For many of the types of devices, the quantity of each device is equal or close to equal between both texts. This may indicate the translator's preference for producing a work as similar to Carroll's Alice as possible.
Two notable outliers are the differences between the number of rhyme phrases and onomatopoeia in both texts. Rhyme phrase, while prevalent in English poems and songs, is not a feature commonly found in Japanese poems. As the location of the majority of the English rhyme is located in the songs and poems, it makes sense that there is only one example of rhyme present in the Japanese text, while there are 70 examples present in the English text. Onomatopeia varies across texts as well, likely for the opposite reason; although onomatopoeia does occur in English and in the Alice text, it does not occur to the same extent as onomatopoeia occurs in Japanese. Japanese onomatopoeia is used to express more than merely sounds, including feelings and states of being.
The difference in repetiton, although not as great of gap as rhyme phrase of onomatopoeia, is still notable. When looking at instances of repetition in the English text, the device occurs with some frequency in the songs and poems, whereas in the Japanese songs, the occurence of repetitons is much less.
It is, however, important to recognize the limitations of the data presented. This project was not completed by native speakers of Japanese, which may have led to some error in finding certain devices in the Japanese text. An example of this can be seen in song 6.
O = onomotopoeia, R = rhyme, C = cultural reference, I = incorrect usage, P = play on words, N = nonsense, U = uncommon usage
O = onomotopoeia, R = rhyme, C = cultural reference, I = incorrect usage, P = play on words, N = nonsense, U = uncommon usage
The following table contains the nonsense words found within both versions of the text. As the focus of this project was to determine how certain features were translated from English into Japanese, nonsense words in the Japanese text were tagged based on the nonsense words in the English text.
| English | Japanese |
|---|---|
| curiouser | てんへこりん |
| muchness | おっちょこと |
| uglify | 化け物 |
The initial quantity of nonsense words found in the texts was less than what was originally thought to be present within the text. All of the nonsense words in both the English and Japanese text are derived from preexisting words within the language, which have some morphological modification to them. In the English text, these modifications all come in the form of an added suffix
'Uglify' appears in three different forms in the English text: uglify, uglifying, and uglification. However, the Japanese text only contains two forms of '化け物': 化け物 and ばけ算. 化け物 is actually a word, with a meaning close to 'monster' than to the English definition 'to become ugly.' ばけ算, which is used as a translation for both 'uglification' and 'uglifying', consists of two parts: 化け, a noun for 'transforming oneself' and 算, a word part relating to counting and calculations.'Uglification' and 'ばけ算' are also the only nonsense words to appear as play on words. Both words occur the context of an arithmetic course, and 'uglification' is phonetically similar to 'multiplication,' while 'ばけ算' is phonetically similar to '掛け算'.
Alice is well known for its use of songs and poems. Discounting breaks by dialogue and text, there are 10 songs in Alice, many of which Carroll parodied from famous children's poems.
Overall, Okubo favored the formatting and English poem style when translating Alice. The structure of the Japanese poems almost exactly mirrors that of the English poems, and the Japanese poems are very similar in meaning to the English poems.
It appears that Okubo may have translated the poems directly, as opposed to modifying well known children Japanese poems and songs. This approach could possibly be due to the time in which this version of Alice was translated; because Alice has such widespread popularity in Japan, readers may have enough familiarity with translations of the English songs and poems that a close translation from English is still accessible to a Japanese audience. This is, however, speculation. It is also important to note that because this project was undertaken by non-native Japanese speakers, the analysis of the translation of these poems may be more shallow than desired.
Below you will find some of the songs reprinted in both English and Japanese, and a brief analysis of both.
‘How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And
pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
‘How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his
claws,
And welcome little fishes in
With gently smiling
jaws!’
びっくりだ わあにさん
しっぽがね ぴかーん
ナイルがわ ざあぶざぶ
うろこにね びしゃーん！
キバだして にいんやり
ツメひろげ じゃきーん
おいでませ さかなちゃん
にこにこ……がぶりっ！
This poem is a parody of Isaac Watt's "Against Idleness and Mischief".
