smujohnson
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2008-03-13
Posts: 92
Hi all,
A while ago, I saw a book a Japanese friend had that he bought before he came to North America... that contained a ton of idioms / expressions in Japanese translated into English for him, and they were all very good. It was a book with a light bluish white cover. This book was not your average "learn the most common 250 kanji!" type books, in that it is actually useless, and only produced to take your moeny. It was not useless and very dense with content.
1. Has anyone seen this book?
2. If not, can anyone recommend a very thorough, dense compilation of idiom translations?
PS: The reason I'm asking is because I'm trying to translate a script into Japanese, and this phrase: "I'm gonna rough you up" (in a prison context), is confusing a lot
of my Japanese friends. They keep translating it to "I'm going to be mean to you", or, believe or not, "I'm going to cook you."
Any help? Thanks in advance.
Jarvik7
Member
From: 名古屋
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 3946
Don't translate idioms into other (English) idioms unless it truly is natural. Looking at Eijirou I see people have really pushed it too far and have dug up some odd southerny feeling idioms/slang (many that I've never even heard of) just to have something that they can plug in 1:1.
Is this the book he had? http://www.amazon.com/2001-Japanese-Eng … 0812094336
I've had it for years and I've honestly never used it. For anyone wanting to learn idioms instead of translating, don't try too hard. Learning idioms is just like learning dialects or slang. You're best off learning them as you encounter them naturally (from people your gender, age, and social standing) instead of systematically studying them. So many are out of date/only used by old people. A perhaps more useful book would be one on 慣用句/諺 meant for native Japanese children. Those would be less likely to include a ton of outdated expressions just for the sake of completion. For translation a complete book as a reference is useful, but you're still better off just using a monolingual dictionary if you can manage.
-edit-
I just noticed that you're trying to translate INTO Japanese. It shouldn't be that hard to think of something if you've watched a few yakuza movies. 「ふざけんなよてめえ、、ぶっ殺すよ！」 etc. Eijirou can be a good source for slang translations, but just be sure that you understand what the "definition" says and not just plug it in wholesale. You will easily end up with something ridiculous. I remember looking up すりすり (from when a kid was rubbing up against an adult begging them to buy a toy or smth) in it and ending up with "pussy bumping" as the definition.
Here is one of the examples for "rough up" in it: "Keep quiet or we'll have to rough you up. 静かにしろ、さもないと痛い目に遭わせるぞ。 "
yukkuri_kame wrote:
maybe: お前をひどい目に合わせてやる！ omae o hidoi me ni awasete yaru!
The awaseru should be this one -> 遭わせる
Last edited by Jarvik7 (2009 February 02, 6:13 pm)
