Fall has (basically) arrived and with the changing of the seasons comes a new issue of Japan Book News.
If you don't know, Japan Book News is published quarterly by the Japan Foundation. It's full of articles and news about the current Japanese literary culture, as well as a list of notable new releases. It's a great resource for finding out what books are making a stir in the Japanese literary community.
Volume 69 is now up, but unfortunately, the link to downloading the full PDF of the issue is broken, so you can't read the news and articles just now. They do have links to the summaries of the new releases though, and they've highlighted a couple very interesting seeming books. Here's a look at what I'd be interested in getting my hands on:
(Unfortunately, they use Javascript to link to all their internal pages,
so as much as I'd like to, I can't give you a direct link to everything
they're talking about. You'll have to go the main page, and click your
way through to the index for Volume 69 to see more information about
these titles. All links are to Amazon Japan product listings.)
1)雪の練習生 ("The Apprentices of Snow," their translation not mine)
by Yoko Tawada
Yoko Tawada has a number of works out in English. I read The Bridegroom was a Dog a while back, but I just read the short story collection Where Europe Begins put out by New Directions, and now I've become a huge fan. Tawada is so surreal and inventive, and she can manipulate these qualities into something either extremely beautiful or extremely disturbing, sometimes practically instantaneously. She writes in both German and Japanese (Where Europe Begins was mostly her German work), but I'm assuming that she wrote this one in Japanese.
Anyway, it's about polar bears. Not just about polar bears, narrated by polar bears. And not just any polar bears. A polar bear trained for the circus who writes a memoir and becomes a famous writer, for one.
Writing from the point of view of a personified animal seems to be in vogue right now in Japan. Belka, Why Don't You Bark? by Hideo Furukawa follows dogs (I think it's narrated by the dogs but I'm not sure), and Kenshin by Rieko Kawakami is about a woman who is turned into a dog. Either way, interesting premise, great writer—I'd love to see this come out by New Directions, who has published a lot of Tawada in the past.
2) 生首 ("Severed Heads")
by Henmi Yo
There's a pretty robust poetry scene in Japan, some of which gets across the Pacific Ocean. The Best Translated Book Award has always had at least one Japanese poet on their shortlist save their inaugural year. I'm not familiar with Henmi Yo really, but I don't think Japan Book News highlights a lot of poetry, and I do like the little excerpt they put in their description:
One evening in early autumn
Across the darkening blue of the western skies
I watched a severed head fly across the heavens.
Not a lot to go on, but worth checking out I think.
3) 日本語ほど面白いものはない (Nothing is as Fun as Japanese)
by Naoki Yanase
I can't imagine anything like this would EVER get published in English, but it sounds interesting to me all the same. It's based on a series of lectures given by Yanase to a sixth grade class on why Japanese is a cool language. The reason why it's interesting to me is Yanase himself, who did Japanese translations of Roald Dahl and Lewis Carrol, as well as James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Finnegans fucking Wake! I would LOVE to learn more about this guy.
Hey, and maybe since it's written for sixth graders, it would be pretty easy to read, and it might make a good supplementary textbook for American high school or college students learning Japanese. Maybe there's a market for this book after all.
4) 日本の刺青と英国王室 ("Japanese Tattoos and the British Royal Family")
by Noboru Koyama
Title sort of explains it all. About British Princes in the late 19th century that did some tourism and got some badass tattoos, and then more about the history of Japanese tattooing. I don't read a lot of history books, but this sounds pretty fascinating.
5) 文豪の食卓 (Great Writers at the Dinner Table)
by Tokuzo Miyamoto
OK, this one might appeal to me only. I love food, and I love to read about famous people talking about food. So from what I understand of the description of this book, it's part profiles of famous writers through their documented experiences with food and part exposé about regional Japanese food. It seems like it profiles a lot of French and American writers (though there must be something about Japanese writers). I love this kind of stuff, though I can't imagine it ever being published in translation.
