Re: "hapless yokozuna"

[Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>]

At 11:54 PM +0900 8/5/02, Doreen Simmons wrote:

>I have a note in my "To do today" list that still hasn't been checked out: 
>"Look up dead tree JT". That was a Sunday, right? so I'm inclined to think 
>it was an agency report, and those are written by translators who are, 
>almost by definition, generalists doing the best they can to produce a 
>workmanlike job on matters they do not know as specialists.  "Hapless 
>yokozuna" is the sort of phrase that would trip so easily off the tongue 
>of somebody who is looking at that basho's scores with no view of the 
>broader picture.

As I surmised, it was an agency report: Kyodo, in this case. I did not mean 
to say that the native speakers who translate the Kyodo Japanese reports 
are useless amateurs; just that in the nature of things, they are simply 
honest generalists, going with the flow. (And that is something I can 
relate to...! In fact, a friend of mine who previously did this job was a 
considerable expert. When she asked me to share my time (and my good seats) 
with her at a honbasho, I would not like to say which of us learned 
more....)

FWIW,

~Doreen Simmons
      <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>~