When reading a translated book or a dubbed movie, one might come to wonder if the translation conveys the characters’ personality traits identically to that of the original, and while ‘identical’ may not be achievable, ‘equivalent’ rather may be within the scope of a translator’s capability. Translation between languages as vastly different as Swedish and Japanese, or English and Japanese are bound to face greater difficulties than for example Swedish and English. Japanese dialogue can highlight register and idiosyncratic speech patterns in particularly unique ways. This case study investigates how this is done and handled in both English and Swedish by analyzing the dialogue of the main protagonist Nakata Satoru in the novel Umibe no Kafka by Murakami Haruki. Thus, two questions arise: “What distinguishing elements of Nakata Satoru’s register and formality make his speech unique in the original Umibe no Kafuka?” and “How are the distinct characteristics in the dialogue of Nakata Satoru maintained – or lost in the Swedish and English translations of Umibe no Kafuka?”. In pursuit of an answer to these questions, the original copy of Umibe no Kafuka, the English translation (Kafka on the Shore), and the Swedish translation (Kafka på Stranden) were analyzed and all sentences spoken by Nakata in chapters 6,16 and 20 were recorded and compared to the ST – or source text. The study ultimately found that the distinct characteristics in Nakata’s speech were many times in the English and Swedish translations ignored and that Nakata’s soft spoken, understanding tone was often overlooked in order to allow for the translation to flow naturally.

Det här arbetet diskuterar ett utforskande musikaliskt gestaltningsprojekt, Från botten av en brunn, som utgörs av fyra satser för klarinett, cello och modulärt synthesizersystem baserat på var sin person ur den japanska författaren Haruki Murakamis roman Kafka på stranden (Umibe no Kafuka, 海辺のカフカ) från 2002. Arbetet har utgått ifrån en metodisk bearbetning av romantexten med hjälp av grundad teori för att skapa både syntetiska och samplade klanger och komposition ur texten. Grundad teori togs ursprungligen fram inom sociologi för att forma ny kunskap ur kvalitativ data med hjälp av en rigorös process, där teoretisk känslighet stödjer och vägleder tolkningar. I mitt arbete har det här snarare handlat om estetisk sensibilitet som väglett mina tolkningar av texten, hjälpt mig att göra urval och omforma romanen till musik och framförande. / This work discusses an exploratory musical composition project, From the bottom of a Well, which consists of four movements for clarinet, cello, and modular synthesizer system, where each movement is based on each person from the Japanese author Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the beach (Umibe no Kafuka, 海辺のカフカ) from 2002. The work has been based on a methodical processing of the novel text with the help of grounded theory to create both synthetic and sampled sounds and composition from the text. Grounded theory was originally developed in sociology to shape new knowledge from qualitative data using a rigorous process, where theoretical sensitivity supports and guides interpretations. In my work, this has rather been about aesthetic sensibility that has guided my interpretations of the text, helped me to make selections, and to transform the novel into a music composition and a performance.