Language Log

« previous post | next post »

From Bruce Balden:

The link below (dated 1/29/15) concerns apparently incomprehensible behavior on the part of the father of a young Japanese man taken hostage and killed by ISIS recently.

The link contains the key phrase "for lack of a better translation", but I wonder how hard they tried to translate it. I'd be interested to know what exactly Haruna Yukawa's father said and if it's really so incomprehensible when taken in context.

The phrase in question was uttered by Yukawa’s father when he formally apologized to the people of Japan for his son “causing a nuisance”.

"Chinese netizens left reeling after father of slain Japanese hostage apologizes to the public" (1/29/15)

I have discovered that the word Haruna's father used was gomeiwaku ご迷惑, and that left me reeling.  In contemporary English, "nuisance" signifies something that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious, and that hardly seems appropriate to describe what the Japanese people must have felt when their compatriot was beheaded by ISIS.  "Nuisance" has to do with mild irritation and can hardly be connected in my mind with what happened to Haruna Yukawa.  My problem, thus, is with the English word "nuisance", not with the Japanese word gomeiwaku ご迷惑, since I'm confident that, in a moment of such utter gravity concerning the gruesome death of his own son, the father would have chosen an appropriate word in Japanese.  Consequently, when I read this report and found out what Mr. Yukawa actually said in Japanese, my first reaction is that the English translation must be wrong.

The "go-" prefix is an honorific, which is suitable in the Japanese context, because it refers to the meiwaku 迷惑 of his fellow Japanese citizens.  At issue, then, is what meiwaku 迷惑 really means and how it should be expressed in English.

Meiwaku 迷惑 does have as a standard translation "nuisance" in Japanese-English dictionaries, but, just looking at the Chinese characters, to me it would mean something more like "confusion; puzzlement; mystification; bafflement; bewitching; delusion", and so on.  In Mandarin, 迷惑 would be pronounced míhuò.

When I think of how "nuisance" is used in contemporary English, sentences like this come to mind:  "Stop being such a nuisance!  You're getting on my nerves."  I might apologize for my son or daughter if he or she were getting in people's hair by scampering around, making too much noise, and just generally getting in the way by saying, "Please forgive my child for being such a nuisance", but I would never dream of saying, "Please forgive my son for making a nuisance of himself by being executed at the hands of ISIS."  That simply doesn't compute in my lexicon for suitable uses of "nuisance".

Feeling quite míhuò 迷惑 over the significance of what Mr. Yukawa said to the Japanese people, I asked about a dozen specialists on Japanese language and literature just what meiwaku 迷惑 means.

From a specialist on late imperial Japanese literature and culture:

All the terms you wrote [VHM:   "confusion; puzzlement; mystification; bafflement; bewitching; delusion"] can apply I suppose, but it depends on how you use the word, and they don't apply very often.

In Japanese, the most frequent usage for meiwaku 迷惑 is "nuisance".

When you put the honorific go ご in front of meiwaku 迷惑, it usually implies "I am sorry I'm causing you nuisance" like "gomeiwaku o okake shimasu ご迷惑をおかけします".

The verb for causing nuisance is usually " kakeru かける" as in the case of "meiwaku o kakeru 迷惑をかける."

When other people are causing nuisance, you say "sore wa meiwaku desu それは迷惑です", ”watashi ni totte wa meiwaku desu 私にとっては迷惑です", ”sore wa minasan ni meiwaku o kakeru koto ni narimasu それは皆さんに迷惑をかけることになります" , etc.

I can't think of specific situations where "confusion; puzzlement; mystification; bafflement; bewitching", and so on might apply, but one could say "sore wa meiwaku da nā それは迷惑だなあ," expressing those feelings you are experiencing.

From a professor of premodern Japanese history:

I think the translation you’re finding is pretty accurate, though the reaction in the Chinese comment threads is pretty overblown (I’m not even sure I’d consider it news worthy–as if comment threads weren’t notorious cesspools of hatred and general nonsense).

That being said, I think the misunderstanding here is not about the meaning of the word, but about the linguistic/social codes at work. I don’t think in any way that the Japanese who heard this man speak of his son felt that he was not grieving, or that he was in fact not actually sorry to have inconvenienced others. I think this is equivalent to (although more indirect and about a more serious issue) our English use when we thank someone for taking the trouble: the message is not about the nuisance/inconvenience but, rather, about the gratitude. What the father is saying, to my mind, is, thank you for trying to help us in this terribly difficult time, or, we appreciate what everyone has done to try to solve this situation differently.

From a professor of premodern Japanese culture:

Interesting that this is coming up so many months later, especially since Yukawa's father (Shōichi) didn't say anything at all unusual.

