Unpacking Puns: Translating Kakekotoba in the Hyakunin Isshu
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Date
2011-06
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
There are a large number of issues in translating Classical Japanese poetry, not the least of which is the difficulty of translating rhetorical techniques and more specifically the technique of kakekotoba, or pivot words. Furthermore, although the specific issue of translating kakekotoba is nearly always mentioned in translated works, there is a lack of a thorough analysis of this particular issue. In my thesis I plan to use analyses of several poems to define the technique of kakekotoba and exhibit how they are used in Classical Japanese poetry, discuss problems regarding translation into English, and finally to examine how they have been translated into English by other scholars of Classical Japanese literature.
Analyses are conducted using sources in Japanese and English, specifically translations of and commentaries on The Hyakunin Isshū, and they compose of parsing the syntax and looking at the effect of the kakekotoba through critical analysis in English. I will then discuss general problems associated with translation, leading into specific issues in translating Classical Japanese poetry to inform the reader of the problems scholars face. Finally, I will examine how these problems have been handled by using each poem I will have analyzed.
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Keywords
Kakekotoba, Hyakunin Isshu, Translation, Tanka, Japanese Poetry