Recently I received an E-mail from one reader of my book in English(translation).
The person accused me for translating my own book from Japanese into English because I have made mistakes in grammar and diction of English. And the person advised me not to translate any other books by
myself, saying that I need an editor who knows English(Who? Is there any volunteer?).
But I rather wonder why other readers have never complained with my bad English if it is really so bad.
The book criticized is "Tarkovsky and His Time"(revised Edition, paperback) .
There had been many books on Andrei Tarkovsky in English. But I think there is no other book concentrating on his own life, trying to be as objective as possible, with the natural sense of respect to him as a physical human having noble ideal.
In addition, the information I have explored from the Russian books and Russian websites must have certain value for English native speakers who can't read Russian and have never been in Russia.
Every national culture is bound to its language and the land where it was born and brought up.
More than 20 years ago I bought a book written in English but published in Moscow. Its translators were, apparently, Russians. The book is titled "About Tarkovsky". And it was sold in Tokyo, namely they exported the book for foreigners.
I think, there must be mistakes of English in that book, but its value for young researches and fans of great master's works is not there.The "information" contained in that book( originally written by those who knew Tarkovsky in his lifetime, of course, in Russian) is undeniably true.
I would rather say that today's horrible situation of economic globalization and apparent decline of culture-art value system formed from 18th to 19th centuries, are inevitable outcome of Western modern civilization. Namely it is self-destructing in its cultural aspect.
And the deformation of the dominating language actively used there in business and popular culture, academies and politics, is also inevitable.
Who has enough time to care about the elegance of the words in translation if one or two countries are dominating in the large part of cultural industry of his or her homeland? Publication of a decent book in Japan, especially a book on so-called arthouse cinema, now brings the publisher only Deficit.
Our situation will become better if Hollywood and MacDonalds stop exporting their "culture" to the countries whose languages and cultures the leading global companies know only superficially.
In short, we don't want to see another Mr.Beans, another "G.I Joes" and destructing "derivatives"(totally worthless papers which our mega-bank and leading insurance companies had bought from USA ). Main effort of our generation for these 2 decades has been made for struggling against consumerism of the masses who smack their lips over degradaded popular culture made in USA.
The person accused me for translating my own book from Japanese into English because I have made mistakes in grammar and diction of English. And the person advised me not to translate any other books by
myself, saying that I need an editor who knows English(Who? Is there any volunteer?).
But I rather wonder why other readers have never complained with my bad English if it is really so bad.
The book criticized is "Tarkovsky and His Time"(revised Edition, paperback) .
There had been many books on Andrei Tarkovsky in English. But I think there is no other book concentrating on his own life, trying to be as objective as possible, with the natural sense of respect to him as a physical human having noble ideal.
In addition, the information I have explored from the Russian books and Russian websites must have certain value for English native speakers who can't read Russian and have never been in Russia.
Every national culture is bound to its language and the land where it was born and brought up.
More than 20 years ago I bought a book written in English but published in Moscow. Its translators were, apparently, Russians. The book is titled "About Tarkovsky". And it was sold in Tokyo, namely they exported the book for foreigners.
I think, there must be mistakes of English in that book, but its value for young researches and fans of great master's works is not there.The "information" contained in that book( originally written by those who knew Tarkovsky in his lifetime, of course, in Russian) is undeniably true.
I would rather say that today's horrible situation of economic globalization and apparent decline of culture-art value system formed from 18th to 19th centuries, are inevitable outcome of Western modern civilization. Namely it is self-destructing in its cultural aspect.
And the deformation of the dominating language actively used there in business and popular culture, academies and politics, is also inevitable.
Who has enough time to care about the elegance of the words in translation if one or two countries are dominating in the large part of cultural industry of his or her homeland? Publication of a decent book in Japan, especially a book on so-called arthouse cinema, now brings the publisher only Deficit.
Our situation will become better if Hollywood and MacDonalds stop exporting their "culture" to the countries whose languages and cultures the leading global companies know only superficially.
In short, we don't want to see another Mr.Beans, another "G.I Joes" and destructing "derivatives"(totally worthless papers which our mega-bank and leading insurance companies had bought from USA ). Main effort of our generation for these 2 decades has been made for struggling against consumerism of the masses who smack their lips over degradaded popular culture made in USA.