In the video from which the article screenshot is taken, he says:

みなさまにはご心配、ご迷惑をおかけして申し訳ありません

"I am deeply sorry for causing concern and nuisance to everyone."

From an NHK article:

今回の事件について皆さんに大変ご迷惑をおかけしました。政府はじめ関係の方にご尽力いただき、深く感謝しています

"Regarding this incident, [I/We/My son] has/have caused a great nuisance to everyone. I am deeply grateful to all who have work on our/my/his behalf, starting with the government."
(Here the subject is less clear, but "We" is surely best.)

Yet another article has:

息子を心配し、自らの命を懸けて現地へ行ってくれた。申し訳なく、心苦しい。後藤さんが解放され、早く日本に帰ってくることを願っている

"[Kenji Goto] worried about my son, and at risk to his own life went to [Syria]. I am deeply sorry, and deeply pained. I hope he is released and comes back to Japan soon."

Chinese netizens were not the only ones impressed. It was a big deal in Korea, too, and the BBC called him something like a paragon of Japaneseness.

Without diminishing the way that Yukawa Shōichi handled himself in any way, it was formulaic and not at all remarkable. In that sense, he was a paragon of Japaneseness. He did what was expected of him, reacted as the script dictated.

The key words are gomeiwaku ご迷惑 (a nuisance [to someone]) and mōshiwakenai 申し訳ない (deep regret = lit. "without an excuse"). They are among the most important words you can ever learn in Japanese, since you'll use them at least a dozen times a day in any sort of work situation. Rule #1: apologize. Rule #2: apologize. Rule #3: Rinse and repeat. Rule #4: Don't forget Rules #1-2.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but the reaction to Shōichi's stoicism and scripted apologies shows more that people don't know much about "Japanese culture" than anything else.

I should hasten to add that the formulaic nature of the apologies does not mean that they were not genuine and heartfelt. They constitute a ritual, and ritual is imbued with deep social and emotional meaning. It's very, very real.

Sources

"Nuisance" is definitely the standard. It's a combination of worry and trouble, maybe. I've used "trouble" on several occasions because we just don't use the word nuisance that much in English (anymore?)

From a Japanese language teacher:

It's a standard Japanese expression.  "Nuisance" is far too strong, especially out of context.  "I'm sorry for the bother this caused everyone [in the country, who shared my concern]" is the point he was making.  He's being inclusive here, and everyone understands it.

From a professor of modern Japanese religion:

I think “nuisance” is a decent enough translation. Yukawa is basically saying “I’m sorry for the trouble this has caused.”

While the characters individually are used in other Japanese words to indicate bewitchment, delusion, etc., meiwaku is a standard word that is used in polite speech. The semantic content (“nuisance, trouble”) is less important than the function of expressing sincere regret.

I must admit that I am resistant to the idea that classical Chinese readings of these characters are somehow superior to (or more accurate than) their common usage today.

From a Japanese linguist:

Go-meiwaku, with honorific go-, sets up this noun for use in such idiomatic expressions as go-meiwaku desu ga, '[we know/fear/regret that] it is/may be a bother/trouble/inconvenience [for you], but', followed by a request to do something bothersome, troublesome, or inconvenient.  Unadorned meiwaku probably had a somewhat different meaning before it got pressed into service in this sort of politeness.  I can't check on the history the word just now:  could it have been one of those Meiji period concoctions designed to be translations of European nouns for which Japanese lacked an obvious equivalent?

From a professor of Japanese anthropology:

I am surprised that this phrase was taken literally.  It is a customary phrase without the literal meaning of meiwaku.  Whenever one takes up the time or attention of the other, including the whole population via mass media, one uses this phrase.  The literal meaning of these two kanji has no real message.

The reason for the father to have used that polite ending stems from the Japanese custom — it was his son, which meant himself. So, he is apologizing for taking up the time for his son, that is, himself. Once I received a letter from my colleague who wrote: "For a totally unexplainable reason my good-for-nothing son, as a miracle, passed the entrance examination to the University of Tokyo." This contrasts to what most Americans do — when my sons were small, I heard mothers boasting about their offspring — an absolute lack of manner/sensibility for the Japanese.

From a professor of linguistics specializing in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese:

Well, I’m certainly not going to claim to be an expert on the nuances of Japanese usage, but yes, “nuisance”, or “trouble” or “bother”, is certainly extremely commonly used in colloquial Japanese when asking for something—i.e., go meiwaku janakereba ご迷惑じゃなければ… ‘if it’s no trouble…’. But you know, I had never noticed the disjunct between that colloquial usage and the meanings associated with the transcribing characters. Hmmm… let’s take a look at earlier usages, as maybe documented in the Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典 (Unabridged Dictionary of the Japanese National Language)… Maybe there’s a back history, as for that joke among students, 勉強, meaning ‘study’. Nice point.

