I think I have a pun here...

Hi again!

Well, in this week's round of translations I need to finish up, there appears to be a pun, and we all know what a pain those are to translate...

The basic context is, the writer of this entry had surgery on his nose, and he starts out by teasing the readers into thinking it was plastic surgery, but then he says this:

「別に鼻を高くしたとかではなく」

...followed by an explanation that the surgery was actually simple laser surgery to correct nasal inflammation.

I've heard that 鼻を高くした is an expression meaning pride, boasting, etc. ('nose in the air' in English, possibly), but I'm thinking that choice of words is just a little too close to the nose surgery context to mean that alone. But I'm still not sure whether or not to take it as a pun, and if so, how to best put it into English... any advice would be appreciated!

Becky-chan,

You might be on to something there.

Bekkichan said:

Well, in this week's round of translations I need to finish up

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Hey no fair. You know more Japanese than I do if you're doing that stuff.

Bekkichan said:

「別に鼻を高くしたとかではなく」

I've heard that 鼻を高くした is an expression meaning pride, boasting, etc.
[...] is just a little too close to the nose surgery context to mean that alone.

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Well that phrase does turn up in direct relation to plastic surgery so you're right that there is that literal interpretation.

c.f. しわ取り・若返り術Q&A;集 鼻を高くしたい ヒアルロン酸はどの位の期間もちますか？

以前から鼻を高くしたいと思い、インターネットで色んなサイトを見たりしてんだけど手術をするという事にまだふんぎりがつかず迷ってます。

So I suppose the first thing to do is confirm the proverbial meaning.

[EDIT] And here's one that does nicely for that
一度の成功ですっかり鼻を高くした虎先鋒であった。

[EDIT 2] OK so there are definitely those two possible meanings but there is still an important point to consider. In context has he sounded at all as if he was boasting? If there's no hint of that and if it's not said with the sort of stress that might indicate someone giving the 'punchline' then I don't know that it is necessarily intended as a pun.

PaulTB said:

Hey no fair. You know more Japanese than I do if you're doing that stuff.

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LOL, I doubt that... I just translate about 3 paragraphs a week for a website. No person-to-person interpretation, and each time I have several days to confirm any parts that give me trouble. Jim Breen and Google have become very dear friends of mine.

PaulTB said:

OK so there are definitely those two possible meanings but there is still an important point to consider. In context has he sounded at all as if he was boasting? If there's no hint of that and if it's not said with the sort of stress that might indicate someone giving the 'punchline' then I don't know that it is necessarily intended as a pun.

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Well, the title of the entry is "Plastic surgery!?" After that it just says he's had surgery on his nose (今週は鼻の手術を受けた。- nice and simple), followed by the 鼻を高くした line. From there he says it really wasn't a big deal, describes what kind of surgery it was, and explains why he had it done. So, no obvious boasting, really... I guess I was just getting the proverbial context from the title and the "it wasn't a big deal" thing.

But the more I've thought about it, the more the literal version makes sense... and I think I'd rather go with that and be wrong than go with the proverbial version and be wrong, for some reason. Now to figure out how to word it in English... lol.

Thanks for the advice!

Bekkichan said:

LOL, I doubt that... I just translate about 3 paragraphs a week for a website.

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From text, audio or video? It makes quite a difference. </nosey>

Thanks for the advice!

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どういたしまして

PaulTB said:

From text, audio or video? It makes quite a difference. </nosey>

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From text. I'm not THAT good. :hilarious: I'm really learning a lot from this stuff, though... so it's proving to be a nice productive way to use my free time in an otherwise uneventful summer following graduation from a 4-year Japanese program. Keeps me in practice.