The translation “Seijō no Ran (青条の蘭)”-#2.

   I’ve posted a part of Chapter 1, “Seijō no Ran (青条の蘭)”.

   Every time when I translate the story, some Japanese words task my brain. A word, not a sentence. Of course, sentences task my brain much more (^^;).

   When I translated “The Birds of Hisho (丕緒の鳥)”, I used “a writing brush” as the meaning of “筆”. We still use a writing brush when we write calligraphy, and, in the old days East Asian people used “筆” on a daily basis. But at least two people asked me “what is a writing brush exactly?”. Please take a look at the image right. They are writing brushes, i.e. “筆”.

   At this time, I use “a fur coat” as the meaning of “kawagoromo (裘)”. This is maybe O.K. But, I worry about I use “a boxy knapsack” as the meaning of “oibako (笈筺)”. 笈筺 is a thing like this in my mind.