6)近代日本奇想小説史：明治編 (A History of the Japanese Imaginative Novel: Meiji Era)
by Jun'ya Yokota
Another history book, but this one about science fiction, speculative fiction, and other genre fare of the Meiji Era. It's 1200 pages though—I'd never get through it. I'd rather read about the neat stuff No-sword digs up.
There's also a new book by Yuko Tsushima, who I was never a fan of, and a history of Japanese mystery novels, which they hilariously call "much-neglected," cause seriously, what is being translated in America besides mystery/crime/thrillers and Murakami?
Anyway, good selection of cool stuff. Check it out, especially you publishing types if you're out there—let's get some cool stuff translated into English!
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
How to be a Poetry Bestseller in Japan
The Short Answer:
1) Don't start writing poetry until you're in your 90s
2) Get on TV as a human interest story
The Long (and less cynical) Answer:
In the world of publishing, poetry I think will always be a hard sell. Because really, "good" poetry requires work on the part of the reader - it's very hard (and not rewarding) to be a passive reader of poetry. By it's very construction poetry requires looking deeply at the very construction of the poem and analyzing it beyond the sum of its parts. Sure, it might take less than a minute to read the lines of a short poem, but how much do you get out of a quick scan of the words on the page? And bad poetry, for instance any and all of the poetry we all wrote as lovesick teenagers, is easy to spot, and easy to dismiss. So in my not at all scientific or even particularly literary theory, bad poetry is obviously bad but figuring out why good poetry is good takes a little extra work.
I'm not saying that prose fiction is totally different either. Good fiction is more rewarding when you can take a closer look at its unique construction, and bad fiction is also just as easy to spot as poetry. For some reason though, bad fiction (and I guess I should point out that "bad,"which is an admittedly vague and poor descriptor to use in a pseudo-literary criticism based theory, in this context is more like "unoriginal" maybe, bringing nothing new to the table) is encouraged in the publishing world. It's comfort food. Sometimes that's exactly what we want - familiar things only dressed up as something slightly new.
I would never say that all bestsellers are bad pieces of fiction, because that would simply be untrue. But bestsellers are bestsellers because they satisfy some literary or emotional need because it targets very base and universal instincts and desires. Again, I don't mean this to be derogatory in any way, but it simply has to play those universal notes, since to reach that many people it has to be able to affect (in some way, intellectually, emotionally, what have you) the widest group of people possible. And recreating that sort of widespread appeal with poetry is difficult, since bad (or "unoriginal") poetry is not tolerated in the same way that bad fiction is. Poetry has to reach a very difficult level of creativity to be popular, I think - not too high as to be off-putting or "difficult," but not too low as to be seen as boring or unoriginal or amateurish.
And all of what I just laid out isn't necessarily true. Sometimes you just need some sort of sensational angle to get people talking.
Phew. Now we turn to Toyo Shibata.
Yes, the latest poetry bestseller in Japan right now is 99-year old Toyo Shibata, who published a collection of 42 poems called くじけないで ( Kujikenaide, "Don't be discouraged") that has now sold 1.5 MILLION copies.
1.5 MILLION COPIES.
According to Reuters, a collection of poetry in Japan is considered successful in Japan when it sells ten thousand copies. So yes, this is certainly a runaway bestseller. It's got numbers comparable to Murakami's 1Q84. The only other collection of poetry that I know of with sales numbers like this was Machi Tawara's Salad Anniversary almost twenty years ago in the early 1990s.
So is her poetry worth all the fuss? Well, I don't know.
I've mentioned on this blog a few times that poetry is not my strong suit or where my literary interests lie. I think I've got a pretty good critical eye though, even if I'm not as versed (PUN MOST DEFINITELY INTENDED) in the history of great poetry, classical and contemporary, as others. So in my opinion, yes, some of her poems are quite nice. At their best, they're emotionally resonant and the language is pretty, I would say, in lieu of beautiful. At their worst, though, they're cloying, overly sentimental, and somewhat cliche, even of herself: she tends to use a lot of the same motifs and imagery in her poems, especially things dealing with nature: you'll see a lot of "sunshine" and "wind" and "I can hear "X" (as in "the wind" or "the cry of cicadas," etc.). Memory is also a go-to theme.
