Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text

242 Pages·2003·58.64 MB·English

by  Giles Murray

$ 19.95
BREAKING INTO JAPANESE LITERATURE provides the
intellectual infrastructure you need to break through
to a new and undiscovered world-the world of Japa
nese fiction.
NATSUME SOSEKI
(from Ten Nights of Dreams)
STORY #1 The First Night
A beyond-the-grave romance in which love
is proven to be stronger than death.
STORY #2 The Third Night
A sinister child confronts a guilt-ridden father
with evidence of a crime long past.
STORY #3 The Fifth Night
There was love even in the age of the samu
rai-but there were devils too.
STORY #4 The Seventh Night
Despair and loneliness make a man do some
thing he will regret-forever.
AKUTAGAWA RYUNOSUKE
(short stories)
STORY #5 In a Grove
A murder has been committed, but which of
the seven witnesses is telling the truth?
STORY #6 The Nose
Primitive plastic surgery has unexpected
consequences for an old monk.
AKUTAGAWA RYUNOSUKE
(short story)
STORY #7 Rashomon
Two destitute people confront stark moral
choices in a desolate city.
BREAKING
INTO
JAPANESE
LITERATURE
Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text
GILES MURRAY
KODANSHA INTERNATIONAL
Tokyo · New York· London
Go to www.speaking-japanese.com to get an overview
of Breaking into Japanese Literature and to download
free MP3 sound files of all seven stories in the book. The
site also profiles the author's other works, from the best
selling 13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese (with a
mini-movie theater feature) to his book and manga
translations, as well as William Blake Interactive, a lavish
audio-visual introduction to the famous English poet.
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
All Japanese names appearing in this book are given in the Western order, sur
name last. The exceptions are those of the authors of the original stories, Natsu
me S6seki and Akutagawa Ryiinosuke; Mari Ogai and Tanizaki Jun'ichir6; and
those of the characters appearing in the English translations of the stories.
Distributed in the United States by Kodansha America, Inc., and in the United
Kingdom and continental Europe by Kodansha Europe Ltd.
Published by Kodansha International Ltd .• 17-14 Otowa l-chome. Bunkyo-ku.
Tokyo 112-8652. and Kodansha America Inc.
Text copyright © 2003 by Giles Murray.
Illustration copyright © 2003 by Tetsuji Kiwaki.
All rights reserved. Printed in Japan.
ISBN -13: 978-4-7700-2899-0
ISBN-10: 4-7700-2899-7
First edition, 2003
10090807060504 10987654
www.kodansha-intl.com
CONTENTS
PREFACE 6
NATSUME SaSEKI 12
LEVEL 1
t;~. ~.t) '\,
~-a The First Night 14
I!.\· ~A. '(,
~.::.a The Third Night 30
t.'.,· ::: "
~lia The Fifth Night 46
I!,I' ~~ 'l-
~-ca The Seventh Night 60
AKUTAGAWA RVONOSUKE 76
LEVEL 2
~ .. ; f.-f.!'
It~'f> In a Grove 78
1J:t.:
Jf
The Nose 146
LEVEL 3
*1."
&, L~1 LA.-
Rashomon 198
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 240
PREFACE
AIMS
This book is designed to propel you beyond the humdrum world of maga
zine and newspaper articles into the rewarding but relatively impenetra
ble world of Japanese literature. Breaking into Japanese Literature presents
only complete and unedited short stories: extracts from longer works
have been deliberately avoided. This guarantees that you can enjoy a full
aesthetic experience and a sense of uncompromised achievement. The
seven stories in this book are all recognized masterpieces: the two authors,
Natsume Soseki and Akutagawa Ryunosuke, are both literary giants who
form part of the Japanese national curriculum. The seven stories cover a
variety of genres: "The Nose" is a comedy; "In a Grove" and "Rashomon"
are fast-paced thrillers set in ancient Japan; and the four tales from Ten
Nights of Dreams are thrilling, hallucinatory accounts of love, death, sui
cide and murder.
THREE-lEVEl STRUCTURE
The book is divided into three increasingly challenging levels.
LEVEL ONE consists of four stories from Soseki's Ten Nights of Dreams
(1908). The Dreams are very short-only two or three pages each in the
original Japanese-and are composed in short, simple sentences. The rep-
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etition which Soseki uses to create a dreamlike atmosphere has the con
venient side effect of providing automatic kanji review opportunities.
For all their gothic subject matter, the Dreams offer very practical study
benefits: they contain a very high proportion of the 1,945 common-use
kanji characters that all students ofJapanese have to master.
LEVEL TWO consists of two Akutagawa stories, "In a Grove" (1922)
and "The Nose" (1916). These two stories are about five times longer
than their predecessors in Level One, while the sentences of which they
are composed are also lengthier and more involved. "In a Grove" was
selected not only for its exciting subject matter (robbery, rape and mur
der), but because its unusual structure-with seven different narrators
retelling the same story with slight variations-again provides uncon
scious review opportunities. "The Nose," despite some difficult religious
and historical vocabulary, is a humorous fable with a simple story line.
Apart from its significance as Akutagawa's breakthrough work, "The
Nose" also provides some comic relief in this slightly nair collection.
LEVEL THREE features a single Akutagawa story, "Rashomon" (1916).
"Rashomon" is about the same length as "The Nose," but is more densely
descriptive-and thus more difficult-than any of the other stories. This
atmospheric story is historically significant both as the title story of Aku
tagawa's first collection and as one of the inspirations for Akira Kuro
sawa's celebrated 1951 film.
The illustrations and prefaces on the title pages should help you
locate the story that is most to your taste. Most important though, is to
choose a story of the appropriate ability level. Starting with one of the
shorter Dreams is definitely a good idea.
CORE COMPONENTS
Reading Japanese literature unassisted can be frustrating. This book is
designed to help you bypass all those feelings of bewilderment and irri
tation. With the story in Japanese on the left-hand page, the English
translation on the right-hand page and the dictionary running along the
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bottom of both, each double-page spread is totally self-contained. There is
