverbs in Japanese that follow a very set phonological pattern: (C)VCCVCV ((consonant)-vowel-geminate consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel). These are native Japanese adverbs, those that have survived from ancient Japanese, through classical and middle Japanese, and continue to persist in modern Japanese.

Some more examples:
はっきり(hakkiri—clearly, distinctly) 、しっかり(shikkari—firmly, solidly, steadily)、そっくり(sokkuri—entirely, altogether)、ぴったり(pittari—neatly, exactly)、がっかり(gakkari—disappointed, feeling let down or drained)、ぐっすり(gussuri—soundly of sleep)、ゆっくり(yukkuri—slowly)、たっぷり(tappuri—ample, full)、すっきり(sukkiri—cleanly, nearly, thoroughly)、すっかり(sukkari—completely) 、びっしょり(bisshori—saturated, completely soaked).

Translation provides a myriad of opportunities to learn japanese, as well as to improve one’s level of fluency and comprehension. This is largely due to the fact that translation requires a great deal of reading, which exposes a student of a language to a vast amount of vocabulary in a short amount of time; additionally, translation demands of a student a significant amount of critical thinking, as transforming a line of text from one language to another first requires that student to process the information present in the source language (the language in which a text is originally written, in this case Japanese), before rendering into a target language (a language to which a translator translates, English for the purpose of this article).

Concerning translation, it is widely known within the practice that two generalized techniques exist for effectively translating discourse. These techniques are literal translation (直訳), and loose translation (意訳).

Literal Translation

Literal translation refers to rendering an utterance or sentence in the target language accurately, and–well–literally. Naturally, this requires a strong sense of vocabulary and grammatical nuance to effectively employ. This method is primarily useful when the target language lacks a rough approximation of the original sentence’s nuance or meaning; it is also useful should a translation that approximates meaning loses too much of the original sentence’s weight, charm, or character. Lastly, literal translation is appropriate given the condition that a literal translation–one that is direct, neat, and without conflict with the original sentence–simply conveys the original meaning of the sentence well.

Take for example the sentence:
「ここだ、ここだ。ちょうどその柳の根の所だ。」
This is probably best translated with a literal technique to something such as: “Right here! Right here! Right by the roots of that Yanagi cedar tree.”

The reason for this is simple: this sentence lacks any constituents that disagree with English grammar or manner of speaking; additionally, “yanagi” is a species of cedar that is not indigenous to any English speaking culture; it is endemic to Japan, and therefore has no English approximation.

The above example is not to suggest that literal translation is not without fault. Clearly, it does provide for some blind spots, namely that Japanese is a very different language than English, and a direct approach does not always result in a translation that appropriately conveys meaning.

Take for example,
「襖のえは蕪村の筆である。黒い柳を濃く薄く、遠近とかいて、寒そうな魚夫が笠をかたぶけて土手の上を通る。」
This sentence would be rather poorly translated, were it to read. “The painting on my fusuma is the pen of Buson. Black Yanagi painted thick and faint, over here–over there. A cold looking fisherman tilts his umbrella and passes above the bank of the river.”

This is where loose translation comes to the rescue, making better sense of this sentence, so that it looks something like:
“Buson painted the mural on my sliding paper door, black Yanagi ceders painted here and there–both bold and faint-a lonely fisherman battling the cold, unfurling his umbrella as he ascends the river bank.”

Loose Translation

Loose translation proves to compensate for times when literal translation tends to make a mess of things. Loose translation also has the perk of always sounding natural, as all sentences translated loosely ultimately end up becoming rough approximations of the source sentence; however, loose translation techniques also run the risk of sounding contrived, deliberate, and insincere. It’s very easy to take liberties that should not be taken with literal translation, and it can sometimes be difficult to see where to draw the line.

Thus, translation can ultimately be seen as a delicate balance between both techniques–between sincerity and accuracy, and natural wording and flavor. To effectively translate any body of text, a translator must put both skills to the test.

The final translation provided seeks to exemplify this balancing act:

こんな夢をみた。
六つになる子供を負ぶってる。たしかに自分の子である。ただ不思議な事にはいつの間にか眼が潰れて、あお坊主になっている。自分が御前の眼はいつ潰れたのかいと聞くと、なに昔からさと答えた。こえは子供に相違ないが、言葉つきはまるで大人である。しかもたいとうだ。

“I had a dream that went something like this:
I was carrying a six year old child on my back, evidently my own. The strange thing was, at some point in its life it had lost its sight and all the hair was shaved from its head. When I asked, “Child, how long have you been blind?” He responded with, “well, I suppose it has been some time.” His voice was undeniably that of a child, but he spoke to me as if he were an adult; moreover, he spoke to me as if he were my equal.”

*All of the Japanese text in this article is lifted from Natsume Souseki’s series of short stories, 夢十夜.