But oy it breaks my heart to say these things! Obviously memory would play an important role in her poetry - she's almost a hundred years old! She seems like a nice old lady who can't do much in her old age except write poetry. What joy does she have besides a nice sunny day and a hot cup of tea and visits from her son? Who am I to criticize?
Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a handful of the poems that I did enjoy, first in the original, and then in a quick English translation that will won't be very poetic in and of itself.
「溶けてゆく」 Melting
ポットから Hot water
注がれる Pouring
お湯は From the cup
やさしい Are like
言葉のようだ Kind words
私の My
心の角砂糖は Sugar cube heart
カップのなかで Melts
気持ちよく Gently
溶けてゆく In my mug
(Things lost in that translation: the nice rhyme and rhythm of the last two lines: kimochi yoku / tokete yuku. Approximated with the slant rhyme of "melt" and "gentle." Also didn't want to end the poem with in my mug, which is the third line in the Japanese, but sounded really bad when I kept it there anyway.)
「返事」 My Reply
風が 耳元で In my ears the wind
「もうそろそろ Invites me
あの世に In intoxicating tones
行きましょう」 "Shall we go now
なんて 猫撫で声で To the other side?"
誘うのよ
だから 私 So, I
すぐに返事をしたの Quickly replied
「あと少し "I'll stay here
こっちに居るわ Just a bit longer
やり残した There are still some things
事があるから」 Left undone"
風は The wind
困った顔をして With a pout on her face
すーっと帰って行った Swiftly returned from whence it came
(Things last in that translation: Possesessive-ized the title - sounded bad as just "Reply" or "The Reply". Lost a line because it was too stilted not putting "Shall we go now" together. Said "Invites me / In intoxicating tones" to get the nice alliteration/assonance of "nante nekonadegoede," since "nekonadegoe" is more like a "coaxing tone"; it's literally "the voice you use to talk to a cat." "Returned from whence it came" is decidedly more flowery than the simple "went back" - WENT BACK WHERE I ASK YOU. Also made the wind feminine, who in the Japanese is more or less neutral.)
「肩叩き券」 A Coupon for a Shoulder Massage
埃にまみれた Something I pulled out
がまぐちの中から Covered in dust
出てきた物 From an old coin purse
父ちゃん 母ちゃんへ To Mommy and Daddy
十五分肩叩き券 15 Minute Shoulder Massage
（三十一年十月まで使えるよ）(Expires 10/1931)
健一 Kenichi
当時 小学生だった倅が Back then my boy was in grade school
わら半紙を小さく切って He cut out cheap straw paper
作ってくれた券の束 And made us a these bundle of coupons
今でも I wonder if I could use it
使えるかしら Even now
(Hate that I had to invert the last two lines.)
「秘密」 A Secret
私ね 死にたいって You know, I've thought
思ったことが So many times
何度もあったの That I wanted to die
でも 詩を作り始めて But I started writing poetry
多くの人に励まされ And have been encouraged by so many people
今はもう So now
泣きごとは言わない I won't complain anymore
九十八歳でも Even at 98
恋はするのよ I love
夢だってみるの And I dream
雲にだって乗りたいわ I want to ride on a cloud
(If you're not touched at least a little bit by that last poem then you are more heartless than I. Those four poems are a very small portion of what's found in Kujikenaide, and what I think are overall some of the better ones. But if you decide to check the book out for yourself, be warned: you'll probably find a number of duds. Or maybe you won't. It has sold 1.5 million copies.)
