by Natsu Hyuuga
E translators. I got my copy just before electronic and online dictionaries really came into their own, and with a copyright year of 1974, I wondered if it might have a broader take on what karatou meant. But lo and behold, it defines the word laconically as “a drinker.”
So the evidence seems to weigh in favor of karatou as meaning simply someone who likes to drink, but in translation, it’s always important to consider the context of a word in the source text. In chapter 25 of this book, Jinshi describes Kounen after his transformation: “He developed a serious sweet tooth (lit. ‘Became a major member of the amatou’). He preferred sweet wine to drink, and would only take sweet side dishes as well.”
The crucial part, in my mind, immediately follows this sentence. Jinshi recounts that Kounen rejected anything he was given that wasn’t sweet. The examples he gives include smoked meat and rock salt: that is, the very definition of foods that are karai. To me, this shows that karatou here means more than simply someone who likes to drink. After all, the point isn’t that Kounen started drinking, but that he started (among other things) drinking sweet wines. Indeed, if we take karatou as meaning someone who prefers alcohol to sweets, as many modern dictionaries have it, then its use here becomes almost paradoxical.
Thus, to me, the matter of the meaning of karatou is settled. But then the question remains: how do we describe this karai preference in English? Rock salt would be salty (to coin a truism), but smoked or cured meat? Sure, it has an element of saltiness, but is that the primary flavor we associate with it? Would we simply call it savory? But then how do we account for the fact that karai food is often spicy? Using the actual word “spicy” or “hot” would be too limiting, the same way that “salty” would. In a more modern or more technical context, we could consider an expression like “foods with lots of umami.” Umami (actually a loan word from Japanese, in which it simply means “deliciousness”) is the “fifth flavor” we perceive in addition to sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. But my concern was that having Maomao say something like “Did he used to prefer foods with more umami?” would sound pedantic, anachronistic, or both. In the end, after talking it over with Sasha (editors matter to a translation!), we felt “savory” covered the most bases.
All this, just to translate a seemingly common vocabulary term that only appears for a few pages! Although a lot of this thought process goes much quicker in my head than it does when I have to write it all out, the translator does have to make these decisions and sometimes pause to investigate the meaning of a word in one or both languages. It takes time and effort, and requires a practitioner who’s both versed in the nuances of the source language and alert to the possible expressive resources of the target language. For the translator, the mysteries Maomao solves aren’t the only ones in this series! But that’s part of the fun.
See you next time!
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Copyright
The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 1
by Natsu Hyuuga
Illustrations by Touko Shino
Translated by Kevin Steinbach
Edited by Sasha McGlynn
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Kusuriya No Hitorigoto
Copyright © Natsu Hyuuga 2014
All rights reserved.
Originally published in Japan by Shufunotomo Infos Co., Ltd.
Through Shufunotomo Co., Ltd.
This English edition is published by arrangement with Shufunotomo Co., Ltd., Tokyo
English translation © 2021 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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Ebook edition 1.0: February 2021