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森田喬　「神の眼{め}　鳥の眼　蟻の眼　地図は自分さがしの夢空間」毎日新聞社より、一部を改変して掲載 (It's from the last, small printed line here in this text:)

First, I can't find entries for the words in bold on jisho.com. I guess they are proper-nouns?

Second, even if I assume that the words in bold are proper nouns, it's still a bit problematic for me to get through the sentence.

MORITATAKSHI "the eye of god, the eye of a bird, the eye of an ant the map is YUMEKUUKANs self discovery" from Mainichi Shimbun, one portion changed publication.

I guess the first three expressions mean something like from top-down view to bottom-up view. This is the title of an original article where this adapted version is derived from. I also struggle with 「一部を改変して掲載」. I translated a passive here, but only because I wouldn't really how else I should express this in English. Does 改変して imply a unspecified subject like in graham healeys answer in this question?

And if so, is it okay to translate passive here?

sundowner
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Narktor
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2 Answers2

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  1. [森田]{もりた}[喬]{たかし} (Takashi Morita) is, indeed, a proper name. He is the author of this article.
  2. 「～」毎日新聞社より、 一部を改変して掲載 means adapted from the article ～ published in the Mainichi Shimbun. The implied subject is the person who amended the article. So you're right when you translate as a passive. Keeping the active voice would feel awkward.

3.「神の眼　鳥の眼　蟻の眼　地図は自分さがしの夢空間」is the title of the article.

I may be wrong on the interpretation of the title but I understand it this way.

The enumeration 神の眼,　鳥の眼,　蟻{あり}の眼 talks about the properties of a map. A very precise map gives you 蟻の眼, a big map can give you an overview hence 鳥の眼. As for 神の眼, it leaves place to interpretation but, if you can see all earth in one sight then you've got the eyes of god-like entity.

自分探し means find oneself, something like an introspection. This expression is often seen in 自分探しの旅 (a travel to (re)discover yourself).

夢 here is a synonym for 理想.

All together, Maps can either give you the hindsight of God, the overview of a bird, the details as seen by an ant. Maps are the best place to rediscover ourselves. Sure, it is a long title but that's how I see it.

永劫回帰
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As "bird's-eye view" is a common phrase, could I suggest "God's-eye-view, Bird's-eye view, Ant's-eye view"?

Graham Healey
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