1) Don't start writing poetry until you're in your 90s
2) Get on TV as a human interest story
The Long (and less cynical) Answer:
In the world of publishing, poetry I think will always be a hard sell. Because really, "good" poetry requires work on the part of the reader - it's very hard (and not rewarding) to be a passive reader of poetry. By it's very construction poetry requires looking deeply at the very construction of the poem and analyzing it beyond the sum of its parts. Sure, it might take less than a minute to read the lines of a short poem, but how much do you get out of a quick scan of the words on the page? And bad poetry, for instance any and all of the poetry we all wrote as lovesick teenagers, is easy to spot, and easy to dismiss. So in my not at all scientific or even particularly literary theory, bad poetry is obviously bad but figuring out why good poetry is good takes a little extra work.
I'm not saying that prose fiction is totally different either. Good fiction is more rewarding when you can take a closer look at its unique construction, and bad fiction is also just as easy to spot as poetry. For some reason though, bad fiction (and I guess I should point out that "bad,"which is an admittedly vague and poor descriptor to use in a pseudo-literary criticism based theory, in this context is more like "unoriginal" maybe, bringing nothing new to the table) is encouraged in the publishing world. It's comfort food. Sometimes that's exactly what we want - familiar things only dressed up as something slightly new.
I would never say that all bestsellers are bad pieces of fiction, because that would simply be untrue. But bestsellers are bestsellers because they satisfy some literary or emotional need because it targets very base and universal instincts and desires. Again, I don't mean this to be derogatory in any way, but it simply has to play those universal notes, since to reach that many people it has to be able to affect (in some way, intellectually, emotionally, what have you) the widest group of people possible. And recreating that sort of widespread appeal with poetry is difficult, since bad (or "unoriginal") poetry is not tolerated in the same way that bad fiction is. Poetry has to reach a very difficult level of creativity to be popular, I think - not too high as to be off-putting or "difficult," but not too low as to be seen as boring or unoriginal or amateurish.
And all of what I just laid out isn't necessarily true. Sometimes you just need some sort of sensational angle to get people talking.
Phew. Now we turn to Toyo Shibata.
Yes, the latest poetry bestseller in Japan right now is 99-year old Toyo Shibata, who published a collection of 42 poems called くじけないで ( Kujikenaide, "Don't be discouraged") that has now sold 1.5 MILLION copies.
1.5 MILLION COPIES.
According to Reuters, a collection of poetry in Japan is considered successful in Japan when it sells ten thousand copies. So yes, this is certainly a runaway bestseller. It's got numbers comparable to Murakami's 1Q84. The only other collection of poetry that I know of with sales numbers like this was Machi Tawara's Salad Anniversary almost twenty years ago in the early 1990s.
So is her poetry worth all the fuss? Well, I don't know.
I've mentioned on this blog a few times that poetry is not my strong suit or where my literary interests lie. I think I've got a pretty good critical eye though, even if I'm not as versed (PUN MOST DEFINITELY INTENDED) in the history of great poetry, classical and contemporary, as others. So in my opinion, yes, some of her poems are quite nice. At their best, they're emotionally resonant and the language is pretty, I would say, in lieu of beautiful. At their worst, though, they're cloying, overly sentimental, and somewhat cliche, even of herself: she tends to use a lot of the same motifs and imagery in her poems, especially things dealing with nature: you'll see a lot of "sunshine" and "wind" and "I can hear "X" (as in "the wind" or "the cry of cicadas," etc.). Memory is also a go-to theme.
But oy it breaks my heart to say these things! Obviously memory would play an important role in her poetry - she's almost a hundred years old! She seems like a nice old lady who can't do much in her old age except write poetry. What joy does she have besides a nice sunny day and a hot cup of tea and visits from her son? Who am I to criticize?
Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a handful of the poems that I did enjoy, first in the original, and then in a quick English translation that will won't be very poetic in and of itself.
「溶けてゆく」 Melting
ポットから Hot water
注がれる Pouring
お湯は From the cup
やさしい Are like
言葉のようだ Kind words
私の My
心の角砂糖は Sugar cube heart
カップのなかで Melts
気持ちよく Gently
溶けてゆく In my mug
(Things lost in that translation: the nice rhyme and rhythm of the last two lines: kimochi yoku / tokete yuku. Approximated with the slant rhyme of "melt" and "gentle." Also didn't want to end the poem with in my mug, which is the third line in the Japanese, but sounded really bad when I kept it there anyway.)
