Understanding The Gruffalo's Child : A qualitative analysis of English children's picture book translation into Japanese referencing German and Swedish translations

This study examined the Japanese translation of The Gruffalo’s Child trying to clarify how the target text was naturalized by the translator in order to make it more accessible to an audience of Japanese children. How these changes affected the interplay between the verbal and visual elements of the story was further examined utilizing the concept of ‘luckor’ (gaps). A comparison between the English source text and the Japanese target text was conducted. Changes were categorized by their type. Afterwards, selected cases were discussed in detail referencing the German and Swedish translations when relevant. The Japanese translation of The Gruffalo’s Child underwent a significant number of changes. Most notably additions, modulations and omissions. While these changes facilitate the audience’s comprehension by naturalizing the target text, they sometimes led to redundancy or conflict in the iconotext, as well as to the loss of ‘absurdly vivid imagery’. Additionally, ideophones were rarely used throughout the text.