Seth Yarden
31 Concord Avenue #13, Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: (617) 797-6457
Email:
Born on July 27, 1968 in Rhinebeck, NY.
Graduated in 1990 from Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), with a Bachelor of Arts degree (majoring in filmmaking and Russian literature).
Languages: Japanese and French
From January 1996 to October 2011, resided in Kyoto, Japan.
Japanese-to-English translator since 1999.
While currently focused on the translation of texts relating to contemporary Japanese art, culture and religion, I have been active in a wide variety of fields. In recent years, I have completed translations of technical manuals, a book on surfactants (chemistry), an introduction to early Japanese feminism, numerous artist’s books and a suspense novel.
I feel that this broad experience enables me to handle many different kinds of materials and situations, and to offer a fresh, unique perspective.
Main clients since 2005:
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (exhibition materials, artist’s books)
Shizuoka City Museum of Art (exhibition materials, museum pamphlet)
Agon Shu Religious Organization (books on Buddhism, correspondence, consulting)
Osaka Gender Equality Foundation (book and DVD on women pioneers)
Tuttle-Mori Agency (suspense novel, book synopses)
Artcourt Gallery (exhibition materials, artist’s books, consulting)
Seigensha Publishing (artist’s books, interpreting)
Kyoto Seisakusho Manufacturing (robotic packaging machine manuals)
Sanyo Kasei Chemical Corporation (textbook on surfactants)
J@pan Inc (Powerpoint presentations, sustainability reports)
From 2004 to 2006, I was employed by Yoshikawa International Patent Office (Osaka, Japan), where I was responsible for telephone and email communications with patent attorneys all over the world, the publishing of a monthly newsletter on Japanese intellectual property concerns, interpreting between Japanese and English (and sometimes French) when hosting visitors from abroad, as well as various other duties.
I moved to Japan in 1996, and worked there for many years as a part-time English teacher, proofreader and translator. Prior to that, in Portland, Oregon, I was employed as a telemarketer for the Portland Opera Company, room server at the Governor Hotel, waiter at Fellini Restaurant. In 1988 and 1989, I worked for various temporary agencies in New York City as a legal proofreader.