Is there a website which translates into English what the Japanese name
of Acer palmatum cultivars means, and is reasonably comprehensive? I
found some at http://www.amblesidegardens.com/japanese-maples.html, but
assume there are others.

--

Jeff

On 12/12/2013 18:22, Jeff Layman wrote:
Is there a website which translates into English what the Japanese name
of Acer palmatum cultivars means, and is reasonably comprehensive? I
found some at http://www.amblesidegardens.com/japanese-maples.html, but
assume there are others.

If you feed "translate" and a well formed Japanese word in English into
Google then you will likely get a translation that sort of makes sense.
You should prefer the one that is in the context of Acer cultivars.

Some of them will be a bit meaningless or poetic like "Lions claw" etc.

Japanese is like English but has many more homophones written
differently but sounding alike and with radically different meanings.

eg.

He rose early and rows to the rose rows.

Or the infamous "four candles" sketch.

My favourite Japanese semi tongue twister was

ni wa ni ni wa tori arimasu

Which translates as "there are two chickens in the yard".
(all the "ni" and "wa" are different Japanese characters)

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Thu, 12 Dec 2013 18:22:29 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

Is there a website which translates into English what the Japanese name
of Acer palmatum cultivars means, and is reasonably comprehensive? I
found some at http://www.amblesidegardens.com/japanese-maples.html, but
assume there are others.

I know that the books by Yano (Book for Maples) and Vertrees/Gregory
(Japanese Maples, 4th Edition) many translations are given. There is
also the "World Checklist of Maple Cultivars" which is published by
Gregory, Westonbirt and Hugh Angus from the forestry office. It gives a
pretty complete view of what are accepted cultivars, although it's not
exclusive, it is pretty good for the spellings.

Another place to get the correct Japanese spellings in our alphabet is:

http://homepage2.nifty.com/chigyoraku/Etop11.html

which while not complete has some wonderful pictures and is all in all
one of the best Japanese maple resources online. Click on cultivars, or
flowers, or china; this last contains many little known species, and the
treatment of A. pictum (mono to pre-1996 purists) is the best I've seen
anywhere.

I seem to think there is some site which has a lot of translations, but
can't lay my hands on it here; I'll have to check bookmarks this weekend.



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On Thu, 12 Dec 2013 21:40:15 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:


ni wa ni ni wa tori arimasu

Which translates as "there are two chickens in the yard".
(all the "ni" and "wa" are different Japanese characters)

How about A. palmatum 'Shigitatsu sawa':

kokoro naki
mi ni mo aware wa
shirarekeri
shigi tatsu sawa no
aki no yugure

even a person
without feelings would be moved
to this sadness
when a snipe takes wing from the marsh
on the autumn nightfall

Here is where this translation comes from, along with 50 other
possibilities:

http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv7n3/features/Atkins.html

Translating Japanese to English is not always so obvious...



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On 12/12/2013 21:58, Emery Davis wrote:
On Thu, 12 Dec 2013 18:22:29 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

Is there a website which translates into English what the Japanese name
of Acer palmatum cultivars means, and is reasonably comprehensive? I
found some at http://www.amblesidegardens.com/japanese-maples.html, but
assume there are others.

I know that the books by Yano (Book for Maples) and Vertrees/Gregory
(Japanese Maples, 4th Edition) many translations are given. There is
also the "World Checklist of Maple Cultivars" which is published by
Gregory, Westonbirt and Hugh Angus from the forestry office. It gives a
pretty complete view of what are accepted cultivars, although it's not
exclusive, it is pretty good for the spellings.

Another place to get the correct Japanese spellings in our alphabet is:

http://homepage2.nifty.com/chigyoraku/Etop11.html

which while not complete has some wonderful pictures and is all in all
one of the best Japanese maple resources online. Click on cultivars, or
flowers, or china; this last contains many little known species, and the
treatment of A. pictum (mono to pre-1996 purists) is the best I've seen
anywhere.

I seem to think there is some site which has a lot of translations, but
can't lay my hands on it here; I'll have to check bookmarks this weekend.

Thanks for that link to Hajime Hayashida's webpages. A real labour of
love! As you say, some great photography. Whilst searching on the
internet, I came across this:
http://www.greergardens.com/Japanese...rf%20Group.pdf
Some great photos there, too, in the unlikely event that you haven't
already seen them.

Next time I visit Wisley I'll have a look in the shop there, as that's
the most likely place I'll be able to see those books.

--

Jeff

On Fri, 13 Dec 2013 19:11:23 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 12/12/2013 21:58, Emery Davis wrote:

Another place to get the correct Japanese spellings in our alphabet is:

http://homepage2.nifty.com/chigyoraku/Etop11.html

[]
I seem to think there is some site which has a lot of translations, but
can't lay my hands on it here; I'll have to check bookmarks this
weekend.

Well, I must have been imagining it for the online resource. Looking at
"Japanese Maples" 4th Ed I do see that many names (or most?) are
translated, e.g. opening at random I'm informed that 'Oto hime' means
"little queen of the undersea world." Wow!


Thanks for that link to Hajime Hayashida's webpages. A real labour of
love! As you say, some great photography. Whilst searching on the
internet, I came across this:
http://www.greergardens.com/Japanese...rf%20Group.pdf Some
great photos there, too, in the unlikely event that you haven't already
seen them.


