“IF IT WAS, IN YAPPANOISE LANGUAGE, ACH BAD CLAP?” (FW 90.27-28) JAMES JOYCE AND JAPANESE TRANSLATIONS

JAMES JOYCE E AS TRADUÇÕES JAPONESAS: “IF IT WAS, IN YAPPANOISE LANGUAGE, ACH BAD CLAP?” (FW 90.27-28)

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the history of Japanese translations of works of James Joyce. As a result of the intense westernization since the mid-nineteenth century, numerous masterpieces of European literature have been translated into Japanese. In the process of resistance against the Great Powers, Japanese people have had a great sympathy with Ireland struggling to be independent from the British Empire and become interested in the Irish Literary Revival. The Japanese finally found James Joyce. Many Japanese have challenged themselves to translate his profound works into Japanese as the results of their sincere studies. The chronology of Japanese translations of Joyce’s works clearly indicates how many Japanese have earnestly endeavored to understand his works. It is also noted that Joyce knew some Japanese translations, especially concerning Ulysses, which stimulated his interest in the Japanese language enough to describe his learning outcome with English translations in Finnegans Wake.

Keywords
James Joyce; Japan; Japanese Translations; Ulysses ; Finnegans Wake

Resumo

Este artigo tem como objetivo explorar a história das traduções japonesas das obras de James Joyce. Como resultado da intensa ocidentalização desde meados do século XIX, inúmeras obras-primas da literatura europeia foram traduzidas para o japonês. No processo de resistência contra as Grandes Potências, os japoneses simpatizaram muito com a luta da Irlanda para se tornar independente do Império Britânico e se interessaram pelo Renascimento Literário Irlandês. Os japoneses finalmente encontraram James Joyce. Muitos japoneses aceitaram o desafio de traduzir as profundas obras joyceanas para o japonês como resultado de seus estudos. A cronologia das traduções japonesas das obras de Joyce evidencia quantos japoneses se esforçaram seriamente para entendê-las. Nota-se também que Joyce conhecia algumas traduções para o japonês, principalmente do Ulysses, o que estimulou seu interesse pela língua japonesa o suficiente para descrever seu resultado de aprendizagem com traduções para o inglês em Finnegans Wake.

Palavras-chave
James Joyce; Japão; Traduções Japonesas; Ulysses ; Finnegans Wake

Introduction

Japan has maintained a great reservoir of translation from European languages into Japanese in all fields as the outgrowth of the intense westernization since the mid-nineteenth century. Most masterpieces of European literature have been translated into Japanese one by one since late 1870s. This paper aims to explore the history of Japanese translations of works of James Joyce.

The James Joyce Society of Japan was established in 1989 by the late Shigeo Shimizu. The first president was the late Masayoshi Osawa whose obituary by Vivien Igoe appeared on James Joyce Broadsheet, no. 117 (October 2020). The Japanese society holds an annual conference around Bloomsday and publishes an annual journal called Joycean Japan in time for the conference. They also publish two newsletters a year. The society has over 100 members.

The Rag, also known as Abiko Quarterly or Abiko Annual, was published by Abiko Literary Press (ALP) in Abiko, Chiba, Japan between 1989-2008. It was edited by Laurel Sicks and Tatsuo Hamada. This Japanese cross-cultural periodical gained worldwide fame, thanks to numerous contributors around the world including many world-famous Joycean scholars. The last several issues featured Hamada’s Japanese translation of Finnegans Wake.

