Comments on: Spinning Around and Around

By: Rita

Rita — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:02:30 +0000

A while ago I started to read Sekai no owari to Sekai no owari to hādoboirudo wandārando and bought the english translation to use as a reference, make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding anything. It’s translated by Alfred Birnbaum, as well.
I read just some 30 pages, but was very surprised to see there are whole sentences missing everywhere in the translation. Actually, it’s quite obvious when you look at the size of the original and the size of the translation, but I hadn’t noticed that… So i checked to see if it was officially an abridged version, and it took me a while to find something – with little letters in the middle of the copyright information, they say it was “translated and adapted by Alfred Birnbaum”.
That’s pretty messed up. I don’t know why they had to change it so much (it’s not like Murakami is a difficult reading that has to be made easier for the regular reader…), but if it’s about half the size of the original they definitely should make it clear… Makes you unsure of all the translated stuff we can’t compare with the original.

By: Daijobu

Daijobu — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:54:41 +0000

Haruki Murakami is SOooo 1990′s. I recommend another Murakami – RYU MURAKAMI, author from the same generation as Haruki… start with his anthology of short-stories on MOVIES, and GOURMET FOOD, which will prime you for the core MURAKAMI he’s well-known for — ALMOST TRANSPARENT BLUE, COIN LOCKER BABIES, EBIZA, or 69. For the lack of a better way to describe the wildly creative work MURAKAMI has brought to Japan’s literary scene, this man not only writes, but his work on film, as well as collaborations with multi-media artists such as RYUICHI SAKAMOTO, completely redefined the experience of story telling in Japan.

By: DBP

DBP — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:36:30 +0000

Daniel,

I defer to your judgment. I just wanted to get your opinion, and now I have it. Thanks!

On #1, I agree that it’s stronger, but that’s why it stands out at me as being a subtle redirection of emphasis. Regarding #2: Thing is, I’ve heard people in my acquaintance use みんな in ways that makes this rather less striking than the English was for me.

I don’t know– I guess if I took #1 to be more significant than you did, we switch roles here on #2. Ain’t literature grand?

By: Rolf

Rolf — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:57:21 +0000

The official Murakami website ( http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site.php ) Has a series of e-mail discussion between the various translators, where they ask questions to each other about the various versions of the text(s). This includes an explanation of the missing lines in some books.

By: Blue Shoe

Blue Shoe — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:36:39 +0000

Wow, impressive. Thanks for the insight, Daniel. Hard Boiled is my favorite Murakami book, too, so I’m glad to know that.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:28:29 +0000

“We all happened,” is a striking use of English and sounds like a pretty profound statement.

Well, yeah…I think みんな昔に一度起こったことなのよ is a pretty striking, profound use of Japanese, too.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:29:59 +0000

1. I read it more as just a childish tone rather than any of the implication you suggest. (It reminds me of my elementary school students 知ってるよ〜、ダニエル先生.) It’s also stronger than わかる. She doesn’t just understand, she knows.

2. I like my version. ;o) Murakami made the choice to use みんな instead of 何もかも, so I don’t think ‘everything’ is the right choice here. Further support of the connection between the two characters in my opinion.

3. Yeah, I’m not quite sure why I translated 示唆 like I did. It could’ve been pure misunderstanding. Maybe I thought I knew something deeper about the work. I really like the like “The world is full of little tricks.” – nice little line. But if I were translating it now I’d make it, “The world is full of implication.”

By: DBP

DBP — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:00:20 +0000

Sorry, I should make #2 a bit more clear: your translation, “We all happened,” is a striking use of English and sounds like a pretty profound statement. If she means ‘私達みんな・・・起こった’, that’s sort of an eye-opener, representing an intensification of his way of putting it. But it doesn’t seem like it has to be read that way– it could be more of a straightforward agreement with what he’d said about 何もかも.

By: DBP

DBP — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:12:12 +0000

Growl, first comment killed by stupid webserver experiencing an internal server error.

I just wanted to point out a few things that struck me. They may not be important, but they stuck out at me as I read through the Japanese. I’d be interested to hear what you think about them:

1) 「どうしてわかる？」「知ってるからよ」The straightforward answer would have been 「わかるからよ」, in my mind. This seems to indicate a subtle shift in emphasis– not just “‘Cause I know” but perhaps “‘Cause I know YOU” or something similar.

2) みんな doesn’t have to mean ‘everyone,’ though perhaps your translation is best in this case. It could, however, mean simply 何もかも, which is what my mind associated it with when I read it (though there was a bit of question in my mind as well, I admit). Seems like a judgment call? At least among the people I hang out with, the word is often simply used to mean ‘everything’ in reference to things or events, not exclusively people.

3) 示唆: Not part of my active-set vocabulary, but some casual investigation seems to indicate meanings more along the line of “suggestion” or “intimation,” with “hint” being the one that strikes me as what I’d probably use. Hatena has それとなく気づかせること.

So, that’s struck me. For what it’s worth!

By: MoMo

MoMo — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:28:31 +0000

Whoa, now I really need to try reading Hard-boiled Wonderland in the original. O_O;