scholar

[suprunp]

Here are the two unrelated excerpts from '1Q84' by H. Murakami:

A tall, middle-aged man was drinking a martini alone at the end of the bar. He looked like a high school scholar-athlete who had entered middle age virtually unchanged.

“By the way, Professor Ebisuno is not a scholar anymore, is he? He left the university, and he’s not writing books or anything.”


Does the 'scholar' have different meanings in these two examples, the former denoting 'a student/pupil' and the latter 'one who by long systematic study (as in a university) has gained a high degree of mastery in one or more of the academic disciplines'?

Thanks.

[JohnParis]

Hello Suprunp,

Once again, a poor choice of words by the translator - in my opinion.

The word scholar means: a specialist in a particular branch of study, especially the humanities; a distinguished academic.

He looked like a high school honors student-athlete who had entered middle age virtually unchanged (from the French translation). An honors student-athlete is a student that consistently receives excellent grades and excels in one or more sports .

“By the way, Professor Ebisuno is not an academic anymore, is he? He left the university, and he’s not writing books or anything" (also from the French translation). I think that "scholar" (as originally translated and as you have defined it) could also be used here but I prefer the French word because one does not really stop being a scholar but one can easily stop being an academic.

[rainous]

I've never read the English version of any of Murakami's works and I can't believe this is the quality of translation rendered by someone (Jay Rubin is his name) who has long worked with Mr. Murakami for the English translation of his works.