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December 18, 2000 - January 18,
2001 |
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| Media |
randomhouse.com |
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| Link |
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i05/05b00701.htm |
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This is Philip Gabriel. I'm an associate professor of Japanese
literature at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I've done
my academic work on postwar literature, particularly that of
the writer Toshio Shimao, about whom I wrote a book entitled
Mad Wives and Island Dreams: Toshio Shimao and the Margins of
Japanese Literature. |
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I've also co-edited an anthology of writings on contemporary
Japanese literature entitled Oe and Beyond. As far as translation
is concerned, I've done one novel by Masahiko Shimada, one by
Senji Kuroi (forthcoming), two by Haruki Murakami(plus half
of his non-fiction work UNDERGROUND), and four short stories
by Murakami--counting just the ones that have been published.
Right now I'm submitting another Murakami short story for possible
publication, and am working on a translation of Kenzaburo Oe's
latest novel. [My whereabouts this week--I'll be here in Tucson,
but will be leaving for Japan on Dec. 27 |
I first learned about Murakami's fiction in 1986, as I prepared
to go back to graduate school. I was living in Nagasaki and
was actively involved in a translation study group made up mostly
of Japanese literature professors (of both English and Japanese
literature.) Just before I left to return to the U.S., one of
the professors and I went to a book store together. I'd asked
him to recommend four or five writers he thought worth studying.
This proved to be a memorable day for me, since three of the
four he recommended were writers I ended up either studying
or translating: Shimao, Kuroi, and Murakami. I read all of Murakami's
short stories (they were in two collections) as soon as I could,
and was really bowled over by them. I loved his light touch,
his humor, his often quirky take on life, as well as the touch
of nostalgia for the past that often appeared in these early
works. In graduate school (at Cornell) I wrote a paper on one
of these stories, and translated it as an appendix. I'd done
some translation before, and enjoyed the challenge, and went
on to translate three or four more of Murakami's stories for
my own enjoyment. The editor of ZYZZYVA, a literary journal
published in Berkeley, California, somehow heard I'd done some
of Murakami's stories, and asked me to submit one. This was
"Kangaroo Communique," which was published in the
fall 1988 issue, making it, I believe, the first Murakami story
published in the U.S.-- Murakami's agent in Tokyo was contacted
at this time, and all the translations I had done eventually
found their way into her hands, and into the author's.
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I loved his light touch, his humor, his often quirky take on
life, as well as the touch of nostalgia for the past that often
appeared in these early works. In graduate school (at Cornell)
I wrote a paper on one of these stories, and translated it as
an appendix. I'd done some translation before, and enjoyed the
challenge, and went on to translate three or four more of Murakami's
stories for my own enjoyment. The editor of ZYZZYVA, a literary
journal published in Berkeley, California, somehow heard I'd
done some of Murakami's stories, and asked me to submit one.
This was "Kangaroo Communique," which was published
in the fall 1988 issue, making it, I believe, the first Murakami
story published in the U.S.-- Murakami's agent in Tokyo was
contacted at this time, and all the translations I had done
eventually found their way into her hands, and into the author's.
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TIn 1989 I went to Tokyo on a Fulbright to work on my dissertation.
There I was able to meet Murakami; I had hoped to do a collection
of his short stories, but he told me this was already in the
works by someone else. I got involved in translating a novel
by Masahiko Shimada, and in trying to find a permanent teaching
position back in the U.S., and did not do much more in the way
of translating Murakami until The New Yorker contacted me in
1992 asking to include my translation of "Barn Burning."
After that two more of my translations appeared in The New Yorker
(the latest one the Dec. 4, 2000 issue), and I was fortunate
enough to be allowed to translate the novels SOUTH OF THE BORDER,
WEST OF THE SUN and SPUTNIK SWEETHEART as well as the non-fiction
work "The Place that was Promised," which became Part
Two of the English book UNDERGROUND.
This is the first part of an email sent from Philip Gabriel to Gary Fisketjon and Jay Rubin. Mails went back and forth for some time. They give an indepth look 'behind the scene' of translating Murakami.
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continue reading at |
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http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i05/05b00701.htm |
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