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平成二十年九月吉日

English translation: September xx, 2008

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Japanese term or phrase:平成二十年九月吉日
English translation:September xx, 2008
Entered by: conejo

18:02 Sep 5, 2008
Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general)
Japanese term or phrase: 平成二十年九月吉日
This is being listed as "Sept. 1, 2008". Is 吉日 always the first day of the month, or how do I know what day it is? Thanks.
conejo
United States
Local time: 10:00
Auspicious Day in September 2008, abbreviated to September 2008
Explanation:
Technically, 吉日 refers to the Japanese system of different days, including butsumetsu, taian, tomobiki, etc. Each of those days are good for, or bad for, certain kinds of things. Traditionally weddings are scheduled for taian days, hence they are the most expensive days to reserve at wedding reception halls and Shinto shrines. Butsumetsu days are avoided for weddings. New ventures, signing contracts, purchasing property, opening events, etc are generally held on taian, or other of the "good fortune" days of the calendar. You never have a funeral on tomobiki days, because tomobiki means "bring friends along" which would invite death for the funeral participants.
Most "aisatsu" I translate for art exhibition catalogues use this phrase, and I just remove it, so that it becomes September 2008 in this case. If they insist on it being implied, then "on an auspicious day in September 2008" is the best rendering I have found.

Selected response from:

Martha McClintock
Australia
Local time: 01:00
Grading comment
Thanks everybody. I had to give Martha the points because she had the best explanation, but in the document I believe Can Altinbay had the best actual translation. Wish I could split up the points... Have a great day, everyone.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +4Auspicious Day in September 2008, abbreviated to September 2008
Martha McClintock
4 +4September 2008
Yuki Okada
4 +1Ｓｅｐｔｅｍｂｅｒ　ｘｘ，　２００８
Can Altinbay
5 -1Lucky Day in September 2008
MedSpecialis (X)
4 -2Red letter day in September 2008
humbird


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Ｓｅｐｔｅｍｂｅｒ　ｘｘ，　２００８


Explanation:
I've seen 吉日 used to mean "some day in so-and-so month". For example, I translated some letters that were going to customers, and I think they filled in the date when they actually mailed them. So I usually translate it with a placeholder for the date. Might this apply in your context?

BTW, Googling 吉日 yields some interesting examples.

Can Altinbay
Local time: 11:00
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in JapaneseJapanese
PRO pts in category: 32

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  casey
6 hrs
  -> Thanks, casey.
neutral  Maynard Hogg: I use three underscores to signal where the customer has to decide, amend the Japanese, whatever.
7 days
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +4
Auspicious Day in September 2008, abbreviated to September 2008


Explanation:
Technically, 吉日 refers to the Japanese system of different days, including butsumetsu, taian, tomobiki, etc. Each of those days are good for, or bad for, certain kinds of things. Traditionally weddings are scheduled for taian days, hence they are the most expensive days to reserve at wedding reception halls and Shinto shrines. Butsumetsu days are avoided for weddings. New ventures, signing contracts, purchasing property, opening events, etc are generally held on taian, or other of the "good fortune" days of the calendar. You never have a funeral on tomobiki days, because tomobiki means "bring friends along" which would invite death for the funeral participants.
Most "aisatsu" I translate for art exhibition catalogues use this phrase, and I just remove it, so that it becomes September 2008 in this case. If they insist on it being implied, then "on an auspicious day in September 2008" is the best rendering I have found.



Martha McClintock
Australia
Local time: 01:00
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thanks everybody. I had to give Martha the points because she had the best explanation, but in the document I believe Can Altinbay had the best actual translation. Wish I could split up the points... Have a great day, everyone.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  patent_pending
47 mins
agree  Kendriya .: :)
1 hr
agree  KathyT
6 hrs
agree  Aogara: I agree that this would be the best solution. 吉日 isn't just any random day but is related to Rokki (六輝) or Rokuyou (六曜), a system originally from China that specifies lucky and unlucky days for some types of events.
7 hrs
  -> yes! i knew there was a name for that system but i couldn't think of it!
agree  Tokyo_Moscow: Sounds good ))
10 hrs
disagree  Maynard Hogg: Too literal. You know the literal translation is wrong, but use it anyway to get past the Japanese checker.
7 days
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): -1
Lucky Day in September 2008


Explanation:
吉日is defined in the 岩波辞典　as a good day for doing things, or a day with good luck. 　The opposite of 吉日is 凶日, which is a day with bad luck.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2008-09-05 22:00:47 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

吉日is not always the first day of the month. It depends on the month, and you really need a Japanese calendar to figure it out. Here is an example of January 2007, with some definitions of other lucky/unlucky days. http://www.star-click.ne.jp/e-poket/tenki1.htm


    Reference: http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/search.php?MT=%8Bg%93%FA&je.x=21...
MedSpecialis (X)
United States
Local time: 11:00
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in JapaneseJapanese

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Maynard Hogg: Too literal. Like saying "Hard" for ありがとう or "Doesn't end" for すみません. See Yuki's comment for how the phrase is actually used.
7 days
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -2
Red letter day in September 2008


Explanation:
I believe English equivalent of 吉日 is "red-letter Day".

Red letter day is a non-specified but "special or noteworthy day"
See below, for instance.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=red-letter day
noun
a memorably happy or noteworthy day (from the custom of marking holy days in red on church calendars)

HTH


humbird
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 59

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Martha McClintock: red-letter day is too colloquial for most uses of this term in Japanese, frequently on opening speech texts, dedicatory statements or announcements of important events.
3 hrs
  -> Sorry I disagree. Even it is on an invitation, the degree of formality cannot be determined by the given context. So this still remains as a possibility. Moreover "Kichijitsu" is not necessarily very formal expression.
disagree  Maynard Hogg: I second Martha. "Red letter day" introduces too much culture-specific baggage with a reference to calendars (originally holy, now bank), which differ between such closely linked countries as the Canada and its Unexplored Southern Area.
6 days
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18 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
September 2008


Explanation:
吉日 is typically used when it is not important to specify the date. I would think this is on a letter with no "field" to fill in. In this case I would just say September 2008 (no date).

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 19 hrs (2008-09-06 13:21:23 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I just wanted to add a note to say that this is just a customary way to date a party invitaiton. 吉日 does mean めでたい日, but the author is not trying to convey this meaning. It is here just because it is a customary thing to do. Maybe putting an exact date would sound too businesslike.

Yuki Okada
Canada
Local time: 08:00
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese
PRO pts in category: 138

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  casey
6 hrs
  -> Thanks.
agree  KathyT
9 hrs
  -> Thanks.
agree  Can Altinbay: Good point about context. My answer was based on the fact that businesses actually use the term, but you have a great point.
19 hrs
  -> Thanks, Can.
agree  Maynard Hogg: Your first line sums it for business use. Avoidance is a key concept in Japanese writing.
7 days
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