「返事」 My Reply
風が 耳元で In my ears the wind
「もうそろそろ Invites me
あの世に In intoxicating tones
行きましょう」 "Shall we go now
なんて 猫撫で声で To the other side?"
誘うのよ
だから 私 So, I
すぐに返事をしたの Quickly replied
「あと少し "I'll stay here
こっちに居るわ Just a bit longer
やり残した There are still some things
事があるから」 Left undone"
風は The wind
困った顔をして With a pout on her face
すーっと帰って行った Swiftly returned from whence it came
(Things last in that translation: Possesessive-ized the title - sounded bad as just "Reply" or "The Reply". Lost a line because it was too stilted not putting "Shall we go now" together. Said "Invites me / In intoxicating tones" to get the nice alliteration/assonance of "nante nekonadegoede," since "nekonadegoe" is more like a "coaxing tone"; it's literally "the voice you use to talk to a cat." "Returned from whence it came" is decidedly more flowery than the simple "went back" - WENT BACK WHERE I ASK YOU. Also made the wind feminine, who in the Japanese is more or less neutral.)
「肩叩き券」 A Coupon for a Shoulder Massage
埃にまみれた Something I pulled out
がまぐちの中から Covered in dust
出てきた物 From an old coin purse
父ちゃん 母ちゃんへ To Mommy and Daddy
十五分肩叩き券 15 Minute Shoulder Massage
（三十一年十月まで使えるよ）(Expires 10/1931)
健一 Kenichi
当時 小学生だった倅が Back then my boy was in grade school
わら半紙を小さく切って He cut out cheap straw paper
作ってくれた券の束 And made us a these bundle of coupons
今でも I wonder if I could use it
使えるかしら Even now
(Hate that I had to invert the last two lines.)
「秘密」 A Secret
私ね 死にたいって You know, I've thought
思ったことが So many times
何度もあったの That I wanted to die
でも 詩を作り始めて But I started writing poetry
多くの人に励まされ And have been encouraged by so many people
今はもう So now
泣きごとは言わない I won't complain anymore
九十八歳でも Even at 98
恋はするのよ I love
夢だってみるの And I dream
雲にだって乗りたいわ I want to ride on a cloud
(If you're not touched at least a little bit by that last poem then you are more heartless than I. Those four poems are a very small portion of what's found in Kujikenaide, and what I think are overall some of the better ones. But if you decide to check the book out for yourself, be warned: you'll probably find a number of duds. Or maybe you won't. It has sold 1.5 million copies.)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
An Excerpt from "The Illusions of Love and Marriage"
Although this isn't exactly what I had in mind originally, I'd like to share with you a piece of work by Genichiro Takahashi, author of of one of my favorite novels, Sayonara, Gangsters.
I bring him up a lot and it's kind of funny when I think about it. I've only read a small fraction of his work, in English - only a novel, and in the original Japanese, maybe a combined total of seventy-five to a hundred pages from about a dozen short stories, beginnings of novels, and literary essays. And yet I'm obsessed. I believe in him as a writer almost entirely on faith. Yes, I loved his one novel, but does that prove his entire body of work to be of literary worth? I mean, yes, I do think so, but if you were to ask me why I believed so much in what I only know so little of, I couldn't give you a good answer. I can point out what I like about his work only so much. Maybe I should have a little more confidence in my taste/sense of "good" literature, but I can't let go of this idea that Takahashi is or should be the next big thing, but nobody knows it outside of Japan yet (and even there I don't think he has the largest following).
The following bit is from a short story of what I'm translating as "The Illusions of Love and Marriage", from his short story collection 君が代は千代に八千代に. I'm satisfied with just presenting this beginning bit because although the story itself is interesting, it's too long to translate here (at least for now). And what I want to focus on translating is the poem.
