The Nature of Fiction Translation

The paper intends to explore the nature of fiction translation and to discuss the necessity of introducing translated fictions in Japan.During the past hundred years, many foreign novels have been translated and read in Japan, which have exerted great influence on various time frames of our life. It is said that translating novels is very active in our country.But conventional wisdom has it that translated novels are not identical to the originals. Translating may be defined as rereading and rewriting for target-language audiences, which makes translations uniquely different from their originals: every time texts are translated they take on a new language, a new culture, new readers, and a new point of view.But it is also true that we might have read and understand in different mean any thoughts and belief the author wanted to tell and convey to readers. Over the last several years, it is said that translated novels have waned in popularity. Then I guessed as one of translators who are engaged in translation. What kind of role is a translator of novels? Is there any way many people find foreign novels more amusing and interesting ?I think that translation is not made in a vacuum. Translators function in a given culture at a given time. That is why in this paper, I attempted to investigate and present the original means of one novel at the time when the author had written it. At first, I tried to research and find out “the situation” that is the period background and social environment in which the novel was written, and secondly reviewed how to really translate each sentences of text thereof. Finally, I thought why the translated one is at variance with the originals.It is generally accepted that translating novels or fictions are a complex process subject to the influence of numerous variable factors, such as where and when original ones were written, and then translated, and what kind of readers were assumed to be read, etc.So, I believe I should give insights concerning the cultural-social values in translation of fiction, and would like to introduce the results to Japanese readers at present. Therefore, I attempted to pursue the real mean of original one and reveal its ‘identity’ investigating the situation where those were written more than 100 years ago, in a foreign country