September 26, 2007

SWET Newsletter, Number 117

Contents

 

 

 

• Translating from Japanese to English: Jumping Into the Pond, by Juliet Winters Carpenter
  Juliet Winters Carpenter, translator and professor of literature at Doshisha Women’s University, spoke to SWET Kansai members and others on May 20 in Osaka and headed a workshop-type discussion of points relating to translation of a passage handed out in advance to those attending. The following article is based on a transcript of the main lecture reflecting on five of Carpenter’s translations published in 2006.
• Bringing Japanese Literature to the West: The Knopf Translation Program, 1955-76, by Larry Walker
  Larry Walker is associate professor in the Faculty of Letters, Kyoto Prefectural University. He was recipient of the 2005-2006 Alfred A. and Blanche W. Knopf Research Fellowship to conduct research on the Knopf Program and translation of Japanese literature. This article, representing a portion of his findings to be compiled in a larger volume, was written for the SWET Newsletter.
• Wordsmith Extraordinaire: Remembering Edward G. Seidensticker
  As a tribute to eminent translator and professor of Japanese literature Edward G. Seidensticker, who passed away August 26, 2007, in Tokyo, Janine Beichman, Juliet Winters Carpenter, Michael Cooper, Rebecca Copeland, Aileen Gatten, Andrew Horvat, Donald Keene, Robert Morrell, Donald Richie, and Burton Watson write their remembrances. A selected bibliography of Seidensticker¹s writings about translation is included.
• SWET Events
  • Summer Garden in Old Musashino and Adam Kabat on Bakemono, by Owen Schaeffer
    The SWET Summer Garden Party 2007 was held July 21 in Musashi Sakai (Tokyo), in the spacious rooms and garden of a large 150-year old former farm recently made available for use by small groups. Adam Kabat, professor of early modern and modern Japanese literature at Musashi University in Tokyo, and the author of several books on the topic of Edo period bakemono such as Ōedo bakemono saiken (A Guide to Edo Monsters, 2000) and Edo bakemono zōshi (Edo Monster Stories, 1999), gave the audience a lively introduction to Japan’s rich culture of monsters, ghosts, goblins, shape-shifters, and apparitions.
• SWET Member News
  • Collaboration for Good Communication, by Eve Sander
    It started as a simple proofreading job for Eve Sander, but in the course of working with experienced writer/editor Narahara Junko, Sander was made co-author. Essential Business Expressions for E-mail and Telephone became one of the best-selling business English books at Kinokuniya.
• Threads on SWET-L
  • Context, Grammar, and New Nouns (Torkil Christensen)
    SWET-L maintains its brisk pace of SOS posts, thoughtful discussion, and J-E translation problem-solving, as readers learn something new every time they log in.
• Book Reviews
  • Thinking Like Your Editor, by Susan Rabinet and Alfred Fortunato (Ginny Tapley)
  • Effective Online Editing, by Geoff Hart (Kay Vreeland)