A Case Study in Translation: The Tale of the Ring

Recently I had the opportunity to read Yubiwa monogatari, the Japanese translation of The Lord of the Rings. The translators are Tanaka Akiko and Seta Teiji, apparently working in tandem the way Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokonsky do in translations from Russian into English. The Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books and one that has had an enormous influence on my tastes, interests, and even personal relationships (I’ve met more than one close friend through Tolkien fandom) for almost my whole life. The Japanese language is another longtime passion of mine—yes, because I grew up in the stateside anime and manga boom of the 2000s, but for other reasons as well, ranging from its lambent sonic qualities to its astoundingly deep and rich poetry and travelogue traditions. Reading Yubiwa monogatari has thus been a long-term goal of mine for years; I’m enormously glad that I was finally able to. But is the translation any good?