I spent some time this morning attempting a translation of this short passage, a caption from an ecological book about wolves (オオカミと野生のイヌ, published by X-Knowledge), beneath a photo of an Arctic Wolf.

The original Japanese:

北極圏に生息するハイイロオオカミの亜種で、体毛は白い。アルビノや白変種など白色の個体は、さまざまな種でみられるが、季節にかかわらず種や亜種に属するすべての個体の体毛が常に白い肉食哺乳類は、シロクマと並んで極めて珍しい。

My translation:

A subspecies of Grey Wolf with white fur that inhabits the Arctic Circle. Individuals with white coloration due to albinism and leucism can be seen in a variety of species. However, along with the polar bear, it is extremely rare for all individuals within a species or subspecies of carnivorous mammals to have white fur year-round, regardless of season.

Translating is a great way to study language. Even in translating a short passage such as this, there is so much to chew on.

I find that in translating, as opposed to simply reading, I’m forced to check my own comprehension of the language. In translating, by actually transcribing the words into English, you are forced to choose and explicitly state the meaning of each word, phrase, or passage. And each time I’ve translated a piece now, especially these harder passages, I discover that, when I take this critical, close look, I have actually assumed some meaning that was not correct. I was close enough to understand generally, but I was not understanding specifically, perfectly. And ultimately, we do want to understand exactly what is being said. Translating forces you to take it word by word, to break it down and confirm your understanding.

For example, in the above passage, there is the word 個体. When I first read this passage, several times, I assumed 個体 to be another word that I have seen, 固体. They are similar, and have the same reading (kotai). In my initial reading of the passage, I misread this word. They are close in appearance and pronounced exactly the same, but 固体 means “solid”, and 個体 means “individual” or “specimen”. In reading the passage and misreading this word, I understood the meaning to be “the physical body” (of the wolf). My interpretation of meaning did work somewhat in my reading, but it was not correct. First of all, my understanding of 固体 was not accurate, as it really just means “solid”, and then, I was reading the wrong word anyway, because in the passage the word was 個体, and these are totally different words. However, I only truly realized this when I started to break the passage down for translation.

I also initially translated 北極圏 as “North Pole”. I caught this mistake later, when checking my accuracy, as I realized that it isn’t exactly North Pole. “North Pole” is, precisely, 北極. I wasn’t paying mind to the 圏 part, but it is there for a reason. 北極圏 is actually “Arctic Circle”. I think I just saw the 北極 part of 北極圏 and immediately thought, “North Pole”, and that is close – but not precise. It’s a subtle difference, and for general understanding, not lethal. But ultimately, 北極 and 北極圏 are fundamentally different words and concepts, and for translation purposes, “North Pole” is not precise enough, and is incorrect.

A few days ago, I had ChatGPT check a previous translation I did (a passage from the same book), and I found it caught mistakes I had made that I hadn’t even considered. I had made assumptions and was confident about some words/phrases, or I had completely misread them, and was ultimately wrong in the translation. In most cases, close, but wrong. It was startling to see that what I had assumed to be true was wrong, and how sneakily I had been misled. Because of this experience, I’m now checking even the Japanese that I think I know. And, for example, in the above passage, when I first read the line, “シロクマと並んで極めて珍しい”, I took it to mean, literally, “incredibly rare to see wolves standing together with polar bears”. In my reading of the passage, that did somewhat make sense, and is a plausible statement. However, in taking the passage line by line, I realized that was not what was meant. Having a better grasp of the passage, I saw that 並ぶ was not being used literally, but figuratively. So again, looking at this example, my initial comprehension was wrong, and that was revealed only after the close examination required in translating.

In these dense, academic passages, there is a lot of information conveyed in a short span. It’s really crucial to have an accurate understanding of every word, vocabulary and grammar, because even a slight misunderstanding can change your entire interpretation of the meaning. It’s interesting that our brains are so good at making meaning and filling in gaps in understanding, and so you can really think you understood something, or come up with a plausible interpretation. You can form a narrative that feels right, and yet you didn’t understand at all – or not perfectly. I read completely the wrong word, 固体, with a separate meaning, and yet I was able to integrate it into a plausible meaning in my interpretation of the passage.

In today’s translation exercise, I felt very clearly the value of translation as a tool for language study.