'Fury said to a
mouse That he
met in the
house,
“Let us
both go to
law: I will
prosecute
YOU .--Come,
I’ll take no
denial; We
must have a
trial:
For really this
morning I’ve
nothing
to do.”
Said the
mouse to the
cur, “Such
a trial,
dear Sir,
With
no jury
or judge,
would be
wasting
our
breath.”
“I’ll be
judge, I’ll
be jury,”
Said
cunning
old Fury:
“I’ll
try the
whole
cause,
and
condemn
you
to
death.”'
「イカリーわ
んわんネズ
ミにいちゃ
もん、『出る
とこ出よう
ぜ、うった
えてやる――
さあ、し
のごの言
うなよ。は
っきりと
おさば
きよ。
今朝は
まあそ
れだけ
にしとい
てやる。』
犬ころ
に言う
ネズミ、
『そんな
のいやだ
よ、きみ、
いったい
だれがさ
ばくの、
ただの時
間のむだ
じゃない。』
『さばくの
はやっぱ
り、おれ
だろ。』
と
うら
かく
犬
ころ。
『はん
けつは
出た
ぞ、
言い
わた
す、
お前
は
死けい。』」
This poem exhibits Carroll's structural word play. It occurs in the text when the mouse begins to tell Alice his sad story. The shape of the poem is suppose to resemble the tail of a mouse, in accordance with the word play on "tale" and "tail".
Structurally, the English and Japanese poems are mirrors of each other. Both poems contain the same amount of bends (five). Although these poem appear to have bends occuring in the opposite direction of one another, it is important to note that many print editions of Alice have bends in the same direction as the Japanese text rendering does. The Japanese counterpart also has larger spacing gaps between lines, giving the appearance of sharper bends, whereas the English poem had less spacing and shallow bends.
Like many of the poems in Okubo's translation, this poem has very similar meaning to the English equivalent.
‘You are old, Father William,’ the young man said,
‘And your hair
has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your
head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?’
‘In my youth,’ Father William replied to his son,
‘I feared it
might injure the brain;
But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have
none,
Why, I do it again and again.’
‘You are old,’ said the youth, ‘as I mentioned before,
And have
grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at
the door--
Pray, what is the reason of that?’
‘In my youth,’ said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
‘I kept
all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment--one
shilling the box--
Allow me to sell you a couple?’
‘You are old,’ said the youth, ‘and your jaws are too weak
For
anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the
bones and the beak--
Pray how did you manage to do it?’
‘In my youth,’ said his father, ‘I took to the law,
And argued
each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave
to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.’
‘You are old,’ said the youth, ‘one would hardly suppose
That your
eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of
your nose--
What made you so awfully clever?’
‘I have answered three questions, and that is enough,’
Said his
father; ‘don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all
day to such stuff?
Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!’
もう年なんだ ウィリアムじいさん
頭は 白髪 しらが だし
なのにいつでも 逆立ちばかりで――
わきまえろ
むすこに向かい じいさん言う
若さはおそれさ
自分がバカだとわかれば
あとはやるだけさ
もう年なんだ わかってくれ
それに太りすぎだ
なのに戸口で バク 宙 ちゅう なんてさ――
かんがえろ
白髪 しらが ふりわけ じいさん言う
ひと箱１シル
薬のおかげでしなやか――
どうじゃふた箱？
もう年なんだ はぐきも弱い
あぶらみでやっとだ
なのにガチョウほねごと平らげ――
なんなんだ
わかいころは へりくつばっか
夫婦ゲンカさ
おかげでアゴもじょうぶよ
こりゃ一生ものさ
もう年なんだ ふつうだったら
目もしょぼしょぼのはず
なのに鼻にウナギを立てて――
器用 きよう かよ！
３べん言えば わかるじゃろ！
いい気になるなよ
もうたくさんじゃわい いなねば
上からけおとす！
Carroll's version of the poem plays off of Robert Southey's poem, "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them."
“ Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you’re at! ”
“ Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky .
Twinkle, twinkle--“’
『てかてか ひかる
やみの こうもり』
『ひらひら とぶよ
おぼんのように
てかてか……』」
It is particularly interesting that Okubo chose to tranlate this poem so closely in structure to the modified English poem; poems written in quatrains can be translated into a Japanese verse like a tanka more easily than some other forms of English poetry. This poem has been translated into a tanka before by Japanese translators (Weaver).
‘“Will you walk a little faster?” said a whiting to a snail.
“There’s a porpoise close behind us, and he’s treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are
waiting on the shingle--will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?
“You can really have no notion how delightful it will be
When they
take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!”
But the
snail replied “Too far, too far!” and gave a look askance--
Said
he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the
dance.
Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join
the dance.
‘“What matters it how far we go?” his scaly friend replied.
“There
is another shore, you know, upon the other side.
The further off
from England the nearer is to France--
Then turn not pale, beloved
snail, but come and join the dance.
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?”
マイマイ、マダラにうしろをつかれて
サメがせまってる そこまで来てる
みんな先まで泳いでる
ぼくらを待ってる――おどりにゆこう
行こうよ、どうかな、おどりにさ
行こうよ、どうかな、おどるのは
だって楽しく海へと投げられて
ロブスターと浜から ぶんぶんざぶん
でもマイマイ言うには 遠すぎる
うれしいけれど おどりに行けない
いやいや、無理だよ、おどりはさ
いやいや、無理だよ、おどるのは
そこでマダラはせっつく 遠くても
向こうに行けば 陸地はあるよ
遠い近いは気持ち次第
やる気を出して おどりに混ざろう
行こうよ、どうかな、おどりにさ
行こうよ、どうかな、おどるのは
This poem parodies Mary Botham Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly". It demonstrates the difference between the English repetitions used in songs as opposed to Japanese repetitions. The English version contains many lexical repetitons, such as "will you" and "won't you". However, both poems contain phrase or line repetitions, as well as repetitons of the chorus (it should be noted that only word repetitons, and not line and chorus repetitons, were tagged under the repetiton tag, and therefore only word repetitons affect the repetition count).
‘’Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
“You have
baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair.”
As a duck with its
eyelids, so he with his nose
Trims his belt and his buttons, and
turns out his toes.’
When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark,
And will talk in
contemptuous tones of the Shark,
But, when the tide rises and
sharks are around,
His voice has a timid and tremulous sound.
‘I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
How the Owl and
the Panther were sharing a pie--’
The Panther took pie-crust, and
gravy, and meat,
While the Owl had the dish as its share of the
treat.
When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon,
Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon:
While the Panther
received knife and fork with a growl,
And concluded the banquet--
エビの声が 聞こえてくる
焼きすぎだ 砂糖をまぶせ
アヒルみたく 鼻を使って
おしゃれして 外またで立つ
引きしおでは はしゃぎだし
サメをバカに したけれど
満ちしおでは サメが来る
声はふるえ ぶるぶる
声はふるえ ちぢこまる
庭先にて パイをわける
フクロウとヒョウの２ひき
パイとお肉 食べるヒョウ
フクロウは 残りのお皿
パイがすっかりなくなると
フクロウ スプーンいただくが
せまり来るは ヒョウのやつ
ナイフかまえ がるるる
〆に ……
This poem is a parody of "'Tis the Voice of the Sluggard" by Isaac Watt.
‘The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer
day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took
them quite away!’
ハートのクインがタルトを作る
夏のさなか１日かけて
ハートのジャックがタルトをぬすむ
かくれてこっそりひとりじめ！
Like in song 5, this poem demonstrates how Okubo chose to follow the English poem structure as close as possible.