no need for any dictionaries. Since everything you need is right there in
front of you, you can read the stories fast enough to enjoy them as works
ofliterature. On the one hand, the custom dictionary means you will not
waste time deciphering words oflittle practical use, like proper names or
official titles. On the other hand, it means that any useful kanji charac
ters or expressions that occur are there ready to be memorized. It's no
pain, all gain.
ELEMENT 1: JAPANESE ORIGINAL
The Japanese text is based on the Iwanami bunko editions of Soseki's
Ten Nights of Dreams and Akutagawa's "In a Grove," and the Shincho
bunko editions of the two other Akutagawa stories. These editions were
selected because they reflect modern kana usage. Further modifications
have been made: some words that are rarely seen in kanji anymore have
been written in hiragana, and hiragana superscript has been added to
difficult words that even some Japanese would find puzzling, as well as
to a number of simple words that the reader might recognize if not for
the kanji.
The Japanese text has been printed across the page (rather than from
top to bottom) to allow for easy cross-referencing between the two lan
guages. Large point-size makes the kanji physically bigger and thus easier
to read. Generous line spacing also enhances readability while providing
space for notes.
ELEMENT 2: LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
The translations follow the Japanese scrupulously. I have striven for direct
semantic parity, omitting nothing and taking nothing away. Thus, if there
is a noun in the Japanese, it is rendered-as much as possible-by a noun
in the English. The old woman in "Rashomon," for example, is referred to
as "the old woman" if that is how she is described in the Japanese. I have
tried not to substitute the pronoun "she," and I have tried not to make
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things more complicated by turning a simple "old woman" into a "crone,"
"hag," or "droopy-dugged trollop." With a few exceptions, sentence order
and paragraphing in the English also follow the Japanese. The overriding
aim is to help you figure out what in one language corresponds to what
in the other.
The style of the seven translations is not completely uniform. S6seki's
four Dreams-which are short and relatively simple-have been trans
lated literally (making them easy to follow), but with a hint of the liter
ary (encouraging you to think about word choices and style). The English
deliberately echoes the lushness of nineteenth-century authors like Oscar
Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe who influenced S6seki in the first place.
The three Akutagawa stories, which make up the two more-advanced
levels of the book, are considerably longer and harder than the Ten Nights
of Dreams. I have therefore translated them in a plain, austere manner,
since too much polish would just be a distraction.
ELEMENT 3: THE ZERO-OMISSION DICTIONARY
The running dictionary at the bottom of the page provides a translation
of words in the order that they appear in the text. The dictionary covers
every kanji-based word in the book, as well as the more difficult hira
gana words. Note that when a kanji word appears twice or more on the
same page, it is listed only on its first appearance, but with a:!: icon to
warn you that it will recur. If a kanji character belongs to the 2,230
characters (including all the 1,945 common-use characters) featured in
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, its entry number is provided
in square brackets after the English definition. This means that you can
track down the individual characters with ease and master their on and
kun readings, meanings, compounds and so on in a time-efficient way.
The dictionary does not include basic particles, ko-so-a-do demonstra
tives, the auxiliary -s6 (as in nemu-s6 "looks sleepy"), or the copula da (in
cluding desu and de aru). It assumes knowledge of simple hiragana words
(such as anata, ikutsu, suru or naru) that every student learns at beginner
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level. It also omits some phrasal conjunctions, such as soko de (at which
point), sore kara (after that) and suru to (whereupon), which can be un
derstood by their constituent parts.
The definitions provided fit the usage in the Japanese story. Due to space
constraints, no effort has been made to provide a comprehensive definition
for the word in all possible contexts. Direct English equivalents, rather than
academic explanations, are provided. On occasion multiple meanings are
given. This is to highlight the fact that a single Japanese word can have a
multiplicity of English equivalents. Frequently the definitions provided
in the dictionary differ from the word used in my English translation. This
is a deliberate ploy to encourge the reader to think about issues of style.
These stories are nearly a century old, so the language and orthogra
phy is archaic in places. Always use the Kanji Learner's Dictionary as your
guide to correct contemporary kanji usage.
EXTRA FEATURES
To take reading Japanese out of the realm of mere code-breaking and into
the realm of fun, Breaking into Japanese Literature includes various extras.
The MINI-BIOGRAPHIES of the two authors provide insights into their
private lives and their place in the Japanese literary pantheon. The seven
MINI-PREFACES draw attention to links between the featured stories and
other works of literature or film. The ILLUSTRATIONS make it easier for
the reader to enter the world of the author's imagination. Finally, all the
stories are available free of charge on the Internet as MP3 SOUND FILES
read by professional Japanese actors. The four stories from S6seki's Ten
Nights of Dreams are available as single files, but the Akutagawa stories
are broken up into sections to keep download times to a practical length.
Details on the URL and number of files are provided in the mini-prefaces.
I recommend that you download the relevant audio only after having
worked your way through the story. Try to read along with the Japanese
text as you listen. If you can follow the text at native reading speed, you
can consider yourself to have mastered the kanji.
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