A Quick Look at the Japanese
Sentence
Japanese is a SOV language; that is, the normal word order is Subject + Object + Verb. In contrast, English is a SVO language. The Japanese word order is probably one of the biggest hurdles for the English speaker’s brain, hardwired as it is to find the verb very near the beginning of the sentence. Short Japanese sentences don’t present much of a problem, because the verb, even if it is at the end of the sentence, comes up fairly quickly. Of course, there are many other SOV languages in the world, and the speakers of those languages may not find Japanese as difficult as English speakers do. (There is a lot of material on Wikipedia about these two types of languages and the other topics discussed below.)
It is the long Japanese sentence that presents difficulties because the brain has to wait and wait and wait until the verb comes up. Interestingly, in English there is what is called a periodic sentence, which means a sentence that must be read to the very end to grasp its meaning, and that’s because the subject and verb are at the end. For example,
“Concerning your proposal to strengthen anti-global warming measures, I disagree.”
Various sites have slightly different definitions and examples of the periodic sentence, but I suppose the one above can be taken as a prototypical case. A University of Ottawa site has the following to say about periodic sentences:
While a periodic sentence can be useful for making an important point or for a special dramatic effect, it is also much more difficult to read, and often requires readers to go back and reread the sentence once they understand the main point.
Well, we are all familiar with going back and rereading the sentence, but my point is this. It would seem from the above that all Japanese sentences are periodic sentences of a sort, since the verb almost always comes last (I say “almost always” since there are exceptions). If the periodic sentence is difficult, does that in itself mean that Japanese is difficult?
Next I would like to look at sentence branching, which I think is the most interesting thing of all, and useful too. Sentences can be said to branch in three different ways. If the sentence is written horizontally (not vertically like Japanese is sometimes), and you take the verb as your point of reference, a left-branching sentence is one in which a good deal of the sentence is located to the left of the verb. For example,
"WHEN I WENT TO KYOTO LAST WEEK, I had a great time.”
This, in fact, is a type of periodic sentence. Both Japanese and English can have left-branching sentences.
Next there is the mid-branching sentence, in which a sentence is inserted midway in another sentence or clause. For example,
“When I -- AND YOU KNOW WHO I AM -- went to Kyoto last week, I visited Ryoanji.”
Both Japanese and English can have this type of sentence.
Last is the right-branching sentence.
“I visited Ryoanji WHEN I WENT TO KYOTO LAST WEEK.”
Now, right branching is what Japanese does not do, normally. So the upshot of all this -- and the main point -- is that when you translate a long, complicated, left-branching Japanese sentence, most certainly some of it is going to form a right branch in your English sentence. For example (excuse my Japanese here),
Senshû no kayôbi, shinkansen de Kyoto ni itta toki machi o arukimawatte, iroiro to bikkuri suru hodo omoshiroi mono o mimashita.
"Last Tuesday, when I went to Kyoto on the bullet train, I saw a surprising number of interesting things as I walked around town."
Or you could try it as a left-branching like the Japanese:
"Last Tuesday, when I went to Kyoto on the bullet train and was walking around town, I saw a surprising number of interesting things."
In any case, I think you can see my point. The longer the Japanese sentence, the more likely some of it will be translated into an English sentence that has both left and right branches. So, looking at your Japanese sentence, you decide what can go where, and take a shot at it and see what happens.
Of course, some translators might prefer to ignore the whole problem of branches and just break up that pesky long Japanese sentence into a number of short ones.
"Last Tuesday I went to Kyoto on the bullet train. I walked around town, and I saw a surprising number of interesting things."
If you just need to pass along information, I suppose this method is acceptable, but if it is fiction, where tone is important, then this might not fill the bill.
Basho’s Frog Haiku------------------------
Furu-ike ya
Kawazu ga tobikomu
Mizu no oto
This is often translated as follows:
The old pond--
A frog jumps in.
The sound of water.
Each line is a statement in itself. There is an old pond. A frog jumps in it. There is a splashing sound. I’m not sure what the Japanese scholarly perspective is on this, but just recently a little old lady waiting for the signal to change told me that the second line modified the third, and I tend to agree. So the filled-out Japanese version would go something like this:
Furu-ike ya
Kawazu ga tobikomu to
Mizu no oto ga shimashita
The “to” here indicates that when one action occurs, another action immediately follows.
So, following the principles of branching outlined above, I propose making this haiku into a right-branching sentence so that the present second line can modify the third. Here it is.
An old pond--
The sound of the water
as a frog jumps in.
You could argue that by putting the “sound” in the second line, I have diminished its dramatic value and ruined the poem. That may be true, but on the other hand, when the reader reads the second line, with “water” in it, he or she doesn’t know what made the sound, and only learns what made it in the third line, which therefore has its own dramatic value and tickles the imagination.
As an aside, it is intriguing that even though Japanese has so many onomatopoeic words for indicating splashing sounds, Basho chose not to use any of them but stick with the simple mizu no oto. Tell me why.
