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NBTHK Tsuba publication June 2014

Bugyotsuji
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Marius Grand Master

Marius

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I am waiting for mine, too. I guess it is not so easy to send everything away. I mean, Markus has graciously agreed to provide this service at no cost, and I think he can be snowed under. Imagine the effort it takes to ship all those books. So, the last thing we want to do is complain :-)

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Markus Mentor

Markus

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Sorry for the long waiting time! I had to ship the remaining copies to my place

here in Austria and to do so, I wanted to be 110% sure to be here when this happens

as I had problems before that especially parcels were returned to sender even if I had

a holiday mail holding service.

 

I did the ones to the US, Canada and Australia whilst in the states and Peter was so

kind to forward to GB and Ireland. And my friend from Germany did so for Germany,

Austria, and Switzerland, and as he is busy as well, I was not going to saddle him with

the remaining European copies. I am sorry that my friends from France, Belgium, the

Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, Hungary, and Russia have to wait longest!

 

Thank you for your understanding. :thanks:

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Markus Mentor

Markus

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Finally, the last parcel left Austrian customs (in Vienna) today and I am expecting it

here in Salzburg either tomorrow or Monday (no mail here on Saturday). Then I am

going to send out the last catalogues without any further delay. Will post here again

when all are shipped.

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Bugyotsuji Grand Master

Bugyotsuji

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Met the good lady who wrote the original descriptions and put this book together, today at our regional NBTHK meeting. (Chief Gakugei-In at the Token Museum.) She was carrying a bag full of Ichimonji and Kobizen swords for our further education. Collectors in this area had brought along some interesting tsuba in an attempt to draw gasps from her. I definitely heard her say 'Oh, Ohhhhh.........' so I think she was impressed. 8)

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Markus Mentor

Markus

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Apart from re-ordering and shipping the three copies of 100 that got lost in mail,

there is now an eBook version of the catalog available for those who did not grab

a copy and for those who don´t buy and more real books. ;)

 

http://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/i ... 30542.html

 

PS: Again, I dissociate myself from the translation of the Chapter descriptions and

the glossary. Does anybody know who did these parts (I only did the foreword and

the description of the pieces). Katakana says Gyabin Furee (ギャビン・フレー), so

Gavin something. Would be nice if I can get in touch with him to take to him in

for any upcoming project with the NBTHK.

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Bugyotsuji Grand Master

Bugyotsuji

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Now I must apologize to Markus for my earlier criticism of the quality of the English in some sections of this excellent tsuba book.

 

Having been involved in the translation of an upcoming event and book, it is easy to see how this can happen. Having spent over 100 hours on one part of the catalog alone, my manuscript was sent back full of changes, made with almost no consultation. I was also handed a standardized list of translations to follow, with no exceptions. The same word or phrase was to be used each time. 

 

Luckily I have been on the phone for hours sorting many but not all of these things out, through a secretary third party, but I still do not know who it is on the other end making the alteration decisions. Obviously it is someone who knows swords thoroughly and has quite a bit of confidence in his/her ability in English, and strong standing and face at least within the J community. He/She has spent a large amount of time working on it. This I can absolutely understand and respect. Many times it seems though that my rather poetic English has not been understood, and some of the corrections have meant my rewriting whole sentences since they no longer made sense any more to the English-speaking psyche.

 

I have insisted that they send me the first printer's draught, so at least I am hoping to catch any sudden last minute cuts/slashes, and maybe polish them out a little. My aim all along has been to make the English faithful to the Japanese, yes, but equally, easily readable to non-Japanese audiences. (Beginners and sword afficionados alike.)

 

The museum organizing the printing then said they were going to attach a page from the Japanese Cultural Agency's own sword vocab definitions to the catalog, but then, because I discovered that the list has quite a few probably long-standing boo boos in it, I was asked to correct that page too! Moving goalposts time? No end to the work!

 

Now I am wondering if I should request them not to include my name in the credits for translation. :quiet:

 

Sorry gentlemen, just blowing off steam. :glee:

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Markus Mentor

Markus

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Now I must apologize to Marcus for my earlier criticism of the quality of the English in some sections of this excellent tsuba book.

 

No problem Piers.  :thumbsup:

 

Still don't know why they decided to do it that way, i.e. split up the translation to two different guys. I mean, it is not that

I was charging a fortune or that the NBTHK is so poor that they are only able to afford half of a translation and have the

other half give to someone who does it at the side and for free...

 

I mean, I would not care if there are some typos or a few ambiguous sentences but the parts done by the other party

are just straightforward too bad to have it print that way (I am far far from anywhere near perfect but these texts read

really bad, sorry). That's why I can't think they were done by Gavin Frew, as Michael suggested, who has published

quite some stuff.

 

I wish my name would have been removed from that catalog as it feels like a blemish. I take full responsibility for my

own work but I don't want to be associated forever with something that I did not do and that is too sub-par...

So I can fully understand you Piers in thinking about letting them drop your name.

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Bugyotsuji Grand Master

Bugyotsuji

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The follow-up is winding down but never-ending.

 

Now they have begun to understand that I want it to be right as much as possible in the detail, and more and more fine-tuning questions are coming back down the pipeline. :phew:

 

Phoof... In this heat the hairs are getting up my nose.

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