南向き翻訳事務所 岩渕デボラ ブログ

今までは英訳のみで仕事をすすみましたが、今回は南向き翻訳事務所が初めての「和訳」を無事提出ができました。

出版はまだ先ですが、出版社に送っただけでほっとしています！今年の春から星和書店の仕事を受けて、これからも続くことを期待しています。

今回は「新人」翻訳家の本多篤と岩渕愛でした。小川由香さんと武井真一さんの忍耐強いご協力を感謝しています。

写真は英語版。日本語版はどんな感じになるかな。楽しみです！

Yesterday I got my first copy of NOON: Journal of the Short Poem published by Philip Rowland right here in Japan.

It’s difficult to see in this photo, but the cover is hand bound (click on the photo for a slightly closer look) and the title is indicated in a hand-applied stamp too delicate to get on my camera. It features poems by my two good friends, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa and Margaret Stawowy.

For someone like me with limited time to read, picking up this beautifully designed book and opening it to read one of the gems of poetry is a true luxury.

Anyone looking for a copy can send $10 or 1000 yen to Philip Rowland, Minami Motomachi 4-49-506, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0012

Having moaned and groaned about WaMu (see below) I would now like to say a word about an up-and-coming translation. The book will be a combination of the two above titles, English title yet to be decided. They were both written by Tadahiko Ito, who is also my latest hero. Ito worked for Sumitomo Bank for many years before being assigned president of Kansai Bank , a small local bank on the brink of closure due to the many loans it made during the “bubble” economy years to people making a living off of buying up real estate and then selling it again for a quick profit. (Sound familiar?)

Within seven years, Ito had turned the bank completely around, and it is now one of the top regional banks in Japan. As you may guess, the books tell the story of his amazing work getting the bank back up on its feet. Following the collapse of so many banks in Japan and in the US due to unstable real estate markets, you may not be surprised to hear that he completely revamped his lending process. Instead of putting the emphasis on collateral (what the bank gets if a borrower defaults on its loan), he began to take a good look at the businesses he was financing. In a nutshell, Ito saved a bank based on altruistic business practices. The idea was to save the bank, take care of the employees, take care of the customers and benefit society as a whole.

Amazing but true. Look forward to a book that lets you know how Ito succeeded and his advice on how anyone can succeed. This book isn’t The Secret and it is certainly no get-rich-quick scheme–be prepared to have your notions of “success” turned upside down!

The Four Stories website now has MP3 downloads and photographs from the June 15 Four Stories event in Osaka at Portugalia. I’m the one with her bangs in her eyes and too nervous to sit down and read. I read from Translucent Tree by Nobuko Takagi.  It wasn’t exactly in keeping with the theme, but the other three stories certainly were and they are definitely worth a listen to!

高樹のぶ子先生の“Soaked in Asia” ブログに新作短編の「投」の英訳が載っています。今回の英訳を高樹先生に頼まれて、私のウェブ上英訳が初めてです。高樹先生はアジアの国々を旅して、各国で短編を書いて、雑誌にご出版後、ブログで英訳を乗せています。今回は上海についての話です。是非見て下さい。話の中に石庫門について書かれています。私はこの短編を読む前まで聞いたことがなかったですが、昔からの上海の特徴的な住宅です。最近では次々と取り壊されて、高層ビルがたてられているそうです。

See Nobuko Takagi’s blog, “Soaked in Asia,” and read the English version of her latest short story “Casting Out,” which I translated. Ms. Takagi visits different Asian countries, writing a short story at each location. The story is first printed in the original Japanese in a magazine, and then in English and Japanese on her blog.

The story, set in Shanghai, focuses on a character who lives in a traditional type of dwelling called shikumen. Here is an article on it from The Standard. I’d never heard of shikumen before doing this story. Most are (apparently) made of brick; multi-family dwellings with courtyards. They sound cozy to me, but, according to this and other recent articles, including one in the New Yorker, shikumen are being torn down in droves to make way for skyscrapers.

