Emmett Harris (2020), a former student who minored in Japanese, gave an enlightening talk about his translation work for upper-year Japanese students in SLaLS on November 2nd.
Emmett translated a Japanese short story called Curry Rice by Kiyoshi Shigematsu into English. He first read this story in a Reading in Japanese course at Carleton. As an aspiring translator, he worked on his translation and polished it over the years.
In his talk, Emmett read a section of his work and described some of the challenges translators face and the importance of understanding the culture and language of the original work.
Students were inspired by this example of where proficiency in a language can lead.
Please read Emmett’s translated version of the story below. In Canada, the original book (in Japanese) can be purchased online from Amazon.