Marina Dolinsky (X) (asker) Mar 15, 2010:

Dear fellows,

My client admitted her mistake. 可憐なis an adjective that means cute, pretty, or similar. Thank you every one for participation in this discussion.

Deborah Edwards Mar 15, 2010:

Hi everyone,
Sorry to abandon the discussion. I went to New Zealand on Thurs and only just got back. Yoneda-san, thank you for pointing out my mistake. I thought that the picture in the link was actually a flower (and hypothesized that the name was "Karenna Shokubutsu" as the writer used parentheses). On closer inspection of the picture, I can see that it is not a flower. My apologies for leading the discussion awry...:-)

Marina Dolinsky (X) (asker) Mar 11, 2010:

My dear fellows,

Thank you for the answers and participation is this discussion.
I suppose that my client is 99% native Japanese however she didn't do any explanation regarding the sentence except of saying that 可憐な should be the name of a plant.
So I have send her a request for more explanation with a link to this discussion.
Now I am waiting for her reply.

どうぞ、よろしくお願いいたします。

lingualabo Mar 11, 2010:

The link is the one that Deborah san cited in her answer. yonedatransterp san is right.

Yumico Tanaka (X) Mar 11, 2010:

What blog are you talking about? Did Miridori provide any link? I cannot see.

yonedatransterp Mar 11, 2010:

On a complete aside: This talk has made me interested in a hike in the area. The photos look beautiful. I could spend a week up there, I'd bet.

lingualabo Mar 11, 2010:

to Yumico san I don't see anything out there (in the context) that could allude to one specific plant, but "alpine plants in general"...

yonedatransterp Mar 11, 2010:

Deborah, Re: blog No, the blog entry doesn't refer to it as the name of a plant; it is the motif for the sculpture. "We have a new sculpture in the garden! what is it? a piece of marble? No! the correct answer is 'a cute plant'. We are going to have two in the garden, try to find them "

Yumico Tanaka (X) Mar 11, 2010:

to lingualabo san My point is that I don't know. It may be that or may not be.

lingualabo Mar 11, 2010:

to Yumico-san "Hyacinth may be the answer that the author was thinking" - Why do you think so?

Yumico Tanaka (X) Mar 11, 2010:

I agree that you should ask the client to clarify. Hyacinth may be the answer that the author was thinking but his explanation needs to be clearer.

lingualabo Mar 11, 2010:

The adjective "可憐な" is used to describe something pretty, neat and frail.

humbird Mar 10, 2010:

Dear miridoli. Only way to clear this mess is to ask the client. Are you sure the client a Japanese? No Japanese native speaker would think any word ending with "na" is noun, i.e. name of a flower. What the original says, roughly speaking, "In surrounding, there are many "pretty" (here I am agreeing with Shannon) wild flowers too". BTW the sentence seems to be incomplete.

Marina Dolinsky (X) (asker) Mar 10, 2010:

Thank you, Deborah.

But I don't think that the plant mentioned in the blog may be found in Japanese Alps.

Deborah Edwards Mar 10, 2010:

In this garden blog, the blogger appears to think it is the name of flower. Please refer to the link below:
http://www.nannoki-garden.com/blog/2009/09/post-37.php

Shannon Morales Mar 10, 2010:

Pretty In the text you posted, 周辺には可憐な高山植物も, it simply means "pretty" alpine plants. Your client may have it confused w/"lily," but in this context that's clearly not its meaning.

lingualabo Mar 10, 2010:

That's an adjective, nothing else. I totally agree with humbird-san.

yonedatransterp Mar 10, 2010:

That isn't enough. Without a color, shape or some sort of description besides "cute", there is no way to identify the flower. I'm sure you're aware that your client is asking the impossible. There is no way any one of us can identify a single "cute" flower from an entire range of mountains. You need to tell your client that there is something missing. With that said, here is a good reference to the flowers in that range, with Japanese names. http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ikeda625jp/c/498956e7174a91ea61618e9a6...

check it out. I hope that helps. But really, this isn't the job of a translator. Especially when the client is asking the absurd. (Damnit Jim, I'm a Linguist, not a Botanist!)

Marina Dolinsky (X) (asker) Mar 10, 2010:

The client said that it is the plant that grows on the mountains Zao, Miyagi prefecture.
日本一高い場所にある湖・御釜は、直径３００ｍのカルデラ湖。コバルト色の湖面は太陽移動に伴って１日に何度か色が変わります。周辺には可憐な高山植物も。

yonedatransterp Mar 10, 2010:

... seriously? I just went through my big botany book and can't find any mention of a flower by that name. The ~な would make it an adjective, making it even less likely that it would be a name of a flower. let me look up some more reference books, and see what I can pull up. I don't want to say this, but I'd have to say the client is wrong on this one. I'd be quite surprised to find that passage intends that word to be a name.

humbird Mar 10, 2010:

"Karen-na" is the name of the plant? Not in my life time knowledge. Your client must be mistaken. "Karen-na" is an adjective, modifying a noun, not noun itself.

Marina Dolinsky (X) (asker) Mar 10, 2010:

I translate it as cute but my client said that it is the name of the plant. Please, help with the right term.