For some reason I cannot fathom, I announced this new book on my website, but forgot to do it up big here!

Beyond the Blossoming Fields by well-known author Jun’ichi Watanabe, and translated by Anna Isozaki and myself–with the kind assistance of Deborah Davidson and Manna Iwabuchi, not to mention all of the kind folk at the Japan Literature PublishingProject (JLPP) ,was published by a fine British publisher, Alma Books, and released this spring.

Watanabe is better known for somewhat racier novels, but this was his first as a doctor-turned-author, the story of Ginko Ogino, the first licensed female doctor in Japan. She was born less than an hour away from where Anna and I live, in Menuma, a small town on the Saitama side of the Gunma border. Of equal interest to me was that she was a Christian. In fact she was baptized by Danjo Ebina, a follower of Niijima Jo (another big Gunma name!) and the first pastor of Maebashi Church, where I am currently a member.

Personally, I love books in the non-fiction genre (truth is always stranger–and often more interesting–than fiction. Ginko led a remarkable and colorful life in Menuma, Tokyo and in Hokkaido. And her persistence in pursuing a career that was specifically and systematically denied to women will keep you spellbound. In addition to the details of the main theme, learn how she struggled throughout most of her life from a serious and chronic disease, how she led a crew of bone smugglers into a graveyard at night, how she ran her practice–the Ogino Clinic, protected prostitutes from the local thugs, her marriage to a man who took her to the wilds of Hokkaido–and much, much more.

Anne Ishii, expert on literature, manga, things Japanese, and prolific blogger (and there’s more…) has posted a fascinating interview with author Nobuko Takagi about her book, Translucent Tree, on the Bookslut site.

It is in my best interests to ask you to buy the book and THEN read the interview, but why wait? Not only do Anne and Ms. Takagi discuss the book, but also stranger-than-fiction aspects of the author’s life.

今学期は群馬県立女子大で６こまを教えています。相変わらず、女子大の生徒は日本一素敵な生徒ですが、学校、本の英訳、和訳の編集、その他食べていけるための英訳で疲れてしまいました。

昔、共愛 学園で教えたことを思い出します。5月の連休が終わると息を取る間もないまま夏休みまでだ〜と行きます。人生の中に学校というものが入るとこんな感じですね。

今日は教会に行ったり、スポーツジムに行ったり、ほかの人が作ってくれた夕飯をおいしくいただいたりして、ちょっと心を休まることができたのかな。あっそうだ！田村さんがうちの梅の木から梅を落として、きれいに洗ってもらって、梅干しと梅酒の作り方をメモに残してくれたので、梅も付けることができました。

明日の朝また大きな息をすって、新しい一週間に向かって行きます！

At some point after making the online acquaintance of Suzanne Kamata (editor of Love You to Pieces), I was invited to participate in an event called Four Stories, a “reading” event held regularly in Boston and Osaka.

Tracy Slater, a writer who goes back and forth between the two cities, is in charge of organizing the program and the venue. It is not often that translators get invited to “public” events, so I am looking forward to this one. Each of the four storytellers for the evening has fifteen minutes to read. I couldn’t decide between a hyper-edited piece of Devil’s Whisper (Miyabe Miyuki) or Translucent Tree (Nobuko Takagi), but finally opted for the latter for one simple reason–fewer characters for the listeners to have keep sorted out.

By all means, click on the link to find out more about Four Stories. I’ll leave you here with its motto:

“Four Stories: like a 19th-Century salon, only 150 years later–same socializing, same witty banter, corsets optional.”

I spent the day working on marketing research. It does not knock your socks off but it pays the bills and puts offspring through college. I put my Thespa shirt on this morning, determined to finish the job and hit the pitch this evening. When Manna gets home with the car, I will be on my way…　”ooooooh Thespa!”

The picture here is of my sibs. When this was taken, Rebecca (wielding a dangerous coffee cup) had been up for about twenty-four hours taking many different flights to get there, but my brother’s expression says it all about how I feel today after sitting here all day (note dangerous gardening tools).