Greer Gardens is one of several temples of the American maple
collectors. Another one is Buccholtz, with a lot of fascinating plants
we can't get over here. I've whiled away many hours on his site:

http://www.buchholznursery.com/

One thing I will say is that I'm not a fan of flash photographs taken at
night. Some people love these but for me they really exaggerate the
colours of the leaves. Which is of course why people love them,
especially people trying to flog the things.

Next time I visit Wisley I'll have a look in the shop there, as that's
the most likely place I'll be able to see those books.

The Vertrees/Gregory is really the industry bible, you're likely to find
it there. Unfortunately I'm told that Yano's book is out of print and is
selling for hundreds!



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On 14/12/2013 15:53, Emery Davis wrote:
On Fri, 13 Dec 2013 19:11:23 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 12/12/2013 21:58, Emery Davis wrote:

Another place to get the correct Japanese spellings in our alphabet is:

http://homepage2.nifty.com/chigyoraku/Etop11.html

[]
I seem to think there is some site which has a lot of translations, but
can't lay my hands on it here; I'll have to check bookmarks this
weekend.

Well, I must have been imagining it for the online resource. Looking at
"Japanese Maples" 4th Ed I do see that many names (or most?) are
translated, e.g. opening at random I'm informed that 'Oto hime' means
"little queen of the undersea world." Wow!

"Mermaid Princess"?

From a Romaji to English translation page I find the "hime" means
princess, noble woman, girl; but I was unable to find a relevant meaning
for "oto" (or "ooto", "otoo" or "ootoo"). (Transliteration of Japanese
sometimes uses doubled vowel letters or vowel letters with macrons to
denote long vowels.)

--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

On Sat, 14 Dec 2013 23:39:07 +0000, Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

Well, I must have been imagining it for the online resource. Looking
at "Japanese Maples" 4th Ed I do see that many names (or most?) are
translated, e.g. opening at random I'm informed that 'Oto hime' means
"little queen of the undersea world." Wow!

"Mermaid Princess"?

From a Romaji to English translation page I find the "hime" means
princess, noble woman, girl; but I was unable to find a relevant meaning
for "oto" (or "ooto", "otoo" or "ootoo"). (Transliteration of Japanese
sometimes uses doubled vowel letters or vowel letters with macrons to
denote long vowels.)

Your translation certainly sounds more concise I was just quoting.
The book has a handy appendix of Japanese words and their meanings,
wherein "hime" is given: "princess, pretty, little." There is a group of
hime cultivars which I think are all dwarves, so I associate the name
with "little princess," personally.

This said, I make no claim that I speak any Japanese outside of the maple
vocabulary, and even there I'm pretty weak!



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On 14/12/2013 23:39, Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
On 14/12/2013 15:53, Emery Davis wrote:
On Fri, 13 Dec 2013 19:11:23 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 12/12/2013 21:58, Emery Davis wrote:

Another place to get the correct Japanese spellings in our alphabet is:

http://homepage2.nifty.com/chigyoraku/Etop11.html

[]
I seem to think there is some site which has a lot of translations, but
can't lay my hands on it here; I'll have to check bookmarks this
weekend.

Well, I must have been imagining it for the online resource. Looking at
"Japanese Maples" 4th Ed I do see that many names (or most?) are
translated, e.g. opening at random I'm informed that 'Oto hime' means
"little queen of the undersea world." Wow!

"Mermaid Princess"?

From a Romaji to English translation page I find the "hime" means
princess, noble woman, girl; but I was unable to find a relevant meaning
for "oto" (or "ooto", "otoo" or "ootoo"). (Transliteration of Japanese
sometimes uses doubled vowel letters or vowel letters with macrons to
denote long vowels.)

I suspect it may be the same oto as in otome (girl, maiden) kanji single
stroke looks like a cross between a curly Z and an L.

My kanji dictionary gives otohime as "youngest princess".

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Friday, December 13, 2013 6:40:15 AM UTC+9, Martin Brown wrote:
On 12/12/2013 18:22, Jeff Layman wrote:

Is there a website which translates into English what the Japanese name

of Acer palmatum cultivars means, and is reasonably comprehensive? I

found some at http://www.amblesidegardens.com/japanese-maples.html, but

assume there are others.



If you feed "translate" and a well formed Japanese word in English into

Google then you will likely get a translation that sort of makes sense.

You should prefer the one that is in the context of Acer cultivars.



Some of them will be a bit meaningless or poetic like "Lions claw" etc.



Japanese is like English but has many more homophones written

differently but sounding alike and with radically different meanings.



eg.



He rose early and rows to the rose rows.



Or the infamous "four candles" sketch.



My favourite Japanese semi tongue twister was



ni wa ni ni wa tori arimasu



Which translates as "there are two chickens in the yard".

(all the "ni" and "wa" are different Japanese characters)



--

Regards,

Martin Brown

Hello

aisumimasen. im a japanese. can i correct your sentence just a little.
'niwa ni (in the yard), niwa no (two) niwatori (chickens) ga imasu (are there).
i can add another two here, so the sentence would be followed by
'sokoni (then) niwakani (with a rush) niwaka-ame (rain shower) ga huttekita. (started to fall).
Enjoy japanese as well as gardening.

-Ono