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Hey brains trust, I need your help with a translation.
Does anyone know of/can think of a word that’s the same/similar to ‘automaton’ that has a bit more… humanity to it? The original uses the word ‘sleepwalker’, but that doesn’t really work well in this translation. Automaton fits a lot better but is too anachronistic. ‘Zombie’ is also anachronistic and is out.
I’ll include the segment I’ve translated so far below under spoiler tags because it’s not exactly pleasant to read. So don’t click/read if you’re not feeling it. Context for those that don’t know: Hiroshima survivor testimony.
spoiler
We were standing in the hallway on the first floor, though it seemed more like we were standing at the gates of Hell. Burnt and wounded naked bodies were crouched all around, screaming and writhing in agony. It was just like hell. I was terrified. I was really, truly afraid to be among such people. But I didn’t have the strength to run away. Before I knew it, I became an automaton, not knowing who I was or where I was going. Once again, I collapsed to the ground where I stood.
I’ve been staring at this word for like an hour trying to work out the best fit.
I was on autopilot?
Yeah this was the first thing that came to my mind too
Was autopilot a thing in 1950? (Sorry, should have mentioned when the text was actually written)
Even if it was, I’m not sure a young woman that grew up in Imperialist Japan would necessarily know what it was.
There’s plenty of modern words that I can use, but I’ve hit a wall for words that are era-appropriate.
yeah 1950s is probably too early for autopilot. If you don't mind, what's the original?
The Japanese? You know Japanese, Bacon?
It’s: 私たちのいる一階の廊下は、今や阿鼻叫喚のちまただった。焼かれ傷ついた裸体の群が、泣き叫びながらそこここにうずくまり、悶えていた。さながら地獄だった。私は恐しかった。こうした人たちの中にいることが真底から恐しかった。が、その場を逃げ出す気力もなかった。私はいつの間にか夢遊病者のように、自分で自分がわからなくなり、またへたへたと足元に崩れてしまった。
She uses the term 夢遊病者, literally ‘sleepwalker’ or ‘somnambulist’. It’s a very frequently used term in atomic testimonies. At times a literal translation is fine. This time it just doesn’t really work.
Google translate: "Before I knew it, like a sleepwalker, I lost track of myself and collapsed at my feet."
Maybe re-wording it along the lines of a puppet or marionette with its strings cut.
Native Hong Kong (yay kanji!) and learned a couple years of Japanese. I'd just do a literal translation and say like a sleepwalker. I think it works because sleepwalker doesn't have to walk, and it'd be good to trust her self "diagnosis". It is easier for people to search through records too if they want to look for people who called themselves sleepwalkers.
Given that automata (plural) were a frequent diplomatic gift from the West to the East in the 17th/18th centuries, maybe she would have a vague understanding of the concept. Especially if she was fond of romance stories/dramas in an Above the Clouds setting. I can think of at least one fable about an emperor who was given a mechanical bird in a cage that sang when the handle was turned by someone else.
This is the tricky/challenging/really interesting thing about this. When it comes to trauma translation, the norms, conventions and scholarship around it state emphatically that you can’t appropriate another’s trauma experience. You can’t make assumptions on behalf of the trauma survivor. The problem is that translation is, of itself, a form of transmutation. It doesn’t occur in a vacuum and there are always going to be things that get changed in translation.
If the survivor writer is someone well known that you can dig and find information on, it can help. But with these accounts, most of them didn’t live more than a decade after and there is absolutely no information about them besides what is in their testimony. So if they state that their profession is a doctor or a high school teacher, or if they write with a lot of Chinese characters, then I can safely assume that they’ve had a decent education. If they write in a particularly literary way, then I can assume that they are familiar with literature and replicate their register in translation. If the account is void of that, then I have to go on thoroughly educated guesses. I have no way of knowing if she was fond of anything at all.
Fair point. Is there any way of finding out what films/general readership books etc. were popular at the time? Maybe the publishing houses of the day (if any survive) have a list of best sellers. This might be a way to get an idea of what was going on in popular culture at the time. Like, I'm not a film person, but I do recognise the names of popular films atm and have an idea of what they're about even though I've never watched them and probably never will. Even current tv shows might give some idea of what was popular - that is, if tv was around in that area at that time. Would shinto religious observance be useful source of info about probable life experience? Or other customary observances that are traditional to that general area? I'm thinking of the tree-threatening ceremony, for orchard growers.
Automaton seems fine to me - has been in use for a long time too - pre-dates WWII. I think it once referred to clockwork mechanisms certainly since 17th/18th century. Such as those gifted to chinese emperors etc. This seems to fit your context. 'autopilot' is anachronistic, but would fit with current usage.
Hmm 🤔 ok, good to know. I’ll have to do some digging into its usage.
My other problem with it though is that it kind of strips the ‘human’ aspect of their experience away. That’s how it feels to me, anyway. Do you get that feeling when you read it?
It’s also maybe slightly too high of a register for the way this person writes/talks.
This is so hard 🙃
Beg to differ here. I think it highlights the contrast between the suffering of the other people and the automatic shutdown of emotion in extreme stress situations as a survival mechanism. This known & documented I think. And very very human. Have you read Bone Games: Extreme Sports, Shamanism, Zen, and the Search for Transcendence by Robert Schultheis? Illuminating. Can lend you a copy if your library doesn't have it. Scary book but I found it chimed with some of what happened to me back when I was a professional 3day eventer, and also with accounts of the holocaust etc. And other instances of humans under extreme physical, social and mental stress.
I haven’t read that, but I’ve discussed that very automatic shut down in my research quite a bit. They call it a ‘psychic closing off’ in trauma studies.
a sheep without a flock? too many words yeah?
That could definitely work at some points that the term has come up, especially as an equivalent simile (and I’m going to steal it and store it away for the next time I comes up). Not quite the same thing here though 🤔
Not stealing, it was already a gift.
❤️
To me that sounds catatonic.
Well it’s really a condition caused by a rapid and severe onset of mental distress otherwise known as “shock”.
So one could work around the clunky sounding name of automaton or sleepwalker by describing with synonyms for shock, such as “fell into a stupor” or something similar.
I know you’re a smart cookie and probably thought about that already but sometimes for the sake of reader engagement a little leeway might be made?
cyborg?
humanoid apparatus? (if two words fit)
Too modern for a text written by a country girl in 1950 Japan, unfortunately.
undefined> Before I knew it, I became an automaton, not knowing who I was or where I was going.
before I knew it, I went with the flow, not knowing who I was or where I was going.