Mar 9

Translators Corner: Translating Obama, Audaciously

Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, Writers Comments Off on Translators Corner: Translating Obama, Audaciously

Posted by translator and writer Jamie Graves (Saitama-Ken 2002-2003). JetWit invites other translators to post commentary on for Translators Corner as well.  Contact translatorscorner atto jetwit dotto com if interested.

While President Obama’s name has proved remarkably compatible with the Japanese language (I wish MY name were that easy to write in kanji), his eloquent rhetoric has proved a little bit more difficult. There is currently an excellent discussion on the Google Honyaku Group about how to translate the now iconic phrase “The Audacity of Hope“. The title of the official Japanese translation of the book conveys only one meaning of the phrase, meaning something like “Revitalizing America, By Embracing Large Hopes”. You can find the discussion on how to accurately render the poetic brevity of “The Audacity of Hope” here.

I thought the first suggestion “あえての希望” (Aete-no-kibo, “daring to hope”) best captured the succinctness of the original phrase. It was followed by many interesting, and occasionally very funny suggestions, as well as some fascinating digressions on what exactly the meaning and feeling of the word “Audacity” are in the original phrase.

Particularly interesting was how people were looking for something to convey the brash feeling of audacity, how the phrase relates to the already popular “Boys Be Ambitious” (青年よ大志を抱け), and the slightly dark (and prescient) joke that “オーダシティ” may soon enter the Japanese language as is.

For those who are interested, Dwight Van Winkle posted an interesting link to a list of official translations of the “The Audacity of Hope” in many different languages.