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I want to know if the original Anne of Green Gables translation into Japanese (that is, Hanako Muraoka's 1952 translation, not the 1993 translation by Yuko Matsumoto) retains the last line of the book or not. The line I'm referring to is
>“‘God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world,’” whispered Anne softly.
This line is a quote from Robert Browning's poem Pippa Passes. I know that Pippa Passes was translated into Japanese and published in 1905, and Anne of Green Gables was translated in 1952. According to this article, journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/re-vision/Matsumoto/Revising-the-Japanese-Translation-of-Anne-of-Green-Gables-My-Story, the original 1952 translation removed a ton of literary references Japanese readers wouldn't get. The 1993 one included them along with a hefty amount of annotations.
I suspect that the usage of this quote in Evangelion (1995) was directly inspired by the then-recent translation of Anne of Green Gables into Japanese, and not from the poem Pippa Passes (which would be relatively obscure to a Japanese person, I think).
My thinking is, if the original 1952 translation retains the line, then it can be assumed the average Japanese reader would have gotten it, and so Pippa Passes is not too obscure, and Evangelion may be referencing it. Alternatively, if the original removes or substantially changes the line, then Pippa Passes was probably relatively obscure to Japanese readers, and the 1993 Matsumoto translation is where the Evangelion creators got that quote.
>“‘God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world,’” whispered Anne softly.
This line is a quote from Robert Browning's poem Pippa Passes. I know that Pippa Passes was translated into Japanese and published in 1905, and Anne of Green Gables was translated in 1952. According to this article, journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/re-vision/Matsumoto/Revising-the-Japanese-Translation-of-Anne-of-Green-Gables-My-Story, the original 1952 translation removed a ton of literary references Japanese readers wouldn't get. The 1993 one included them along with a hefty amount of annotations.
I suspect that the usage of this quote in Evangelion (1995) was directly inspired by the then-recent translation of Anne of Green Gables into Japanese, and not from the poem Pippa Passes (which would be relatively obscure to a Japanese person, I think).
My thinking is, if the original 1952 translation retains the line, then it can be assumed the average Japanese reader would have gotten it, and so Pippa Passes is not too obscure, and Evangelion may be referencing it. Alternatively, if the original removes or substantially changes the line, then Pippa Passes was probably relatively obscure to Japanese readers, and the 1993 Matsumoto translation is where the Evangelion creators got that quote.
