L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux, |
L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux ('What is essential is invisible to the eye'), 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 we won't treat it here, leaving a total of 15 translations.
First, a look at the "Bones" (sentence patterns used by Japanese translators) and a quick dip into the grammar.
Keep in mind that:
(1) Japanese likes to 'topicalise', usually placing a topic at the start of the sentence followed by the particle は wa, and
(2) Japanese verbs come at the end of the sentence.
5. For the 'flesh' (the translation of individual words and expressions), see here  . |
1. THE PROBLEM OF INVISIBLE
Translating invisible is not as straightforward as it may seem. Invisible simply means 'cannot be seen'. In European languages invisibility has got its own adjective: French invisible, English 'invisible', German unsichtbar, etc.
Japanese has coined a word on the model of the European languages: 不可視 fu-kashi (literally 'unseeable'). But this is a very specialised and rather difficult term (it's a Sino-Japanese compound) used mainly in expressions like 不可視光線 fu-kashi kōsen ('invisible light', i.e., light outside the visible spectrum) and 不可視インク fu-kashi inku ('invisible ink'). It's not a word likely to be used for the fox's secret.
An interesting equivalent of 'invisible' is found in the Japanese translation of 'Invisible Man', which is 透明人間 tōmei ningen ('the transparent person' or 'see-through person'). This places the emphasis on 'transparency', not on 'invisibility'. (For more on this, see The Invisibility Cloak at the subsite on Harry Potter).
But neither of these terms is really suitable as a translation of 'invisible' here. Indeed, the most natural translation is simply 'cannot be seen'. This is 見えない mienai, the negative form of the intransitive verb 見える mieru.
So all the Japanese versions of Le Petit Prince translate invisible as 見えない mienai 'cannot be seen'. This results in the following sentence pattern.
2. BASIC SENTENCE PATTERN - INTRANSITIVE VERB
'Essential things to the eye cannot be seen.'
The following is a representative example of this structure, although there is no majority consensus on the translation of 'essential things'. See here for the translation of l'essentiel
かんじんなことは kanjin na koto wa 'essential things (topic)' |
目には me ni wa 'to the eye (topic particle)' |
見えない mienai 'cannot be seen' |
Grammatically this is quite straightforward.
(1) L'essentiel is expressed as 'essential things'. It is the topic of the sentence, marked with the topicaliser は wa.
(2) Est invisible is expressed by the verb 見えない mienai, meaning 'cannot be seen'. The verb is intransitive. That is, it takes a subject but no object. The object seen ('essential things') is the subject of the sentence.
(3) Pour les yeux is expressed as 目に me ni 'to the eyes', using the particle に ni. This is standard for the verb 見える mieru, which requires the perceiver to be followed by に ni.
In most of the translations, the verb 見えない mienai, 'cannot be seen' is exactly the same as that in the preceding sentence (心で見なくちゃよく見えない kokoro de minakucha yoku mienai 'if you don't look with the heart you can't see well'). The result is that French and English use quite different words in the first and second sentence while most Japanese translators use the same one:
First sentence |
Second sentence |
|
| French | ne voit (que) |
invisible |
| English | 'can see only' |
'invisible' |
| Japanese | 見えない mienai |
見えない mienai |
This is not an earth-shaking difference, but has a subtle impact on the meaning and tone. First, the Japanese sentence is more repetitious than the French or English. And secondly, the Japanese is arguably simpler, more immediately understandable, and possibly more directly appealing to children than the French and English versions.
TRANSLATING POUR LES YEUX
To be visible to the eyes is normally expressed as 目に見える me ni mieru, literally 'able to see to the eyes', using the particle に ni.
Two translators, however, use the instrumental expression 目で見える me de mieru 'able to see with the eyes'. This is possibly under the influence of the previous sentence, which speaks of 'looking with (で de) the heart'.
'TO THE EYE' (+ CONSTRASTIVE は wa) |
|
| 目には me ni wa 'to the eye' |
8 |
| 目に me ni 'to the eye' |
5 |
| 目では me de wa 'with the eye' |
2 |
| TOTAL | 15 |
Given that the previous sentence uses 心で kokoro de 'with the heart', it is perhaps surprising that more translators don't use 目で me de 'with the eyes'. However, the natural and expected phrasing 目に me ni wins out in all but these two cases.
One of the most noticeable features of this phrase is the use of a so-called contrastive は wa (目には me ni wa, 目では me de wa) in ten out of 15 translations. This is called contrastive because it expresses a contrast between the eyes and the heart. That is, 'with the heart one can see, but (in contrast) with the eyes one cannot see'.
If you've ever had doubts about the arbitrariness of deciding to use contrastive は wa in Japanese, this example might set your mind at rest! Five translations fail to use contrastive は wa at this position, even though it might be expected given the contrastive nature of the two sentences.
OTHER
Framing expressions
Two translations use expressions like ということ to yū koto is the fact that'. I call these 'framing expressions' because they frame the fox's entire statement with words meaning 'It's the fact that....'. Here, the meaning is: 'The content of the secret is the fact that....'
'FRAMING EXPRESSIONS' |
|
| No frame | 8 |
| っていうこと -tte yū koto 'it is the fact that' |
1 |
| ということ to yū koto 'it is the fact that' |
1 |
| Frame is around first sentence ('It is only with the heart that one can see rightly') | 5 |
| Total | 15 |
Five translators place this framing expression after the first sentence, "One can see clearly only with the heart" (see here). Only two leave it till the end of the second sentence, as here. By putting the 'frame' after the second sentence, it is effectively framing the two sentences together ('it is the fact that [One can see clearly only with the heart; what is essential is invisible to the eyes]'.)
This use of constructions like ということだ to yū koto da 'it is the fact that' to frame the statement, is a frequent feature of Japanese sentences. No matter how clean or straightforward the original English or French is, a Japanese translation will often involve use of this kind of expression.
The frame expressions are followed by さ sa and だ da, which have what I call a 'modal' function. See here.
