Four-Character Idioms and the Rhetoric of Japanese Shakespeare Translation

Yoji jukugo are idioms comprised of four characters (kanji) that can be used to enhance the textuality a Japanese Shakespeare translation, whether in response Shakespeare’s rhetoric or as compensation for tendency translation carried out at lower textual register than source. This article examines their use two translations each Julius Caesar by Matsuoka Kazuko (2014) and Fukuda Tsuneari (1960) The Merry Wives Windsor (2001) Odashima Yūshi (1983); both cases uses significantly more yoji her predecessors. In usage is noticeable set speeches Antony Brutus 3.2, commonly denote baseness barbarity. they dissolute behaviour, often comic effect, even malapropistically target language.