南向き翻訳事務所 岩渕デボラ ブログ

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.

My baby sister just put out her fourth CD of baroque flute music. This one is Joseph Bodin de Boismortier: Six Suites, Op. 35 for Unaccompanied Flute. It’s available at “CD Baby,” (An extremely congenial web site. They send you love letters after you order!)

If you like that one (and I know you will), be sure to order her second-most recent album, Music for Flute & Guitar, with Georges Torres.

ああ、写真撮れば良かった。土日と旦那のごちそうを家族全員プラス娘たちの友達２人でいただきました。

土曜日は煮豚(焼き豚みたいなjuicyな煮込んだ肉）とアボカドのディップとチップス。日曜日はちらしずしとゴーヤチャンプル。大人数で愛情たっぷりのごちそうを食べながら、楽しい会話がありました。久しぶりでした。

Both daughters are at home, and adding to the pleasure of that, my husband cooked for all of us (including two friends of daughters) Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, we had his specialty, a kind of Japanese-style pork accompanied with a Japanese adaptation of Americanized guacamole dip with tortilla-chips-as-available. Sunday we had chirashizushi and the Okinawan dish–goya champuru–pictured above.

Food full of love and affection and outrageously hilarious conversation. It doesn’t get much better than this!

I borrowed this irresistible photo from the Daily Yomiuri. And here is the text from the newspaper:

TABLE TOSSING A man competes in a tableware-tossing contest, violently tipping over a dining table in Yahabacho, Iwate Prefecture, on Saturday. Participants in the Second-annual Table Overturning World Championships vied to see who could send a piece of tableware the furthest solely from the force of the low table holding the dishes being overturned. The returning champion, a 22-year-old university student from Morioka, won again with a toss of 5.87 meters.

FM Gunma reported that the contest took place in a shopping center, and that there were 17 contestants, each of whom shouted out a pet peeve as they tossed the table (note man with mike behind contestant). The tableware itself was made of plastic, meaning no permanent damage or dangerous flying bits and pieces.

The look on the face of the man in the picture says it all. Isn’t upturning a table what everyone would like to do? I have heard chucking crockery in the bathtub recommended as a way to get rid of stress, but this looks like more fun–there’s even an audience to appreciate the effort. That is what we need in Japan. Less knifing of pedestrians on the street and more table tossing competitions!

Have I mentioned Thespa–my local soccer team lately? I’m sure I haven’t since they began making their way up in the standings! After three years in the basement–the very root cellar of soccer standings– they’ve been actually WINNING MATCHES! And are currently no. 6 in a field of 15 teams. Last week they beat Cerezo Osaka, the no. 3 team. Tomorrow they will be playing no. 4 Sagantosu from Saga. It’s almost disorienting to look at the ranking chart of J2 teams, because the eye of a loyal Thespa fan will automatically go to the bottom of the list. Not finding it, one has a momentary and very frightening sense that the team has completely disappeared from the face of the earth. It takes a few seconds to realize you just need to go up a little higher–and (remarkably) there they are! Ooooooh Thespa!

ただ今、ザスパ勝ち続けています！ (うちの者いわく、引き分けをはさんで5連勝）J2で６位に輝いています。3年間のどん底状態が突然報われました。試合後の選手の笑顔が眩しい。水曜日、3位のセレッソ大阪に勝ち、明日は4位のサガン鳥栖との試合です。降っても照っても行きます。敷島の県立陸上競技場ーではなくてー正田醤油スタジアムで集まりましょう！

群馬県立女子大学国際コミュニケーション科の第1期生が今年4年生になりました。全員が就職活動をやっています。その中で着々と決まっている人もいますし、これから会社の面接や教員試験を受けたりする人もいます。運が良いね、うちの生徒達を採用する会社は。そう思います。世の中の教育委員会もかしこければ、教職をとっている女子大生を教員として取ってくれるはずです。

こんなに働き者で協力的で勉強ができる生徒はほかにいません。元気もいいし、ユーモアもある！

本当は行かせたくないけれど、仕方ないね。いつまでも学校においておくわけにはいきません。残念！

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.”