Translation

I enrolled in the summer translation course at Inter School in Sendai a few years ago, because I am interested in translation (from English to Japanese). At first, I was told by the school that the class might not be opened because of shortage of students. After all, it was opened with 4 students including me. It was really a nice experience, each person has a unique idea and one story in English became 4 different typed stories in Japanese. We exchanged ideas and discussed meanings. I was inspired by their ideas and teacher's advices. The story we translated was 'The Umbrella Man' by Roald Dahl. It was difficult to translate his humorous story into Japanese with British culture.

It was a short course but I felt satisfied as if we finished work of translation. I'm wondering how they doing now? Are you enrolled in the main course? Thank you for sharing a wonderful time.

I am not professional translator, but sometimes enjoy translating by myself. This time, I translated the poem of Maya Angelou (my Japanese translation is here). It's a complately different from Roald Dahl works but really nice poem. I know poems are difficult to translate, because it has a rhythm and also some meanings, cultures and histories in short sentences.

Still I Rise
   by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
you may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
still I'll rise

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Digging' in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with our words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still like air, I'll rise

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise