On 6/2/2003 8:14 AM, Norman Diamond wrote:
> "Sum1" <shridurga@-spamoff-yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:bbcu95$10nl$4@nwall2.odn.ne.jp...
> 
>>"Scott Reynolds" <sar@gol.com> wrote in message
>>news:bbccha$9uu$1@newsflood.tokyo.att.ne.jp...
>>
>>>On 6/1/2003 9:48 AM, Sum1 wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>(Of course, this letter is meant to be a satirical comment on
>>>>whaling.)
>>>
>>>How much you want to bet that this line of "explanation" was not in the
>>>original letter?
>>
>>You're right.  It wasn't.
> 
> Huh?  The original letter as published in English in the Japan Times
> included that last line of explanation, in parentheses, exactly as quoted.

It is of course possible that Sum1 is the writer of the original letter, 
in which case he would be in a position to say if the explanation was 
added by the "helpful" (read: clueless) editors at the JT or not.

> The problem is that the Japanese translation published at the bottom of the
> same page in the Japan Times didn't include that explanation.  Satire has a
> hard time in one language and a harder time transitioning from one language
> to another, we didn't need Japan Times editors to make it even harder by
> omitting the explanation from the translation.

I would criticize them more harshly for assuming that Japanese summaries 
of the letters are necessary at all. But I figured out a long time ago 
that the JT is not published with English speaking readers in mind. That 
is why they insist on employing Japanese editors who are (not to put too 
fine a point on it) not qualified to be assisting in the publication of 
an English language newspaper.

-- 
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Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com