[VHM: The joke among students is about 勉強 (Jap. benkyō; Mand. miǎnqiáng), which means "study" in modern Japanese, but in Chinese it means "reluctantly; grudgingly; barely manage to; do with difficulty; strained; forced; inadequate; unconvincing; far-fetched".]

From a professor of Japanese art and culture:

From a professor of modern Japanese literature:

The problem is the contrast between the literal meanings covered by meiwaku 迷惑 and the perception of those who utter the term.  I remember when the Chinese government (as I recall) balked at an official Japanese apology for all the meiwaku 迷惑 the Japanese military had caused China during WWII.  It sounds puny, and indeed something like "nuisance" or "mischief" would hardly suffice for mass killings and rape, but an apology for having caused someone meiwaku 迷惑 or, honorifically, gomeiwaku ご迷惑, is often felt to be a heartfelt confession of major proportions.  I don't know exactly what the father said, but an apology for his son's having caused the country deep consternation, using the term gomeiwaku ご迷惑, would be considered the normal, decent thing to do.  This mindset is hard for me to swallow, and I see where Chinese criticisms are coming from —

“He cares more about saving face with Japanese society than grieving for his son. Japanese people are scary, dude.”
“The Japanese hive mind is a truly terrifying phenomenon.”
“Japanese society is far more horrifying than fundamentalist Islam.”

— but these are more than a little over the top, too.

From a professor of early Japanese language:

The classical meaning of meiwaku 迷惑 is ‘to be at a loss’ or ‘to not know what one should do.’

Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典 (Unabridged Dictionary of the Japanese National Language) defines meiwaku 迷惑 as (i) ‘be at a loss,’ (ii) ‘an unpleasant feeling due to some action a person has taken,’ and (iii) ‘the loss or unpleasantness of (ii).’ Interestingly, the idea of nuisance or a bother is actually a dialectal usage of what we now call standard Japanese.

From a professor of early Japanese writing and literature:

Kōjien (広辞苑), which usually presents a good overview of the history of common words, provides the following entry for meiwaku 迷惑:

1) どうしてよいか迷うこと。平家物語5「皇居に馴れざるが故に心―す」
2) 困り苦しむこと。難儀すること。天草本伊曾保物語「狼咽のどに大きな骨を立てて―ここに窮まつて」
3) 他人からやっかいな目にあわされて困ること。謡曲、丹後物狂「さぞ花松殿は、ご―に思しめさうずる」。「―をかける」「―な駐車」

VHM:  ― = meiwaku 迷惑

This makes sense to me as the likely development of the word, from "puzzlement or confusion about what to do," to "to be in trouble/have difficulties," to "have problems by virtue of having been placed in a difficult situation by someone else."  The Nihon kokugo daijiten entry, which I'm pasting below [VHM:  see below the acknowledgements], has much more nuanced sub-senses of the term and provides more extensive citations, but the overall picture is pretty much the same.

I see that the posting you're looking at concerns Chinese responses to the father's remark, which raises the issue of how it was translated into that language.  At least in an English-language environment, I think part (though not all) of the apparent oddity of the comment comes from the word "nuisance," which seems more limited to comparatively minor annoyances than meiwaku 迷惑, which can have that sense but (at least to my non-native sensibility) can also refer to more serious difficulties.  The 5th edition of the Kenkyūsha Japanese-English dictionary glosses the word as "annoyance; nuisance; trouble; bother; inconvenience," but perhaps in certain contexts it still can have the somewhat more dire sense one gets from the equivalents in Hepburn's 1867 dictionary: "Trouble, calamity, annoyance."

When all is said and done, I would conclude that "nuisance" may not be the right English word to convey the sense of meiwaku 迷惑, especially when matters of great weight are at issue.  I think that a word like "consternation" is closer to the mark.  Unfortunately, both in Japanese Studies and in Chinese Studies, we often get stuck with inaccurate translations of sometimes key terms and find it incredibly difficult to shake them off, e.g., "dialect" for fāngyán 方言 ("topolect"), but that's another story.

[Thanks to Jay Rubin, David Lurie, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, John Bentley, Frank Chance, Nathan Hopson, Bob Ramsey, Jim Unger, Cecilia Segawa Seigle, Bill Hannas, David Spafford, and Jolyon Thomas]

September 22, 2015 @ 9:36 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and culture, Lost in translation

Permalink