User talk:Urashimataro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welcome!

Hello, Urashimataro, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  Angus McLellan (Talk) 12:48, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Translations

Hello! That's a good question. Professional translators include the references and notes from the works they're translating, so I think Wikipedia can do the same. I do. If you can, it might be helpful to include a "Further reading" section which lists useful books in the language that you are translating to as a help to the reader. You quite often see that kind of thing in professional translations too, called a "supplementary bibliography" or something like that. I hope this answers your question. If not, please let me know. Best regards, Angus McLellan (Talk) 01:32, 9 January 2008 (UTC)


[edit] 不忍池

不忍池の件で日本語版の方にメッセージ頂きましたNoSaito (talk)です。出典の件ですが、不忍池のほとりにある下町風俗資料館の資料および置いてあったパンフレットを見て書いたものです。--NoSaito (talk) 16:56, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Kita-kamakura

I noticed that you accidentally created this page, and that a redirect in case does not seem necessary. Can I recommend that you place {{csd-g7}} on the page so that it will be removed? --Auto (talk / contribs) 06:28, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Japan and other resources

Hi Urashimataro,

Thanks for helping with Japan-related articles on Wikipedia, and for your inquiry on my talk page. Here's an invitation to visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan. There, you can meet other Wikipedians working on articles related to Japan. You'll find lists of new articles, projects, and activities. The section Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan#Article assessment tells you how you can assess and put the project template in articles (which you asked about). You'll also find links to resources such as



Hope to see you there!

Best regards,


Fg2 (talk) 06:30, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Kamakura's Seven Mouths

Hi Urashimataro, and thanks for starting the article Kamakura's Seven Mouths. I wonder, though, if we can consider a different translation instead of "mouth"? It's been on my mind based on the article on Kamakura, and now that there's a whole article on it I thought I'd bring up the topic.

The kanji is the same one that's in iriguchi and deguchi, so I'd lean toward "entrance" instead of "mouth." Unless there's an important distinction between an entrance and an exit, it seems fine. How would you feel about that? Fg2 (talk) 10:00, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Fg2, and thanks for bothering to ask the question. When it comes to translations I tend to be a literalist, and that's why I used Mouths, but in the end in this case I have no strong feelings one way or the other. I usually find your changes to be reasonable and useful. Feel free to change things as you see fit, but please do put a redirect where Seven Mouths was. That would be the first thing I would look for (but I am a literalist ...). Take care. -- Urashimataro (talk) 12:09, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
In no way do I dispute the very clear logic of Fg2's reasoning above -- not at all. Nevertheless, I do think that a very brief mention of the single word "mouth" needs to be incorporated as an alternate anthropomorphic term -- not only in this specific article but also in the articles on Kyoto and Tokyo ....
See Talk:Kamakura, Kanagawa#Urban "Mouths" as a useful term of art
If this minor topic needs a more fully developed explanation, we could set this aside for now and perhaps agree to re-visit it in late-Autumn? --Tenmei (talk) 15:17, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Impoverishment

Sometimes a word will strike me as extraordinarily apt, accurate, well-chosen. For me, your use of the term "impoverished" was something of a rare event. In translation, you say that you are a something of a literalist; and indeed the your word choice is precise and clear in this instance. For me, the encounter with your sentence was one of those occasions when a word balances on the edge of a sharp blade -- expressing an idea which is denotatively exact and yet figuratively expansive, connoting more.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | Date: 2008
  • im·pov·er·ish / imˈpäv(ə)rish/ • v. [tr.] make (a person or area) poor: they discourage investment and impoverish their people | [as adj.] (impoverished) impoverished peasant farmers.
    • exhaust the strength, vitality, or natural fertility of: the soil was impoverished by annual burning | [as adj.] (impoverished)
    • figurative: -- an impoverished and debased language.
    • DERIVATIVES: im·pov·er·ish·ment n.

My 1933 edition of the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary (OED) mentions an 1860 illustrative use of the term as applied to language; but the broader, contemporary use of this term in relation to broad abstract concepts -- as in "cultural impoverishment" -- became a late-20th century phenomenon. I can't begin to guess how anyone else would see it, but in positioning the word "improverishment" at the specific nexus of the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine and Shinbutsu bunri, it seemed to me that you created the kind of finely parsed usage which the editors of the 2037 edition of the OED seek to capture.

With this word choice, you effectively encompass an 1868 genesis of the Meiji period's 1897 Law for the Preservation of Ancient Shrines and Temples and also -- simultaneously -- you anticipate the non-scholarly perspective of most 21st century tourists in Kamakura.

In this context, it's very difficult to modulate either praise or criticism. I have good reason to fear that my observations here will be construed as over-blown, of course.

Please try to accept this as the more balanced and thoughtful comment of a mere colleague or distant collaborator. This is only a minor point, but high quality is comprised of such relatively minor elements, don't you think? --Tenmei (talk) 19:27, 10 June 2008 (UTC)