Thursday, September 5, 2019

translation - Can 軈{やが}て mean "one day" rather than "soon/before long"?


Consider the following sentence:



軈{やが}て私がCEOの座を去ったとしても、此のスピリットは我がグループの最も大事な創業の精神として永続化して行かねばなりません.



I recently received a translation of the article containing the sentence above where 軈{やが}て was originally translated as "soon". Precisely:



Soon I will be stepping down from the position of CEO. However [...]



This made sense, to the extent of my knowledge and according to my dictionaries.



However, a couple of days later I received a correction where the translator apologized saying that it should be interpreted as "One day" instead:



One day I will be stepping down from the post of CEO. However [...]



Now, in English there is quite a considerable obvious difference between "soon" and "one day". So my question is: are there possible different nuances of 軈て or simply it was a political move to avoid rumors or hide what's going on at the "higher floors" of the company?


Note: to give more background, I'm talking of the translation of a speech from the CEO of a large Japanese holdings. The English translation was sent to the foreign employees (a large proportion of the total) of a subsidiary of such group. It is assumed then that many of the recipients could not read the original Japanese version. Also, the original translator is a Japanese native speaker.




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