Talk:Giovanni Battista Sidotti
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Most of what I wrote was just a direct translation. There may be more natural ways to say a lot of this stuff, and the paragraphs, etc. may need reformatting.
One line I couldn't understand: ヨーロッパへも殉教物語など宣教師の報告が伝わっていた日本への渡航を決意。 Bueller 007 18:39, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
Babelfish translates that as "Determining the passage to Japan where report of missionary such as martyrdom story has been transmitted even to Europe."
Without any further context, it's hard to say if that means anything, but it seems pretty coherent compared to waht usually comes from babblefish. My initial impression is a context of "News of this spread as far as Europe" Ace of Risk 15:12, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
The meaning is: "decided to go to Japan, from which missionary reports such as tales of martyrdom had been transmitted as far as Europe". Bueller 007's difficulty in understanding this lies in the 伝わっていた日本 construction. The correct interpretation is: "Japan, (about which it can be said that) missionary stories spread as far as Europe". This makes no sense in English unless you add a 'from' ("Japan, from which missionary stories spread to Europe").
The meaning is pretty clear. Sidotti decided to go to Japan after he heard stories of Christian martyrdom there. User: Bathrobe
Is that information (about his reason for going to Japan) verified? In one source (the Seiyō Kibun) written by the Japanese scholar Arai Hakuseki he reports Sidotti said his reason was an assignment by one of his superiors. Now, Sidotti did have a reason to lie; he faced the death penalty if he wouldn't come up with a good excuse for being there, so... Does anyone know? Nichiran 22:11, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
