Nick Bennett, Japanese-English Translator (JLPT Level 1)
Welcome to the home page of Nick Bennett, a professional Trados-enabled Japanese-English translator with more than 15 years experience of translating IT/software and business/marketing materials.
I learnt my Japanese at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) at London University, graduating with a double First in Japanese and Economics. I also spent a year at Hiroshima University on a Monbusho scholarship, studing Japanese, Japanese literature and macroecomic theory. More recently, I have also obtained Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT).
Based in Dublin, I provide international localisation companies and translation agencies with meticulously accurate translations that leverage existing translation memory and scrupulously adhere to other supplied reference materials.
My commitment to translation quality is underscored by my linguistic skills, by my extensive commercial experience in import-export, finance and web design, and by a kaizen-inspired readiness to upskill and embrace new technologies.
For example, I have recently obtained a Diploma in Online and Digital Marketing from the Digital Marketing Institute in Dublin and am also the founder and webmaster of www.arbcruncher.com, a PR4 site that provides an online Flash arbitrage calculator.
At my client's request, I have also assembled a team of hand-picked J-E translators to deliver additional quality-assured capacity when required.
I welcome inquiries via , Twitter or Facebook and looks forward to discussing your translation needs.
Favourite Translations
Original: Traduttore, traditore (Italian)
Translation: Yakusha wa yakuza (Japanese)
The word play of this famous Italian proverb can be almost exactly reproduced in other European languages (e.g., Translator, traitor or Traducteur, traître), but is less easily transposed into non-Latin languages. The standard Japanese translation, Honyakusha wa uragirimono, is plain and punless. However, the substitution of honyakusha by the equally valid yakusha paves the way for an elegant jeu de mots that compares translators with gangsters. If written with a different kanji, yakusha can also mean actor, adding further phonetic calumny to the original charge.
Original: Poulet au Vinaigre (French)
Translation: Cop au Vin (English)
Poulet au Vinaigre is the title of a French film by Claude Chabrol that plays on the double meaning of poulet as slang for policeman. Poulet au vinaigre is a classic French dish that is usually translated as chicken with red wine vinegar. The film's English distributor came up with Cop au Vin as an ingenious translation that retains both the culinary and constabulary elements of the original title.
Original: Furu ikeya / Kawazu tobikomu / Mizu no oto (Japanese)
Translation: An old pond / A frog jumps in / Plop! (English)
The last line of this well-known Matsuo Bashô haiku is usually translated as The sound of water or The splash of water. However, the imaginative use of a onomatopoeia vividly captures the intersection between the first and second lines and also evokes the subsequent return to serene silence. This particular euphony is attributed to the Zen scholar Alan Watts, but other writers have also provided some interesting alternatives. Allen Ginsberg went all polysyllabic with Kerplunk!, while James Kirkup condensed the whole haiku to frog / pond / plop.
Favourite Mistranslations
Original: When I look back on my past, I see that it is divided into two parts. (English)
Translation: Quand je regarde ma derrière, je vois que c'est divisée en deux parts. (French)
This is the beginning of an aprocryphal speech made by an English diplomat in French as he approached retirement. The unwise translation of my past as ma derrière transformed his retrospection into an unfortunate anatomical observation.
Please if you have any other interesting examples of good or bad translations!
