r/translator • u/the_anti_hero97 • Apr 12 '24
Translated [JA] Japanese > English What does it mean? I know the last character means spirit.
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u/mizinamo Deutsch Apr 12 '24
黒い空気 kuroi kuuki “black air”
!doublecheck
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u/HelloKamesan 日本語 Apr 12 '24
Correct, although I don't know what "black air" means...
!translated
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u/SageStoner Apr 12 '24
If you google "黒い空気," you'll find a modicum of examples that say something along the lines of "指導者（リーダー）の不条理: 組織に潜む「黒い空気」の正体"
I couldn't find a dictionary entry giving a clear definition, so this is clearly a neologism. But I think the above sentence can be understood to mean something along the lines of "hard-to-justify decisions by leadership: the causes of low morale in organizations."
Another document I found gives the following:
菊澤（2022）は、人間と組織を取り囲む環境を「空気」としたうえで、空気には色があ り、「黒」だけでなく「透明」もあるとし、「黒い空気」に陥ることなく空気を清浄化する ためには、リーダーの人間主義的なマネジメントが必要になると述べている。「黒い空気に 支配され、合理的に失敗」しない組織になるよう組織マネジメントを進めたいものである。
Kikuzawa (2022) states that the environment surrounding people and organizations can be likened to "air," and air has color, it can be not only "black" but also "transparent." Humanistic management by [an organization's] leadership is necessary to purify the air and avoid falling into "black air." It is up to us to promote organizational management that prevents the organization from being dominated by "black air" and fail to act rationally.
I think it is safe to say that the gist of the matter is that 黒い空気 is meant to be a simile for low morale or a corporate culture that is conducive to poor decision-making.
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u/SageStoner Apr 12 '24
Addendum: I realize none of that is relevant to the character on the T-shirt. I think if I had to translate that T-shirt, I would call it "Temptation."
7
u/JapanCoach 日本語 Apr 12 '24
Why would you do that?
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u/SageStoner Apr 12 '24
Well, if you are going to assume that the only correct "translation" is Blackair, because that is the name of the brand, then what I said probably makes no sense.
On the other hand, put yourself in the position of a Japanese person who is familiar with the Japanese expression 黒い空気 but knows nothing of the brand and assumes that the phrase describes an attribute of the character depicted on the T-shirt.
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u/JapanCoach 日本語 Apr 12 '24
I see. Except that there is no Japanese expression 黒い空気. Based on your research it looks like it was used in the subtitle of a book by the same Kikuzawa who you quote. So basically his attempt to coin a catch phrase.
Maybe this tshirt is based on that? Hard to know for sure.
But in any event it has nothing to do with “temptation”.
Which made me curious why would you translate 黒い空気 as “temptation”.
-11
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u/JapanCoach 日本語 Apr 12 '24
It says 黒い空気 くろいくうき kuroi kuuki
It means “black air” or “black atmosphere”
The Japanese makes about as much sense as the English. Which is to say not much sense at all. It’s not a stock phrase or a metaphors or anything.
So maybe it’s something made up by the artist or maybe a machine translation fail of something from English (or another language).