1.08.2010

Translation of what I ate

I got some instant soup (鍋うどんきつね) from a Japanese store and had to follow the directions in Japanese, since they only bothered to translate the company's information and ingredients. So since I went to the trouble to decipher the directions, I've decided to post the original text and translation here:
御召し上がり方
スープをコップ1杯半の湯又は水でうすめて鍋に入れ、火にかけて煮込んで下さい。

Directions
Add one and a half cups of hot water or water to the soup, then heat it in a pot.
If you know Japanese, then you'll notice that they've been pretty wordy to express the simple concept of "directions". And what's notable is that they say "hot water or water" which in English sounds strange. And why can't you add the water to the soup *in* the pot instead of before putting it all in? Maybe someone would have a different translation, but it rolls out that way to me. I did omit the word "dilute" (うすめて) because it's unnecessary, so the English you see is a simple, straightforward rendering of what was communicated in Japanese.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure, but I think this might be closer:

'Add one and a half cups of hot water to the soup. Or, add water and heat in a pot.'

- lumpy

Margaret Larkin said...

That was my original translation because "hot water or water" seemed weird, but I asked my Japanese teacher and she said it's "hot water or water" because hot water would make the heating process faster. I think the key is the verb forms of うすめて followed by 鍋に入れ, then かけて as if they're listing the steps.

Anonymous said...

Weird, but the verb-form explanation makes sense.