| 24 » Michael Staley | Tokyo | Date: 17.11.2008 Time: 03:22:45 |
Brandon, This is a very, very hard sentence. But to answer your question, I don't think "oboete iru" modifies anything here; you can almost think of the sentence ending right there—oboete iru—with a period. In any case, I see no way that it could modify "ka no you." I think what Shimamura found to be amazing was that his finger seemed to be summoning him to the woman, not that it remembered her. Nevertheless, your translation seems close enough. Michael |
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| 23 » Giles Murray | Tokyo | Date: 15.11.2008 Time: 13:09:29 |
Brandon I am currently crisscrossing Japan with my mother. Give me a little while to get back to you.
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| 22 » Brandon | South Carolina | Date: 14.11.2008 Time: 06:36:02 |
The post below should read simply "you" where I have "ka no you" |
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| 21 » Brandon | South Carolina | Date: 14.11.2008 Time: 04:57:14 |
Today I started reading Snow Country Miniature and wow! What a sentence on the second page!! I think you broke it up into five in your translation. For the most part, I feel comfortable with it, but I do have a question. Here's the part concerned in Japanese: …結局この指だけが、これから会いに行く女を、なまなましく覚えている、はっきり思い出そうとあせればあせるほど、つかみどころなくぼやけてゆく記憶の頼りなさのうちに、この指だけは女の触感で今も濡れていて、自分を遠くの女へ引き寄せるかのようだと、不思議に思いながら… I'm going to ignore the "nagara" attached to "omoi" at the end and translate this part as though it were a single sentence: Amidst the unreliability of his own memory, which, without anything to grab hold of, became increasingly dimmer the more he struggled to recall her clearly, he thought it amazing that, in the end, this finger alone seemed to remember vividly the woman he was going to meet-- that it seemed to summon him to her over a great distance, and to be even now moist with her touch. I realize that this isn't the best translation, but I'm trying to stick to the Japanese as closely as possible in order to frame my question, which is simply this: Does "oboete iru" modify "kano you"? Obviously, my translation hinges upon this. I'll try to keep posting translations since I know you stated in your book, Giles, that you wanted to see what other people could come up with. |
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| 20 » Fred | Date: 17.06.2008 Time: 11:01:22 | |
Hi evryone, a tough question... I'm really interested in the theme of metamorphosis in literature. I've read Ovid and Kafka, If I recall correctly is there a special literary Japnese word realted to metamorphosis or transition? Are there any japanese novels which deal with metamorphosis? I've already read Uzumaki (spiral) which is a very interesting graphic novel on the concept. Also are there any Japanese authors which can be compared to the 'magic realism' of S America or even Kafka? you know, like when something is said with a tone of normality even though it is very very strange: i.e: "One day Gregor Samsa awoke to find that he's been transformed into a monstrous beetle"Thnk you so so so much Reply from Author: Hi Fred, |
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| 19 » Bernhard | Vienna | Date: 22.04.2008 Time: 15:44:53 |
小さい瞳のまわりをぽうっと明るくしながら、つまり娘の眼と火とが重なった瞬間、彼女の目は夕闇の波間に浮かぶ、妖しく美しい夜光虫であった。 What is the difference between 瞳, 眼, 目. When can one use those? And why did Kawabata write 夜光虫? Does it sound more poetic? The more difficult the kanji the more poetic? And in such a case is it better for Japanese readers if there are no furigana. Because they feel pleasure in discovering meaning of difficult kanji? (Like Jay Rubin wrote in his book?) Reply from Author: Bernhard |
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| 18 » Giles Murray | Date: 02.04.2008 Time: 09:47:50 | |
Anyone interested in winning a little prize, please visit "The Secret" page of GroupThink.
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| 17 » Giles Murray | Date: 02.04.2008 Time: 03:02:38 | |
One interesting resource for Kawabata enthusiasts is the website of the Nobel Foundation who award the Nobel Prizes. You can get the text of Anders Osterling's presentation speech (complete with resounding commonplaces about "spiritual bridge-building between East and West"), Kawabata's acceptance speech (in English and Japanese) and various video and audio tidbits. All in all, a very good site. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1968/press.html |
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| 16 » Giles Murray | Date: 31.03.2008 Time: 07:22:30 | |
I shouldn't really introduce outside subjects into my own notice board, but anyway... When I translated three of Soseki's "Ten Nights of Dreams" for "Breaking into Japanese Literature," I had the memory of Oscar Wilde's prose poems in the back of mind. Looking at them again after an interval of more than twenty years, I'm a little shocked at how just how overdone the Biblical language is, but "The Master," (below) with its typically Wildean paradox at the end, was and is my favorite. You can find the other prose poems (there are only six of them in total) at: http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/2315/ THE MASTER Now when the darkness came over the earth Joseph of Arimathea, having lighted a torch of pinewood, passed down from the hill into the valley. For he had business in his own home. And kneeling on the flint stones of the Valley of Desolation he saw a young man who was naked and weeping. His hair was the colour of honey, and his body was as a white flower, but he had wounded his body with thorns and on his hair had he set ashes as a crown. And he who had great possessions said to the young man who was naked and weeping, 'I do not wonder that your sorrow is so great, for surely He was a just man.' And the young man answered, 'It is not for Him that I am weeping, but for myself. I too have changed water into wine, and I have healed the leper and given sight to the blind. I have walked upon the waters, and from the dwellers in the tombs I have cast out devils. I have fed the hungry in the desert where there was no food, and I have raised the dead from their narrow houses, and at my bidding, and before a great multitude, of people, a barren fig- tree withered away. All things that this man has done I have done also. And yet they have not crucified me.' |
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i.e: "One day Gregor Samsa awoke to find that he's been transformed into a monstrous beetle"