Troll i ord - Japanese Translation Competition

Are you currently studying or have you studied Japanese? Are you interested in Japanese literature?

Then you are welcome to participate in this translation competition at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen.

A classic Japanese masterpiece, «Arashi no yoru ni», is to be translated into Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish or Icelandic. 

 "Arashi no yoru ni", written by Yuichi Kimura, is a classic that celebrates its 30th anniversary since publication. The story features a goat and a wolf who meet on a pitch-dark, stormy night. Unable to see each other in the darkness, they form a heartfelt connection through their conversations, making it a touching and engaging tale. The story has also been adapted into a film and a stage play.

Task

Here is the text you should translate. The response can be written in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finish or Icelandic.

Submission

 Submission deadline: 31 October 2025. Please submit your document via this scheme.

Guidelines

1. The competition is open to current and former Japanese students at universities or high schools in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.
2. Professional translators and individuals with Japanese as their native language cannot participate in the competition.
3. Participation is limited to one entry per participant. The entry will be submitted to the Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish or Icelandic section.
4. The translator's name should not be visible in the submitted translation. 

Prizes

Prizes will be awarded to the top 15 translations, three to Norwegian students, three to Swedish students, three to Finnish students, three to Danish students and three to Icelandic students. The 15 winners will receive a gift card worth approximately 1000 NOK at a bookstore. The winners will also receive feedback from the professional translators on the text they have submitted.

You can look in the book here

Photo:

@Yûichi Kimura/Hiroshi Abe 2000

WINNERS 2025

The results of this year’s translation competition

The Swedish category did not receive enough entries, so no award was given. The Icelandic category received no submissions. The results of the other categories and the judges’ comments are as follows. go to the following recipients. Prizes will be sent to the Excellence Award winners by mail. Congratulations!!

Finnish (Antti Valkama)

In this year’s competition, there were not many difficult-to-understand passages in the original Japanese text. Therefore, the competition did not emphasize understanding the source text as much as how aptly and understandably things were expressed in Finnish. I think this made the work easier some ways, but harder in other ways. Although the ending was somewhat difficult: あさひにも、そんなこと、わかるはずもない。Even the morning sun couldn’t know that. In Japan this is not odd. お天道様が見てる, the sun is watching, is a common saying. The sun itself can be personified, or the saying can be interpreted to mean a buddha or a god is watching. But in Finland this is not a common idea.

The story Arashi no yoru ni has a distinctive atmosphere. So conveying the atmosphere in the translation is important. The text of a children's book must also be understandable to a child – but this doesn’t mean it should be too simple or too explanatory.

The competition entries contained many good insights and also many sentences that could be published as such. Each translation had it’s own strengths. That is why the selection of the third Excellence Award entry in particular was very difficult. On the other hand, the evaluation of the texts reminded me of the great importance of editors in literature. Even professionals should remember that a translation that they consider finished can always be improved by a good editor.

The Excellence Awards:
Krista Mäkelä (University of Helsinki)
Laura Höyhtyä (University of Helsinki)
Markus Amé (University of Helsinki)

(Norwegian) Magne Tørring

Å oversette er ikke lett – ingen vet dette bedre enn vi som gjør det hver eneste dag. Og å oversette tekst som ikke bare skal forstås, men oppleves, har sine helt egne utfordringer. Ikke bare krever det god kunnskap om kildespråket, men også en dyp forståelse av hvilke følelser originalteksten forsøker å vekke i leseren, og hvilke virkemidler den tar i bruk for å oppnå dette. Aller viktigst er det imidlertid at man som oversetter virkelig forstår og mestrer målspråket – det vil si språket det skal oversettes til – for å skape en tekst som kan ikke bare gjengir originalens betydning, men også gjenskaper leseropplevelsen. Et lite bransjetriks her er å lese sin egen oversettelse mens man hele tiden tenker: Hvordan vil dette oppleves for en som ikke vet noe som helst om originalen?

Originalteksten i årets konkurranse er blant de mest krevende jeg har sett i mine år som dommer. Den inneholder onomatopoetika som har en viktig funksjon i handlingen (lyden av stokken og den slepende poten som forvirrer geita til å tro at ulven er en artsfrende), den inneholder bevisste vagheter (leseren skjønner at ulven og geita tilhører forskjellige arter, men det gjør ikke dyrene selv), kreative stedsnavn og ikke minst poetiske beskrivelser av uvær og landskap. Alt dette er utfordringer som ville satt selv en erfaren oversetter på prøve.

Årets bidrag viser gjennomgående tilstrekkelig forståelse av originalspråket, og det finnes også gode tilløp til løsninger, men jeg har savnet viljen til å gjøre teksten til sin egen for virkelig å fortelle historien til norske lesere. Jeg må derfor dessverre konkludere med at det ikke kan kåres noen vinnerbidrag i årets konkurranse.

(Danish) Mette Holm

Det har været sjovt at læse forskellige oversættelse af børnebogen あらしのよるに. Og der har været mange fine løsninger på en oversættelse, så det har været svært at vælge. Jeg har valgt tre oversættelser, der er tro mod originalen, men på hver deres måde. De tre tekster er et fornemt bevis på, at oversættelse aldrig er en ord-til-ord-øvelse, men består af mange personlige valg, og at der ikke kun findes én korrekt løsning på øvelsen, og at resultaterne her meget fint ender med at fortælle den samme historie i tre variationer. Og det er især fokus på et flydende dansk, der har afgjort mit valg, for det er tydeligt, at alle har gjort sig umage og forstået at fortolke historien, så den bliver rigtig dansk.

The Excellence Awards:
Sofie Lambertsen (Aarhus University)
Alexander Mariager Nielsen (Aarhus University)
Lise Hostrup Daugberg (Aarhus University)

Former winners

 Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!