to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 12:19 PM
subject: Tattoo Translation
Hi there
My girlfriend got this tattoo specially made. She even paid for a translator to get her daughters name. It’s supposed to say “ALEXA”. Can you tell me if it does or not?
Thanks
荒草 weeds / brush (vegetation) / wild grassland
If you read it with Japanese kun readings, it's "arekusa", which is a valid phonetic approximation of the name Alexa. Dunno if the translator was trying to be humorous or chose the first characters they could come up with, though.
ReplyDeleteSo close! 荒れ+草 would be "arekusa" which is the Japanese equivalet to "Alexa". However, they dropped the れ, and 荒 on its own is "ara", not "are". So the name is "Alaxa" for all eternity.
ReplyDeleteWell, You can drop the okurigana and still read it "arekusa", if you treat the word as a proper name. It may look far-fetched, but kun readings aren't so monolithic.
DeleteIn Japanese it can be read as あらくさ (arakusa), which sounds like Alexa.
ReplyDeleteArekusa あれくさ you mean. So for all intents and purposes, this tattoo checks out.
ReplyDeleteBoth 荒草（Arakusa) as in "Nishi Arakusa-Cho" / 荒れ草（Arekusa）as in "barren/dry grass" are not ok to use as Japanese translations for "Alexa". A proper translation should be in Katakana only－アレックサ. Shame on the translator.
DeleteI know I'm replying to someone from almost a year ago but you can absolutely use Kanji to represent foreign words or names. Plenty of people who become Japanese nationals adopt Kanji approximations for their names to fit in better as readings for names are incredibly flexible. It's all ateji, like "club", according to you, should be written in katakana only (クラブ) and yet you see plenty of places that have it written out phonetically in kanji as 倶楽部. Plus katakana looks stupid in tattoos.
DeleteOf course you went anon.
DeleteIt was common to try to put things in kanji in, say, Edo and Meiji, just as there is a specific set for doing so in Chinese. However, even your so proudly provided example is frankly archaic, even more so than the term 計算機 for computer.
Sure if you want to put your name in any old kanji and insist that your whiteness makes you more knowledgeable than us filthy natives even about our own cultire, you might even get a job translaying with an all Aryan company.
But may they send you as their representative to rural Japan.
Or may you be elected to teach us filthy 'yellow folk' ... at a high school.