Japanese is a SOV language; that is, the normal word order is Subject + Object + Verb. In contrast, English is a SVO language. The Japanese word order is probably one of the biggest hurdles for the English speaker’s brain, hardwired as it is to find the verb very near the beginning of the sentence. Short Japanese sentences don’t present much of a problem, because the verb, even if it is at the end of the sentence, comes up fairly quickly. Of course, there are many other SOV languages in the world, and the speakers of those languages may not find Japanese as difficult as English speakers do. (There is a lot of material on Wikipedia about these two types of languages and the other topics discussed below.)
It is the long Japanese sentence that presents difficulties because the brain has to wait and wait and wait until the verb comes up. Interestingly, in English there is what is called a periodic sentence, which means a sentence that must be read to the very end to grasp its meaning, and that’s because the subject and verb are at the end. For example,
“Concerning your proposal to strengthen anti-global warming measures, I disagree.”
Various sites have slightly different definitions and examples of the periodic sentence, but I suppose the one above can be taken as a prototypical case. A University of Ottawa site has the following to say about periodic sentences:
While a periodic sentence can be useful for making an important point or for a special dramatic effect, it is also much more difficult to read, and often requires readers to go back and reread the sentence once they understand the main point.
Well, we are all familiar with going back and rereading the sentence, but my point is this. It would seem from the above that all Japanese sentences are periodic sentences of a sort, since the verb almost always comes last (I say “almost always” since there are exceptions). If the periodic sentence is difficult, does that in itself mean that Japanese is difficult?
Next I would like to look at sentence branching, which I think is the most interesting thing of all, and useful too. Sentences can be said to branch in three different ways. If the sentence is written horizontally (not vertically like Japanese is sometimes), and you take the verb as your point of reference, a left-branching sentence is one in which a good deal of the sentence is located to the left of the verb. For example,
"WHEN I WENT TO KYOTO LAST WEEK, I had a great time.”
This, in fact, is a type of periodic sentence. Both Japanese and English can have left-branching sentences.
Next there is the mid-branching sentence, in which a sentence is inserted midway in another sentence or clause. For example,
“When I -- AND YOU KNOW WHO I AM -- went to Kyoto last week, I visited Ryoanji.”
Both Japanese and English can have this type of sentence.
Last is the right-branching sentence.
“I visited Ryoanji WHEN I WENT TO KYOTO LAST WEEK.”
Now, right branching is what Japanese does not do, normally. So the upshot of all this -- and the main point -- is that when you translate a long, complicated, left-branching Japanese sentence, most certainly some of it is going to form a right branch in your English sentence. For example (excuse my Japanese here),
Senshû no kayôbi, shinkansen de Kyoto ni itta toki machi o arukimawatte, iroiro to bikkuri suru hodo omoshiroi mono o mimashita.
"Last Tuesday, when I went to Kyoto on the bullet train, I saw a surprising number of interesting things as I walked around town."
Or you could try it as a left-branching like the Japanese:
"Last Tuesday, when I went to Kyoto on the bullet train and was walking around town, I saw a surprising number of interesting things."
In any case, I think you can see my point. The longer the Japanese sentence, the more likely some of it will be translated into an English sentence that has both left and right branches. So, looking at your Japanese sentence, you decide what can go where, and take a shot at it and see what happens.
Of course, some translators might prefer to ignore the whole problem of branches and just break up that pesky long Japanese sentence into a number of short ones.
"Last Tuesday I went to Kyoto on the bullet train. I walked around town, and I saw a surprising number of interesting things."
If you just need to pass along information, I suppose this method is acceptable, but if it is fiction, where tone is important, then this might not fill the bill.
Basho’s Frog Haiku------------------------
Furu-ike ya
Kawazu ga tobikomu
Mizu no oto
This is often translated as follows:
The old pond--
A frog jumps in.
The sound of water.
Each line is a statement in itself. There is an old pond. A frog jumps in it. There is a splashing sound. I’m not sure what the Japanese scholarly perspective is on this, but just recently a little old lady waiting for the signal to change told me that the second line modified the third, and I tend to agree. So the filled-out Japanese version would go something like this:
Furu-ike ya
Kawazu ga tobikomu to
Mizu no oto ga shimashita
The “to” here indicates that when one action occurs, another action immediately follows.
So, following the principles of branching outlined above, I propose making this haiku into a right-branching sentence so that the present second line can modify the third. Here it is.
An old pond--
The sound of the water
as a frog jumps in.
You could argue that by putting the “sound” in the second line, I have diminished its dramatic value and ruined the poem. That may be true, but on the other hand, when the reader reads the second line, with “water” in it, he or she doesn’t know what made the sound, and only learns what made it in the third line, which therefore has its own dramatic value and tickles the imagination.
As an aside, it is intriguing that even though Japanese has so many onomatopoeic words for indicating splashing sounds, Basho chose not to use any of them but stick with the simple mizu no oto. Tell me why.
Japanese
Notes