The Rikaichan Project is a Firefox plugin which pops up translations information for Japanese characters.
Usage:
I came across a series of Japanese videos on YouTube. Initially, they appear to be rather mundane and cute. By the 11th video, things take a different turn, and by the 12th video, they’re downright weird. The videos seem to be a promotion for Gears of War in Japan, but I have no idea what the connection could be.
While at lunch with coworkers, I was looking at an Ebisu beer flyer and noticed something odd: the katakana began with ヱ. But I’ve never seen that character before!
As it turns out, it’s an obsolete character for ‘we’. In this usage, the ‘w’ sound would be dropped, meaning that ヱビス would be pronounced the same as エビス. Even weirder is the hiragana form of the character, ゑ, which looks like ‘ru’ but with a full loop and some flourishes!
If a ‘we’ sound is needed for foreign words, ウェ is now used. Oddly enough, that’s exactly what we were taught in class.
I’ve heard about The Tale of Genji, and thought I might like to read it. However, there are a daunting number of translations available! They’re enumerated in the Wikipedia article.
Here’s my rough summary:
0) Murasaki Shikibu – the original Japanese author.
1) Kencho Suematsu – first translation, considered poor quality.
2) Arthur Waley – many errors and changes from Murasaki’s original.
3) Edward G. Seidensticker – closer to the original than Waley, but still makes changes.
4) Royall Tyler – more footnoting explaining cultural aspects.
There is an excellent review on Amazon, which provides direct quotations from several versions of the Tale of Genji on Amazon. Also, this review contrasts the Siedensticker against the Tyler version.
In the end, I think I’m going for either the poetic Seidensticker version, or Waley’s more complex writing.
