Help finding notes on translation of "Seven Samurai?"
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23 October 2015
23 October 2015
Hi! You can find a scan of the original script at the Akira Kurosawa Digital Archive, section 22.14.01. It’s not the most convenient form to read in, of course.
The script has also been published in Japan. The Japanese Amazon should have some copies. An English translation was published as The Seven Samurai and Other Screenplays, but if I recall correctly it’s more of a transcription and not even based on the full film but its shorter international cut.
I don’t know of any discussion on the translation process. There actually are a few different English subtitle translations.
23 October 2015
Thank you so much, this will help a lot! 🙂 Yes, there are a lot of differences between subtitles! I’m currently a paper on what “got lost in translation” for the film, so the resources you gave will really help. 🙂 If you know anything about the use of honorifics in the movie, please let me know! Thanks again!
19 September 2017
I am now trying to translate The Seven Samourai from the Japanese text (for me own pleasure, I am not, unfortunately, a professional translater, and not able to do a translation worth to be published). It must be known that the subtitles are very, very far from the Japanese text, more complex, alluding to the Japanese context, totally ignored by the subtitles.
30 August 2021
I installed Ruffle flash emulator which lets you use any old flash website or flash game safefly in modern browsers. However, it did not work for this page:
http://www.afc.ryukoku.ac.jp/Komon/kurosawa/index.html
It seems like they disabled the service. They should probably turn it back on so that people can still access the site using Ruffle.
The main link uses this link but it is just dead now, saying Service Unavailable.
Anyone know where I can get ahold of the original Japanese script for Seven Samurai? Or, more helpfully, a side-by-side comparison of the Japanese transcript and an English translation, or ANY notes on the actual process of translating Seven Samurai?
Bonus question: do we know what honorifics are used to address the samurai in Seven Samurai, if any? Thank you! 🙂