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GILES MURRAY |
Tokyo |
Date: 24.02.2008
Time: 23:54:38
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There is an audio CD of the full-length version of SNOW COUNTRY in 2 vols that you can buy from Amazon.co.jp. (As far as I know, there's no audio of the palm-in-the-hand version.)
VOL.1
http://www.amazon.co.jp/雪国-上-新潮CD-川端-康成/dp/4108300734/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203853923&sr=8-13
ISBN-10: 4108300734
ISBN-13: 978-4108300736
VOL.2
http://www.amazon.co.jp/雪国-下-新潮CD-川端-康成/dp/4108300742/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203854002&sr=8-3
ISBN-10: 4108300742
ISBN-13: 978-4108300743
The short Snow Country is spliced-together excerpts from the long one, so nearly all of the text will be on the two CDs ... somewhere! 
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Michael Staley |
Tokyo  |
Date: 21.02.2008
Time: 04:10:00
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There is an audio CD for "The Secret," published by Shinchosha. Here's the link: http://www.shinchosha.co.jp/book/830180/
Reply from Author: Thanks, Michael
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Stephen |
England  |
Date: 13.02.2008
Time: 13:34:35
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Sorry if I missed it, but have you recorded audio for the stories on Exploring Japanese Literature (I found it invaluable for Breaking into Japanese Literature)?
Kind regards
Stephen
Reply from Author: Hello Stephen
As the authors in this collection are not yet out of copyright, it just wasn't legally or financially possible to provide free audio this time, though I may do this between 2015 and 2023 when copyright lapses, assuming I'm still solvent!
I'll have a look to see if I can find any commercially produced audio tapes/CDs of the stories in Japan and put the information up here.
For "Patriotism," there is a film available, but as the bulk of the story is description rather than dialogue, you get a very small proportion of the original text in the film, unlike, say, "Rashomon."
(A couple of hours pass....) I've just spent a while online fruitlessly trying to find commercial audio for the Mishima story (as this is the most famous of the three), but no joy. Audiobooks are much less popular in Japan than the West and there is very little choice.
What you may want to do (and I'm not being facetious) is find a nice Japanese person with a good voice and get them to read the story for you into an IC recorder or Garageband (or its Windows equivalent) to make your own private, non-copyright-infringing digital version in return for a few bottles of wine. Of course, the stories in this book are quite long compared to "Breaking..." which makes reading them aloud that much harder. When I did similar things as a student here in Tokyo, I always found it better to record at night when the crows weren't quite so noisy!
By the way, here's the page with the YUKOKU film from Amazon.co.jp
http://www.amazon.co.jp/憂國-三島由紀夫
/dp/B000E6ETR0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1202996026&sr=1-1
I know it's not what you're looking for, but you could humour me by watching IF... and ACID KANJI, the two films on the top page.
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Giles Murray |
Tokyo |
Date: 23.01.2008
Time: 00:05:12
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Perhaps I should have said, "The floor of the night turned white," as this gives us both a substantive that is equivalent to 底, and the sense of suddenness that Sergiu wanted.
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Giles Murray |
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Date: 15.09.2007
Time: 13:26:59
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PAGE 19
I wanted to try and get the relationship between 「夜」and 「底」suggested by the「の」, while using an image with some physicality ("carpet") for 「底」. Perhaps one should just say "the bottom" or "the foot" of the night turned white. As you point out, my translation misses the suddenness of the change as they emerge from the tunnel.
The girl on the train is Yoko, the mysterious girl whose death by fire is the conclusion of the full length novel.
When Shimamura asks "Are all the geisha here like her?" he's referring to a geisha he summoned to his room but then found himself uninterested in. (See the note on Page 38.)
PAGE 43
I see this tree as symbolizing the ultimate barrenness of the feckless Shimamura, incapable of commitment of any kind.
One could see it as a phallic symbol (the "phallus dentatus," if you will) with which he batters ("the weapon of a god") and lords it over the unfortunate Komako.
On a more prosaic note, the cedars favored by the government planters are all like this. Barren and spikey until the very top, killing all animal and plant life at their feet. Isn't this Shimamura, infecting all around him with his own indecision and directionlessness?
PAGE 75
"Here we go again". Isn't this a typical male reaction. He sees a woman getting sentimental and making emotional demands, when all he wants (despite his self-image as a sophisticated city-dweller) is sex.
Nice apercu about the red on white imagery of her cheeks.
Kawabata's novel "Beauty and Sadness" has a more conventional resolution, and is even melodramatic (possibly under Mishima's influence?).
I myself liked "Thousand Cranes" which is pervaded with subtle poison.
I need to closet myself in a room to figure out how many chronological fragments are in the story and what their relationship to one another is.
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sergiu |
antwerp |
Date: 01.09.2007
Time: 02:51:22
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page 19
I think the translation is good. The Japanese feels a bit more effective in suggesting light entering the frame suddenly after the long tunnel. But I can't find a better translation. except maybe: In the night, the ground turned white :-)
This first scene is the most lively and exciting. The train stops, there's all this snow brightening the night, they open the window, get the wind and the snow in their faces, the girl shouts, the station master comes into the light with the funny hat...