---
He met her at a party. She was a poet. She was reading poetry in the middle of the party. A real beauty. Narrow hips, a big butt. And big eyes. In other words, she was just his type. She wore a white t-shirt over jeans, and with a spellbound expression she read her poetry.
"Einstein rode the Galaxy Express
Einsten, with the Fuji Evening News and Shonen Jump in his lap
And by the window a plastic bottle filled with oolong tea
His travel arrangements are complete
The conductor came
And Einstein took out his ticket and said
'Standard class, Shinagawa to Kamakura'
The conductor took off his cap
'Does light appear to stop to people running at the speed of light?
Is the medium that transmits his light ether?
Is the object's matter inherent in that object?
What is the ultimate matter?
What will happen when matter and anti-matter collide?
The price of the standard class ticket is 750 yen, thank you for riding with us'
After a while the conductor came back
'Sir, we've already passed Kamakura'
Einstein was surprised
'Huh? Where are we now?'
'Well we've passed Kamakura, and Muromachi as well, and in 15 minutes is Heian'
'Oh darn, I've mistaken this for the Yokosuka line'
The Galaxy Express will go
Anywhere, you know
E=MC²"
----
Poetry is super hard to translate. In the original Japanese, it's pretty loosey-goosey in terms of form, but since many of the phrases end with the simple desu ka or verb past tense -ta, there is definitely some sense of rhyme in many phrases, but it's just so easy to construct in the Japanese, and totally weird in the English. Maybe with some time I could come up with a substitution or solution, but I just wanted to share this crazy little poem. The Galaxy Express is quite a fixture in the Japanese pop culture consciousness (think of all the anime alone). And I would also like to point out that Kamakura, while also a famous city outside of Tokyo, is also the name of a time period in Japanese history, as are the Muromachi and the Heian eras.
I bring him up a lot and it's kind of funny when I think about it. I've only read a small fraction of his work, in English - only a novel, and in the original Japanese, maybe a combined total of seventy-five to a hundred pages from about a dozen short stories, beginnings of novels, and literary essays. And yet I'm obsessed. I believe in him as a writer almost entirely on faith. Yes, I loved his one novel, but does that prove his entire body of work to be of literary worth? I mean, yes, I do think so, but if you were to ask me why I believed so much in what I only know so little of, I couldn't give you a good answer. I can point out what I like about his work only so much. Maybe I should have a little more confidence in my taste/sense of "good" literature, but I can't let go of this idea that Takahashi is or should be the next big thing, but nobody knows it outside of Japan yet (and even there I don't think he has the largest following).
The following bit is from a short story of what I'm translating as "The Illusions of Love and Marriage", from his short story collection 君が代は千代に八千代に. I'm satisfied with just presenting this beginning bit because although the story itself is interesting, it's too long to translate here (at least for now). And what I want to focus on translating is the poem.
---
He met her at a party. She was a poet. She was reading poetry in the middle of the party. A real beauty. Narrow hips, a big butt. And big eyes. In other words, she was just his type. She wore a white t-shirt over jeans, and with a spellbound expression she read her poetry.
"Einstein rode the Galaxy Express
Einsten, with the Fuji Evening News and Shonen Jump in his lap
And by the window a plastic bottle filled with oolong tea
His travel arrangements are complete
The conductor came
And Einstein took out his ticket and said
'Standard class, Shinagawa to Kamakura'
The conductor took off his cap
'Does light appear to stop to people running at the speed of light?
Is the medium that transmits his light ether?
Is the object's matter inherent in that object?
What is the ultimate matter?
What will happen when matter and anti-matter collide?
The price of the standard class ticket is 750 yen, thank you for riding with us'
After a while the conductor came back
'Sir, we've already passed Kamakura'
Einstein was surprised
'Huh? Where are we now?'
