This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
This person has a SecurePRO™ card. Because this person is not a ProZ.com Plus subscriber, to view his or her SecurePRO™ card you must be a ProZ.com Business member or Plus subscriber.
Affiliations
This person is not affiliated with any business or Blue Board record at ProZ.com.
Japanese to English - Standard rate: 0.10 GBP per character / 15 GBP per hour / 0.25 GBP per audio/video minute English - Standard rate: 0.10 GBP per word / 15 GBP per hour / 0.25 GBP per audio/video minute
Japanese to English: 『おらおらでひとりいぐも』(Ora Ora de Hitori Igu mo) by 若竹千佐子 (Wakatake Chisako) General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Japanese 1
あいやぁ、おらの頭このごろ、なんぼがおがしくなってきたんでねべが
どうすっぺぇ、この先ひとりで、何如にすべかぁ
何如にもかじょにもしかたながっぺぇ
てしたごどねでば、なにそれぐれ
だいじょぶだ、おめには、おらがついでっから。おめとおらは最後まで一緒だがら
あいやぁ、そういうおめは誰なのよ
決まってっぺだら。おらだば、おめだ。おめだば、おらだ
Translation - English 1
Oh, but ‘asn’t my ‘ead been feelin’ funny for a few days now.
What am I gonna do? ‘Ow am I s’pose t’ cope on me own?
It can’t be ‘elped can it.
Well, there’s no use moanin’ about it.
Y’ull be alright, y’ve go’ me, affer’all. We’ll be t’gether ‘til the end.
‘Ey now, who even are you?
En’t it obvious? If I’m anyone, I’m you. And if yer anyone, yer me.
For some time now, Momoko-san had been sitting alone, submerged in the unfiltered Tōhoku accented voices that now flooded her mind, as if a dam had burst inside her. She slurped her tea. Zlurp, zlurp.
Aside from the chattering voices leaking out inside her head, she heard another faint sound coming from behind her. A rustling sound.
It reverberated surprisingly loudly around the otherwise silent room.
She could hear it from over her shoulder, right beside the back of her chair, coming from the gap just between the fridge and the cupboard. It sounded like something was playing with a plastic shopping bag. It was an unpleasant sound. Just so incredibly grating.
A rustling sound.
Momoko-san, however, showing no signs of agitation, took a sip of her tea in time with the rustling.
Zlurp, zlurp.
She knew the source of the noise without even having to turn her head.
Mice.
The elderly dog she had lived with for sixteen years had passed away the previous autumn, and ever since the noise had been insufferable, from both the attic and under the floorboards. Eventually the mice started coming and going on the same level as her, like today when they were up and scurrying about in broad daylight. Though they were mostly timid and anxious about the homeowner, Momoko-san, they sounded like they were unshakeably dedicated to making noise. They would move in and out of a hole in the floor in the corner of the room, nibbling and picking at food scraps and crumbs. As would be expected, they weren’t brave enough to venture out far enough for Momoko-san to see them, but as long as she got used to them just making noise, all was well. After all, in a house bereft of all signs of human presence other than herself, whatever sounds she had for company were precious. While initially the mice were a loathsome nuisance, now she feared that the rooms would instead fall completely silent should they stop.
She took a sip of tea as she turned the cup around in her hands, and another as she felt the pleasant warmth of it between her entwined fingers, and then a third just out of habit. For no particular reason, she looked at her hands. They were a well-used pair of hands. When she was a child, she would rub and pat and pull at the back of her gran’s hands, but also, she would try to pinch and twist at her skin. The thick, veiny skin that clung to the backs of her hands had stretched a surprising amount. Her gran had said that it didn’t hurt in the slightest, or rather just that it didn’t hurt. They had been rough, bony hands, a bit on the large side. They were the hands she was looking at now. Momoko-san hadn’t anticipated that such a day would come. She looked up at the ceiling, the voices seeping out. Her eyes drifted in a lap around the same old room of hers, not focussing on anything in particular.
Everything in the room looked as if it had been simmered an aged amber colour.
On the south side, which faced the garden, was a shoji style paper sliding door. A rope attached to the front of the sliding door hung between it and one of the walls, and then between that wall and another. From it hung a short-sleeved dress and winter coat, still in their dry-cleaning bags, a bath towel, a skirt with a sloppily opened zipper, giving the impression of it perhaps having only just been worn, and next to that dangled four strands of drying persimmons. Across the room from that, halved salmon in the midst of salt curing swayed, off-balance, despite the lack of wind. The faint march afternoon sunlight weaved its way between them.
Against the western wall stood an antique wardrobe, the household Buddhist altar, and a food cupboard whose glass door bore a spiderweb-shaped crack, repaired with tape. The door of the refrigerator next to it was dotted with half-peeled children’s stickers that it was obvious Momoko-san had given up on removing.
On the eastern side of the room was a cot bed and a large overhanging bay window. A television with its cord wrapped around it like a hachimaki headband was placed on the sill, alongside a bag of tangerines, a large half-empty glass drinks bottle, an empty can containing writing implements, scissors, and some kind of glue. There was also a fairly large desk mirror. Scattered across the worn-out flooring was a mountain of old books and magazines.
Installed on the north side of the room was a sink, next to which, covered in various pots and pans, was the four-person dining table that Momoko-san was leaning her elbows on, looking as if she had just cleared enough space from it for her teapot, cup and teatime snack - a salted senbei rice cracker - and the rest was a mountain of clutter. The remaining three dining chairs had already been made into additional storage space for boxes.
More
Less
Translation education
Master's degree - University of Leeds
Experience
Registered at ProZ.com: Nov 2024. Became a member: Nov 2024.
Japanese to English (University of East Anglia, verified) Japanese to English (University of Leeds) English (University of East Anglia, verified) English (University of Leeds)
Get help on technical issues / improve my technical skills
Learn more about additional services I can provide my clients
Learn more about the business side of freelancing
Find a mentor
Stay up to date on what is happening in the language industry
Buy or learn new work-related software
Improve my productivity
Bio
Hello, my name is Kathryn and I am a newly graduated freelance translator.
I work with Japanese to English as my language pair and am also open to most other work in English. During my Masters in Applied Translation Studies at the University of Leeds, I was familiarised with many CAT tools including MemoQ and Trados.
I have a keen interest in Japanese popular media, which is what drove me to study Japanese and translation in the first place. It is a personal dream of mine that I might one day appear in the credits of a video game from a franchise I love, but while that was my initial trigger to pursue translation, I have since found a love for the process itself. It is like figuring out an especially vague and difficult puzzle, and completing a translation gratifies me like little else. I have even been known to translate texts for loved ones in my spare time, even before completing my education in translation.
In my spare time I also play video games, do cross stitch, cook, bake, and write original stories. I am generally a very sedentary person, but when I have the funds and opportunity I also like to travel and broaden my horizons, both home and abroad, visiting museums and galleries. I also like to study various topics that take my interest, particularly religion (various and comparative) and folklore.
Keywords: japanese, english, videogame, video game, localisation, translation, literary, prose
Member since Nov '24
Portfolio