In Translation

Some of the best children's books of all time are books translated into English from another language- Pippi Longstocking comes to mind, as well as The Story of Babar and Madeline. It's true in grownup land as well. I'm thinking of that current ever-so-popular trilogy that starts with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which is directly related to the purpose of this post: at least two book events with translators are happening next month, including the translator of Dragon Tattoo and the other books in the series, and I find myself really excited. I've never thought of it before now, but I'd absolutely have questions to ask the translators of a work I loved. I know people who write translations and it takes an amazing amount of work to perfect the finished product. The kind of discussions that can ensue over a single word make a language-lover like me drool.

Our translator event is with Cornelia Funke, author of super children's books including The Thief Lord, Inkheart, and the soon-to-be-released Reckless. We're hosting her at the Showbox Theater on Sunday, September 19th, at 1:30 pm (click & scroll down to the 19th for the listing and ticketing info). This event is unique in the number of people arriving with the author: the actor Elliot Hill to help her do a dramatic reading, musical guest Adam Watts, and her translator Oliver Latsch (Funke is German). Having both the author and the translator there to speak sounds like a dream.

Sadly, we can't hear from the author of Dragon Tattoo (Steig Larsson died in 2004), but we have the opportunity to hear from his translator Steve Murray, who translated the Larsson novels under the pen name Reg Keeland. That may be my first question- why the pen name? He's speaking with fellow translator Tiina Nunnally, who I know best for her translations of Andersen folktales and a beautifully illustrated, very well-received new translation of the aforementioned and best-ever children's book Pippi Longstocking. They'll be speaking at Elliott Bay on Sunday, September 12 at 5:00 pm.

I know translators do events sometimes (I've seen it most often with poetry), but these in particular I find really exciting. I love that people who do such diligent and creative work can get some stage time, and we can ask them questions about the process. And someday I hope we can move on to the next frontier: have book and cover designers come talk about that process. I'd be completely fascinated.

-Anna

"Translation as Detour"

Being that Japanese Literature is one of my major predilections, I was thrilled to receive an invitation to the May 10th lecture given by Harvard University Professor of Japanese Literature Emeritus, and former Dawg (Husky), Jay Rubin.



If you read Haruki Murakami, you have likely read some of his translation work. He is essentially Haruki Murakami's go-to translator. If he's busy with another project, the work will go to someone else, but he's the first one to receive an offer. The English editions of Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman were all translated, masterfully, by him.

He also translates the works of Modernist classics such as Natsume Soseki and Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Now, I don't want to deviate too much with fanboy-ish endorsements, but I have things to say. First, if you're looking for beautiful prose and stories with feeling, look no further than the work of Natsume Soseki. Second, if you're a fan of short stories, you simply must give Ryunosuke Akutagawa a whirl. Have you seen the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon? It's based on one of Akutagawa's stories (it's adapted from his adaptation of an ancient Japanese tale), and I would highly recommend checking out the collection of the same name (Rashomon: And Seventeen Other Stories).



Back on track with Professor Rubin, his lecture was titled "Translation as Detour: from Genji to 1Q84," and it was a great opportunity to nerd out. Professor Rubin focused much of his lecture on different translations of The Tale of Genji (which is a tome as historically important as it is interesting) and his own work translating the works of Murakami.

If I were to recount to you exactly what was said, it would be the superiority of the Royall Tyler translation of The Tale of Genji, and the interesting difficulties inherent in translating from Japanese to English.


Professor Rubin shared one anecdote that involved his current project translating the first two volumes of 1Q84 for Haruki Murakami. He assured us that this isn't a spoiler, but some of the characters see two moons in the sky. These folks are in the minority, as everyone else sees a single moon. But in Japanese, there is no distinction between plural and singular nouns. So the struggle, for him, has become sorting out how many moons each character sees. It occurs to me that only a certain kind of person will think that's funny, or even remotely interesting, but I'm absolutely of that variety.

At any rate, it was a wonderful lecture, and Professor Rubin effortlessly established himself as both intelligent and funny. Meanwhile, those of us in attendance ate it up, and gleaned what we could about his future projects.

So, for those of you interested in the process of translation, exploring the worlds of Japanese language or literature, I would recommend perusing his catalog. I'm currently thumbing through Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You, and hoping it manages to live up to its bold claim.

-Griffin