Opinion It's better if I'm not there By Roger Pulvers	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
翻訳家・柴田元幸の魅力 米文学翻訳の方向性に大きな影響を与えてきた柴田元幸の魅力を、一冊の本が明らかにする…。

A fascinating book about a remarkable person was published by Shinshokan in July. In "The Other America of Haruki Murakami and Motoyuki Shibata," author Masashi Miura describes and analyzes the relationship between Japan's most popular novelist and Japan's most influential translator.

Murakami and Shibata have been friends for two decades. Their relationship has forged a compelling style of translation, afforded a number of American authors a wide readership in this country, and brought many young Japanese writers under their sway.

In both the West and Japan a bizarre prejudice has haunted the halls of publishing houses: those who can, write; those who can't, translate. Were that true, we would be obliged to rethink the reputations of many authors, including Samuel Beckett and Vladimir Nabokov. In fact, in most countries the translator has been virtually as important as the writer in the formation of a national culture. This is certainly true of Japan from the Meiji period to the present.

This study of Shibata's work demonstrates the power of the translator to affect the course of a country's culture. Shibata has personally chosen to translate works of a number of contemporary American authors from Paul Auster to Rebecca Brown; from Charles Bukowski to Steve Erickson; and from Steven Millhauser all the way to Edward Gorey.

Shibata does not rely on anyone's instincts but his own: he chooses the authors that capture his fancy and imagination and goes on from there, creating a market for them in Japan where, in some cases, there would not have been one otherwise. Such is the wonderful power of an insightful and gifted translator.

Miura's book offers us a first-time glimpse into Shibata's personal life, elucidating his predilections and aspirations. We come away with a deep understanding of the translator and how - or why - he practices his art. I like the intimate mixture in this book of the details of a personal life with the aesthetics of literature and translation.

We follow Shibata from his childhood in the urban-industrial zone of Tokyo's Nakarokugo to Tokyo University. We witness him spending nights in London parks and hitchhiking in England, India and Kyushu. And we learn a great deal about contemporary American literature and what it purports to portray in American life.

Shibata is quoted in this book on his own role as a translator, saying, "It's better if I'm not there." But it is precisely because his voice is there that the translations whisper and speak and sing.

Shibata met Murakami upon his return from a stint at Yale University. The two clicked. Perhaps the decline in Japan of European literature's popularity, and of literature in general, opened up a window onto the landscape of contemporary culture for the two of them. They saw eye to eye on the kinds of messages that young Japanese readers were about to crave. Both the novelist and the translator anticipated our present era and, as such, have had a dominant hand in its formation.

Shukan ST: Aug. 22, 2003

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