January 19, 2009

SWET Newsletter, No. 121

More details:

• Translating from Japanese to English
  • On Literary Translating, by Meredith McKinney
    After earning a master’s degree in modern Japanese literature and a Ph.D. in classical Japanese literature from Australian National University, Meredith McKinney spent twenty years in Kyoto, teaching at universities while honing her translating skills. She is currently a visiting fellow at the Australian National University’s Japan Center. Her published work includes Kurura no Tasogare, a Japanese translation (with Sakai Nobuo) of the poems of Judith Wright (Shinbisha, 1996). She has also translated, into English, Ravine and Other Stories by Furui Yoshikichi (Stonebridge Press, 1997); Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book (Penguin Classics, 2006); and Kusamakura by Sōseki Natsume (Penguin Modern Classics, 2008). Her translation of Sōseki’s Kokoro will be published by Penguin Modern Classics in 2009.
  • Keene, Seidensticker, et al.: Products of War, Commodities of Peace, by William Wetherall
    Focusing on recently published biographical works by the late Edward G. Seidensticker (Tokyo Central: A Memoir, by Edward G. Seidensticker. University of Washington Press, 2002) and Columbia University professor Donald Keene (On Familiar Terms: A Journey across Cultures, Kodansha International, 1994; Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan, Columbia University Press, 2008), William Wetherall evokes the personalities and the times of two great promoters of Japanese literature and translation in the postwar era.
  • Crossing Borders in Contemporary Japanese Poetry, by Bonny Cassidy
    This article is based on an interview of Kyoto-based poet Minato Keiji by Australian poet and scholar Bonny Cassidy, conducted in Melbourne, Australia in July 2008. A Sydney poet, scholar of Australian literature, and part of Australia’s first and only poetry company, The Red Room Company, Cassidy was in Japan in autumn 2008 on an Asialink/Malcolm Robertson Foundation residency program. Both she and Minato were presenters at the Japan Writers Conference in Nagoya, Nov. 29-30, 2008.

• SWET Events
  • Fiction Writing in Japan with Henrik Pettersson and Peter Mallett, by Kate Jones
    Writing fiction in Japan, or about it, is a dream of many, but how do we turn that dream into reality? On July 13, 2008 in Kobe, SWET Kansai’s “Fiction Writing in Japan” workshop explored the ingredients of a finished piece of fiction. Kyoto-based scriptwriter Kate Jones summarizes the discussion led by Henrik Pettersson and Peter Mallett, both writers currently living and writing in Kansai.
  • Poetry for All Senses: SWET Summer Party at Rikugien (Ginny Tapley Takamori)
    The traditional-style Shinsentei teahouse at Rikugien garden in Komagome was the setting for one of two SWET events held on July 26, 2008. A daytime gathering featured poet and translator Arthur Binard reading and discussing poems he has translated both ways between English and Japanese. Displayed on tables in an adjoining room was a collection of books with all sorts of bilingual layouts. A sandwich lunch—and later, matcha tea and wagashi sweets—were served for refreshment amid the conversations and discussion following the talk. Several participants also joined other SWETers for evening entertainment held this year at the Tokyo Prince Hotel Garden Island beer garden.

• SWET Member News
  • Self-Publishing a Self-Initiated Translation
    A professional non-fiction translator for over 40 years, Fred Uleman this September self-published Rethinking the Constitution: An Anthology of Japanese Opinion, a translation of Kodansha’s 2004 Nihon no kenpo: Kokumin shuken no ronten. SWET asked Uleman how he came to translate and publish a book he was not asked—or paid—to do, and what it involved.

• Threads on SWET-L
  • SWET Weblog Launches, English Manners Decline, and Grammar Will Not Do It (Torkil Christensen)
    A welcome to the SWET Blog; on SWET-L, mixed singulars and plurals, and carelessness brought under control. Another quarter in the life of SWET online.

• A Tribute
  • Eileen Katō, Translator (Charles De Wolf, Lynne E. Riggs, and Doreen Simmons)
    Ireland-born Eileen Katō (1932-2008) generously shared her poetic sensibility, deep erudition, and cosmopolitan experience in the cause of English wordsmithing in Japan. She translated noh plays and waka poetry, as well as two works by Shiba Ryōtarō; acted as an advisor in the Imperial Household Agency; and was a friend of many SWET members.