And then Shimamura looks at the barracks and the white of the snow is swallowed up in darkness again. would've been nice if he let us be there a bit longer, at least till we found out what the girl was going to ask the station master :-)
I lost the plot with the 'other woman'. When he asks 'Are all geisha here like her?' (page 39) who is he refering to?
and who is the girl on the train?
page 43
I don't know what the symbolism is but I like the question. It's a strong image. The word that comes to mind is 'osore' which is a word often used in relation to a god. It's not a protective tree, it's not there to comfort the soul.
I want to go back to my many confusions over the basic plot :-)
I find it difficult to establish whether it's daytime or night time in many scenes. after the first scene I had the impression that most of what follows also happens at night.
page 36-37: here it appears to be spring. there is no snow. there are yellow butterflies and smell of fresh leaves..
I haven't read 'Snow country', the novel, I'm sure the plot is clearer there, so apologies to the ones who read it.
page 44
I don't understand their exchange at lines 48-49. ???????????is she accusing him that he's too proud and too worried with not getting the best (geisha), losing on the deal?
page 58
ooame. yet another season. is this a four-season story?
page 75
Shimamura thinks 'here we go again' when she hangs against the rail. What does he mean?
page 79
the bath scene is fun. he's so pleased with himself. strong contrast with the woman's pain and agitation during the night and the following morning.
coming to the ending, obviously not a great consumation but nothing was building towards a great consumation so I didn't feel let down. At least we got the snow back ... in a way it's an uplifting ending. a bright new morning, the woman's face glows red in the mirror, her beauty is pure, and she has brilliant black hair with a purple gleam. Not bad. It's plausible that Kawabata felt he was leaving his hero in some kind of paradise with this ending.
I've seen some Hitchcok (misspelling necessary, the word was censored by the software!) films recently and somehow it helped me enjoy the strong stubborn focus on objects, faces, and details.
Not a writer I feel much passion for though. Too much helplessness and disintegration. Knowing that he wrote Yukigunisho shortly before he died makes the images feel more impressive an harsh.
he's not a sentimental man but he cannot escape this disturbing need for purity shared by so many writers in Japan. The final image is a bright red spot on a background of snow-pure white. ?????????????
why, it's the flag of Japan!
good link to the next story, Mishima's Patriotism.
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Giles Murray |
Tokyo |
Date: 22.06.2007
Time: 06:22:40
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PAGE 19: The opening of Kawabata’s "Snow Country"—"They emerged from the long border tunnel into the snow country"—is one of the most quoted sentences in Japanese literature. I want to talk about the second sentence (夜の底が白くなった) which I translated "The night was carpeted with white." How would you have translated this and why?
PAGE 33: "This fellow remembered you best," he blurted out, thrusting his left fist, with the index finger sticking out, into her face."
I was reminded of this passage when watching "Casino Royale" which includes the following exchange at around the two hour mark.
Vesper: "You know, James, I just want you to know that if all that was left of you was your smile and your little finger, you’d still be more a man than anyone I’ve ever met."
Bond: (pauses for effect) "That’s because you know what I can do with my little finger."
PAGE 43: "The tree Shimamura was leaning against was the oldest of them all. For some reason the boughs on its north side were all dead up to the top, and the stumps of the fallen branches looked like stakes that had been planted along the trunk with their points facing out. It was like some dreadful weapon of a god."
What may be the symbolism in this passage?
PAGE 53: "It was clearly the voice of a woman, her heart laid bare, calling to her man. Shimamura was caught by surprise. Thinking that her screeching would be echoing through all the bedrooms of the inn, he got to his feet in a fluster."
In the above passage why did I choose the words "screeching" and "fluster"?
PAGE 57: "The delectable swelling beneath Shimamura’s hand grew gradually warmer."
Why did I translate ありがたい as "delectable"?
PAGE 63: With Kawabata one seems to spend a great deal of time in the Rumsfeldian territory of "known knowns" and "known unknowns." What, if anything, do you think is going on in this section?
PAGE 83: In "Three Japanese Authors," Van Gessel begins his life of Kawabata with a candid account of his response to the ending of the long version of "Snow Country."
But then came what purported to be the ending of the story, when the Milky Way came rushing down into Shimamura’s heart. Frantically I flipped the page over, looking for the continuation of the human drama, certain that there had to be more. But the next page only recommended "other works of modern Japanese fiction you won’t want to miss." I felt cheated, angry, bewildered. I had invested some emotional stakes of my own in these two people, and someone—Shimamura? Kawabata? the book bindery?—had cheated me of a resolution of their relationship. And what the devil did the Milky Way have to do with anything? (pp. 134)
What do you make of the ending of "Snow Country Miniature"? Are your feelings similar to those of Van Gessel?
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