MUSICALITY AND ONOMATOPOEIA USE IN MIYAZAWA KENJI’S SHORT STORIES
MUSICALITY AND ONOMATOPOEIA USE IN MIYAZAWA KENJI’S SHORT STORIES

Summary/Abstract: Although in Romania little is known about Miyazawa Kenji – a late 19th century Japanese writer – and his works, an attempt to translate his short stories sheds light on his literary style as well as on his poetic use of words. In Japanese language, onomatopoeia are employed in almost all fields and they are not perceived as “baby-talk” as they are in Romanian or English language. In a thorough research, Hiroko Inose (2007) identified nine methods of translation for the Japanese onomatopoeia: (1) translation using adverbs; (2) translation using adjectives; (3) translation using verbs; (4) translation using nouns; (5) translation using explicative paraphrases; (6) translation using idioms; (7) translation using onomatopoeic expressions; (8) translation using two adjectives, or combination of adverbs, adjectives or verbs; (9) no translation (omission or complete change of the phrase). In addition to all these, another option would be leaving the Japanese onomatopoeia untranslated in the text so as to preserve the flavor of the source language. Nevertheless, this method could apply only to giseigo (sound imitating words), but not to gitaigo (non-audible states and actions expressed by sounds). The use of onomatopoeic words in Miyazawa Kenji’s works is not a singular phenomenon, but what seems to be unique is the writer’s ability to coin mimetics such as: ton-ten-ton, pos-shan-ton, pik-kari-ko etc.

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