On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, Japanese versions: The "Flesh" |
On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur ('It is only with the heart that one can see rightly'), from 'The Little Prince'.
There are currently 16 translations of Le Petit Prince in Japanese, including the original one by Naitō Arō in 1953. That by Shinsan is more an adaptation than a straight translation and is omitted from consideration here, making a total of 15 translations.
Here we look at the "Flesh" of the translations, by which I mean the vocabulary and expressions used. For the sentence structures used by translators, see "Bones".
The verb
The verb in all translations is 見る miru 'to look, see', or its intransitive counterpart 見える mieru. Only the adapter Shinsan uses the verb わかる wakaru 'to understand'.
The following table shows which verbs are used in the 16 versions (including Shinsan).
| Verbs used | Comment | Occurrences | |
| ONLY ONE VERB | |||
| 見る miru |
Used as a quasi-command or categorical recommendation | 1 |
|
| 見ることができない miru koto ga dekinai |
Verb is negative due to use of しか shika 'only' | 2 |
|
| 見えない mienai |
Verb is negative due to use of しか shika 'only' | 1 |
|
| 'IF NOT... THEN...' | |||
| 見ない minai |
見えない mienai |
'If not look with the heart, then cannot see' | 9 |
| 見ない minai |
見えてこない miete konai |
'If not look with the heart, then cannot see' | 1 |
| でない de nai |
見えない mienai |
'If not with the heart, then cannot see' | 1 |
| 見ない minai |
わからない wakaranai |
'If not look with the heart, then cannot understand' (Shinsan's adaptation) | 1 |
A majority use a simple 'If not... then...' construction (mostly ...みなくちゃ...見えない ...minakucha ...mienai). Some variations on this are:
見えてこない miete konai, literally 'not come to see', means something like 'not come into view'. It indicates both gradualism in making things out, and an effort to do so.
One translator uses the verb でない de nai in the conditional clause, in the form でなければ de nakereba 'if not'. The meaning is a vague 'if not the heart'. This doesn't spell out the role of こころ kokoro (namely, with the heart), leaving it to the listener to figure it out. This is a common enough kind of thing in Japanese. Similar examples, of a different kind:
- 彼じゃなきゃ受け付けてくれない。 Kare ja nakya uketsukete kurenai. 'They won't accept it if it's not him', meaning accepted either 'from him' or 'by him', i.e., 'Only if a certain person makes the application will it be accepted', or, 'Only that particular official will accept the application'.
- ご飯じゃなければ食べられない。 Go-han ja nakereba taberarenai. 'Can't eat it if it's not rice'.
Different ways of saying 'if not'
-なくちゃ ... -ない -nakucha ... -nai is only one way of expressing the conditional + negative construction in Japanese. This page gives a fairly comprehensive rundown of the alternatives. The following are found in the 11 translations that use the double negative construction:
If not look....
...not〜なくちゃ
-nakucha-ない
-nai〜なくては
-nakute wa-ない
-nai〜ないと
-nai to-ない
-nai〜なければ
-nakereba-ない
-naiTOTAL
- 見なくては minakute wa 'not seeing', mostly found in the colloquial form 見なくちゃ minakucha, accounts for more than half the total.
- The conversational form 見ないと minai to 'if not see' accounts for three.
- The officially correct but unwieldy 見なければ minakereba 'if not see' only makes one appearance. In addition, one translator uses 心でなければ kokoro de nakereba 'if not (with) the heart'.
Textbooks will tell you that there are subtle differences in meaning among the constructions, and indeed there are. But these differences aren't the most important thing here. In fact, the most important consideration is that 見なくては minakute wa and 見ないと minai to are preferred in conversation. Since the fox speaks colloquial language, it's entirely appropriate that he should use these forms.
The two translators who use the 'official' form 〜なければ -nakereba achieve a more formal effect typical of the written language. This makes the fox's speech somewhat less friendly but more 'authoritative'.
The object seen ('things')
The French original doesn't supply an object for the verb voir, and among the English translations only Cuffe uses an object, the very general noun 'things'.
Among the 15 Japanese translators, however, all but three spell out the object seen. The great majority use an expression meaning 'things'. The different translations are shown in the following table:
ものごと (物事) monogoto 'things' もの mono 'things' Zero (omission) -- なにも nani mo 'nothing' TOTAL
- The most common word for 'things' is ものごと monogoto, which can be translated as 'things, matters'. This is composed of もの mono, referring to physical objects, and こと koto, referring to abstract matters. It is thus a general term for 'things in general'. (One translator writes this in Chinese characters as 物事 monogoto, but simple, commonly-used words like this is tend to be written in hiragana, which is cleaner and simpler.)
- Slightly less numerous is もの mono, which usually refers to physical objects. Since seeing tends to involve physical perception, the word ものが見える mono ga mieru 'to be able to see' is a common collocation in Japanese.
Of these two terms, ものごと monogoto tends to convey a more 'philosophical' flavour, as though the fox were pontificating on the nature of 'things' and the universe. もの mono is more related to physical vision.
Finally, one translator uses なにも nani mo, which in combination with a negative verb means 'nothing'. Unlike translations using ものごと monogoto or もの mono, this cannot be made into the topic of the sentence.
(See also the translation of l'essentiel in the following sentence, L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.)
Expressing bien
The adverb bien is easily expressed in Japanese with よく yoku, a form of the adjective よい yoi 'good' that here is adverbial in function.
Three translators omit よく yoku. This changes the meaning from 'can't be seen clearly' to 'can't be seen', although in practical terms the difference is not great.
Translating coeur
The word 心 kokoro is the normal Japanese word for 'heart, spirit, mind'. Although there are obviously differences between 心 kokoro and coeur in connotation and range of meaning, no translators have any problems using it as a translation of the French term.
Modal endings
Five translations use sentence-ending particles. In this sentence, these are all attached to 'framing expressions
'. This indicates that the 'modal' impact attaches not to the statement that 'One can see clearly only with the heart', but to the assertion that 'My secret is thus'.
MODAL
|
|
| -- | 10 |
| さ sa |
3 |
| だよ da yo |
1 |
| なんだ nan'da |
1 |
| Total | 15 |
さ sa is a somewhat offhand way of making an assertion. Originally from eastern Japan, it tends to be regarded as cooler by younger people but is not without its detractors among more conservative users of language.
だよ da yo is a more broadly acceptable ending used for making stronger assertions.
なんだ nan'da is often said to be an 'explanatory' ending (explaining why something is so -- in this case explaining what the secret is), but it also has an assertive force.
Other pages discuss the original French and translations into English, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
