Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Linguistic vertigo; or, the Meridian Turns Japanese

While piddling around on the computer at work today rather than finishing getting ready for class, I was checking on recent referrers to the Meridian. I find it interesting to know where visitors are from and how they find me. Today, I clicked on a rather odd-looking URL and found this.
Fascinating. But I also found myself rereading rather closely my comments on Good Friday and Arvo Part, wondering, as I did, how (accurately) did that get translated? In other words, I found myself wondering and questioning just what I'd said . . . and, of course (seeing as I don't read Japanese), I have no way of knowing at the moment. My English--not the Japanese--became mysterious, code-like, to me, gesturing toward a linguistic community that I suddenly became much more cognizant of than when I had written the post.
I don't think I've had such a moment as this before. I recall an seeing an interview with John Cleese in which he said he's seen dubbed versions of Fawlty Towers in places like Japan and wonders "how this stuff goes over." Exactly.
I'm not smart enough just now to pursue this further. But it's the nearest to an out-of-body experience I'm ever likely to have.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, at least China hasn't got hold of you yet. From what I've heard/seen, for all their other virtues they're not always too scrupulous about intellectual copyright over there; I assume the japanese page is crediting you in some way?

Anonymous said...

incidentally, I note "good Friday" has been translated as just that: "ii ne kin-yobi", a good friday. :)