C) Definition within text.

Footnotes, however, are perhaps typical more of academic writing than of a novel. In novels it is not just semantic correspondence that matters, and the reader is likely to become irritated if constantly forced to pause in mid-sentence and consult footnotes. Gutt (1991, in Venuti, 2000:377) argues that a translation "should be expressed in such a manner that it yields the intended interpretation without putting the audience to unnecessary processing effort." Exactly what the "intended interpretation" is will often be a matter for debate, while the question of what constitutes "unnecessary" processing effort is also a subjective one, but clearly a translation will become unreadable if every page is peppered with foreign words requiring explanatory footnotes. Perhaps the only readers who would not grow exasperated with such a strategy would be students of Japanese using the translation as a guide to understanding the original Japanese text. Exactly who does read Japanese literature in translation is far from clear (see Fowler, 1992:3-4), but it seems reasonable to assume that the texts discussed here are not targeted at such a narrow readership.

Another option is to offer a definition within the text. This may involve using a foreign word together with defining text, or it may involve "deculturalising" a sense-segment rooted in the foreign culture by defining it entirely in terms rooted in the domestic culture. Let us look at each of these strategies in turn.

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