Translation Clarification for "優雅"

B

busypie

後輩

1 Apr 2012

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• 1 Apr 2012

• #1

Japanese describe the cherry blossoms as 優雅: "beautiful but not showy."

It's from a trailer for a documentary called The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom:
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom Trailer on Vimeo

According to people I've asked, 優雅 means "elegance."

So is the director dramatizing the word or is it another reading? Thanks.

 

Toritoribe

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Fifteen-year veteran

22 Feb 2008

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• 1 Apr 2012

• #2

優雅 has a nuance of elegant, graceful, dignified or refined, so "not showy" is a good translation, I think.

 

B

busypie

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1 Apr 2012

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• 2 Apr 2012

• Thread starter
• #3

Thank you so much!

 

Toritoribe

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• 2 Apr 2012

• #4

I've just come up with an idea that the translator might be confused 優雅 with 優美. 優美 literally means "beautiful but not showy", whereas 優雅 doesn't always imply "beautiful".

 

B

busypie

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1 Apr 2012

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• 3 Apr 2012

• Thread starter
• #5

Oohhh, thanks for the update. One of the Japanese people displaced by the tsunami wrote it down and the film had it translated as that, so I was thinking how much of the word was literal versus the director's take.

 

Toritoribe

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• 3 Apr 2012

• #6

I would caption it "elegant".

 

B

busypie

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1 Apr 2012

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• 3 Apr 2012

• Thread starter
• #7

Okay, thanks for the clarification!