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So I would like to translate a Japanese book into an Indo-European language
(specifically, Russian) and I'm really not sure how to deal with the paragraph
structure.

As you may know, Japanese literature is often written in numerous paragraphs,
each containing just two-three sentences at best. I feel like if I keep the
structure as is, it will result in an unnatural looking text because that's
not how literature is usually written in my language. We tend to favor longer
paragraphs and generally try to avoid making our texts too fragmented.

How do people usually approach this problem? Is it common for translators to
simply follow the original structure or is it generally accepted that they
should take some creative liberties and restructure the text in an attempt to
make it appear more organized? Are there any papers on this?
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2019-02-06T13:12:08.057
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question
translation
Dealing with paragraphs when translating Japanese literature
_Disclaimer: I've never done any professional Japanese to English translation
before_

I found the following in _The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation_ by
Yoko Hasegawa. Note that ST stands for source text and TT stands for
translated text.

> Between Japanese and English, an adjustment that is frequently called for
> concerns paragraph breaks. Compared to Japanese, English writing has
> significantly fewer breaks (K. Inoue 2004: 95); conversely, Japanese writing
> utilizes frequent line breaks. One may even encounter Japanese texts that
> place a line break after every kuten 句点 (｡). This is due to the fact that
> the concept of paragraph has not been clearly established in Japanese
> writing (Hojo 2004: 41). Let us examine whether there is a discrepancy
> between STs and TTs in regard to paragraphing. The following table compares
> the number of paragraphs in the first section or chapter of the STs with
> their corresponding TTs.
>
> Source Text | Author | ST Par | Translator | TT Par  
> ---|---|---|---|---  
> After Babel | George Steiner | 20 | 亀山健吉 | 20  
> Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | 17 | 矢川澄子 | 17  
> A Pale View of Hills | Kazuo Ishiguro | 12 | 小野寺健 | 12  
> Saving Private Ryan | Max Collins | 13 | 伏見威蕃 | 13  
> The Cop and the Anthem | O. Henry | 48 | 大久保康雄 | 48  
> The Moon and Sixpence | Somerset Maugham | 7 | 中野好夫 | 7  
> The Selfish Gene | Richard Dawkins | 32 | 日高敏隆他 | 32  
> 『女形』 | 三島由紀夫 | 13 | Donald Keene | 10  
> 『キッチン』 | 吉本ばなな | 17 | Megan Backus | 11  
> 『樹々は緑か』 | 吉行淳之介 | 44 | Adam Kabat | 42  
> 『中国行きのスロウ・ボート』 | 村上春樹 | 19 | Jay Rubin | 16  
> 『春は馬車に乗って』 | 横光利一 | 36 | Dennis Keene | 34  
> 『砂の女』 | 阿部公房 | 7 | Dale Saunders | 7  
> 『雪国』 | 川端康成 | 48 | Edward Seidensticker | 42  
>  
> Clearly shown by this table is the fact that paragraph breaks are maintained
> in English-to-Japanese translation, whereas they are likely to be changed in
> Japanese-to-English translation. Moreover, when paragraphs are adjusted,
> English TTs invariably have fewer paragraphs. Although we do not investigate
> how paragraphs are combined in English TTs, Japanese-to-English translators
> should be aware that such an adjustment might be called for in order to
> produce quality TTs. (For an excellent discussion of paragraph adjustment in
> translation, see Hojo 2004: 41–59.)

References mentioned in the excerpt:

  * Inoue, Kazuma 井上一馬. 2004. _Inoue Kazuma no hon’yaku kyDshitsu 井上一馬の 翻訳教室_. Chikuma Shobo

  * Hojo, Fumio 北條文緒. 2004. _Hon’yaku to ibunka – Gensaku tono “zure” ga kataru mono_ 翻訳と異文化―原作との<ずれ>が語るもの. Misuzu Shobo.
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answer