'Well we've passed Kamakura, and Muromachi as well, and in 15 minutes is Heian'
'Oh darn, I've mistaken this for the Yokosuka line'
The Galaxy Express will go
Anywhere, you know
E=MC²"
----
Poetry is super hard to translate. In the original Japanese, it's pretty loosey-goosey in terms of form, but since many of the phrases end with the simple desu ka or verb past tense -ta, there is definitely some sense of rhyme in many phrases, but it's just so easy to construct in the Japanese, and totally weird in the English. Maybe with some time I could come up with a substitution or solution, but I just wanted to share this crazy little poem. The Galaxy Express is quite a fixture in the Japanese pop culture consciousness (think of all the anime alone). And I would also like to point out that Kamakura, while also a famous city outside of Tokyo, is also the name of a time period in Japanese history, as are the Muromachi and the Heian eras.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Murakami the Poet
Another one of the myriad Haruki Murakami books I have purchased recently is 夢で合いましょう, or, Let's Meet in a Dream, a collaborative collection of myriad belle lettres he wrote along with essayist/noted video game creator Shigesato Itoi. (You can even check out some sample translations at Yomuka!)
The most interesting thing about 夢で合いましょう, however, is the inclusion of some pieces of writing by Mr. Murakami that...well, they're poems.
They belong to what Murakami dubs the "Yakult Swallows Poetry Anthology" (the Yakult Swallows being a Japanese baseball team). Their titles imply a sense of varying topics. But they are mostly basball related. For example:
オイル・サーディン
おい審判
お前の目はどこについてるんだ、
俺は、昨日いわしの缶詰を食ったけど、
お前よりはずっとマシだったぞ。
Oil Sardine
Hey referee!
What were your eyes following,
I ate a can of sardines yesterday, but
even I was more preferable than you!
Like I said, poetry isn't really my bag, but even I know that translating poetry is an especially difficult thing to do. And the above poetry (my own) is just bad. Translation in poetry is less about the words and more about the meaning... the sound and the ideas. Poetry is about the feelings than the actual text. And language is so entwined in culture and history, going word for word is going to produce, to put it bluntly, shit poetry. Even when trying to keep it as close to the original as possible, there are phrases that just don't translate literally. So I say, if it's poetry, go crazy. Think outside the box. Poetry is one of the ultimate expressions of creativity. Being constrained by language goes against everything that poetry stands for.
I'm no poet, but this is what I would do.
Sardines
Hey ref!
What game are you even watching?
For chrissakes, I ate a can of sardines yesterday,
and even I could do better than you!
I am not one to judge to the quality of Murakami's poetry (I imagine anyone with a passing interest in verse would tell Murakami to stick to fiction), but at least they're pretty amusing.
The most interesting thing about 夢で合いましょう, however, is the inclusion of some pieces of writing by Mr. Murakami that...well, they're poems.
They belong to what Murakami dubs the "Yakult Swallows Poetry Anthology" (the Yakult Swallows being a Japanese baseball team). Their titles imply a sense of varying topics. But they are mostly basball related. For example:
オイル・サーディン
おい審判
お前の目はどこについてるんだ、
俺は、昨日いわしの缶詰を食ったけど、
お前よりはずっとマシだったぞ。
Oil Sardine
Hey referee!
What were your eyes following,
I ate a can of sardines yesterday, but
even I was more preferable than you!
Like I said, poetry isn't really my bag, but even I know that translating poetry is an especially difficult thing to do. And the above poetry (my own) is just bad. Translation in poetry is less about the words and more about the meaning... the sound and the ideas. Poetry is about the feelings than the actual text. And language is so entwined in culture and history, going word for word is going to produce, to put it bluntly, shit poetry. Even when trying to keep it as close to the original as possible, there are phrases that just don't translate literally. So I say, if it's poetry, go crazy. Think outside the box. Poetry is one of the ultimate expressions of creativity. Being constrained by language goes against everything that poetry stands for.
I'm no poet, but this is what I would do.
Sardines
Hey ref!
What game are you even watching?
For chrissakes, I ate a can of sardines yesterday,
and even I could do better than you!
I am not one to judge to the quality of Murakami's poetry (I imagine anyone with a passing interest in verse would tell Murakami to stick to fiction), but at least they're pretty amusing.
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