1. Westernization of Japan and the Irish Literary Revival

Japan is a Far-East island country with 73% mountains. Japan was known as “Sipangu” or an “El Dorado” as described in The Travels of Marco Polo. It was in 1543 that a ship carrying over 100 passengers, including three Portuguese traders, sailed from Siam (present Thailand) to China, but due to a storm, it was carried to a southern island of Japan called Tanegashima during the Warring States period. The local lord purchased two arquebuses (muskets) from the Portuguese men for a ridiculously high price. He immediately ordered his retainers to learn the manufacturing technique and started making it themselves, that is, “trans-weapon” into Japanese. This weapon greatly changed Japanese tactics until the unification of Japan in 1590 and was also used for the Japanese invasion of Korea (1592-1598). On July 3, 1549, Francisco Xavier, co-founder of the Society of Jesus, landed in Kagoshima, suzerain of Tanegashima, to be engaged in missionary activities as James Joyce wrote in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (p. 101). Xavier was warmly welcomed by local Buddhist monks because his Japanese acolyte Anjiro translated the word Deus into Dainichi meaning Vairocana Buddha in Japanese. Later, finding out the truth that the translation was inappropriate, the monks severely criticized the Christian missionaries. Even after Xavier’s death in Sancian Island, China in 1552, the society continued missionary activities, and decades later Franciscans and Dominicans also started their missions in Japan. Japanese lords first supported Christian activities anticipating economic benefits from trade. Some lords even converted to Christianity.

However, apprehending the European ambition of colonialism following the Age of Great Navigations, Japan closed its doors to the world in 1639 except to the Netherlands, Korea and China. In 1852, the 13th American President Millard Fillmore sent Matthew Calbraith Perry, in command of the East India Squadron with the most advanced warships at that time, to Japan to force the opening of Japanese ports to American trade. In 1854, the Japan-US Amity Treaty was signed. The Japanese government knew about the Western colonialization in China after the First Opium War, realizing the huge gap between Japan and the Great Powers, notably in military strength. In 1858, the government signed the Ansei Treaties with five countries, the United States, the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom and France. The conditions were literally unequal because Japan could not have tariff autonomy while those countries gained extraterritoriality in Japan. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the new Japanese government, under Emperor Mutsuhito, enthusiastically promoted modernization or westernization to oppose a resistance to Western colonialism and abolish the unequal treaties. The Japanese government carried out the policy of increasing wealth and military power. Winning the victory of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Japan finally succeeded to abolish all the unequal treaties with fifteen countries by 1895.

The introduction of Irish literature to Japan greatly owed to Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), Irish-Greek journalist, translator and professor who introduced the culture and literature of Japan to the West with his numerous books on Japan. Hearn married a Japanese woman, Setsu Koizumi, became naturalized as Japanese and named himself Yakumo Koizumi. He was a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University from 1896 to 1903. He lectured about Irish folktales featuring fairies, referring to William Butler Yeats, while he earnestly collected Japanese folktales and oral literature and translated some of them into English. Hearn corresponded with Yeats several times.

Since the 1880s, Japanese media paid much attention to the political situation of Ireland, particularly to the Irish Home Rule movement. Why were Japanese people interested in Irish literature? It was related to the situation of Japan, the rise of Japanese imperialism to confront the Great Powers. Japanese men of letters ardently compared Japan with Ireland. Japanese people seem to have superimposed the circumstances of Japan and that of Ireland. The number of Japanese translations of Irish literature, especially Irish dramas, rapidly increased from c. 1912 (Suzuki, 2014, p. 25). The Japanese were particularly interested in the Irish Literary Revival.

Kwan Kikuchi wrote an essay “Singu to Airulando Shiso” (“Synge and the Thought of Ireland”) in which he mentioned Lafcadio Hearn. Kikuchi believed that Prof. Hearn was a sympathizer of the Japanese culture because he was a Celtic. He continued:

Among European countries, the most similar country to Japan is, I would say without hesitation, Ireland. Some Japanese think that England is totally the same as Ireland. However, England and Ireland are different in race, history, tradition, and all other aspects. In every case, English literature and Irish literature are as different as pea and pearl.

(“Singu to Airulando Shiso” Shicho, 1917, p.12)

Kikuchi compared Tokyo to London, and Kyoto to Dublin. His play “Okujo no Kyojin” (“The Housetop Madman”, 1916) was translated into English by Glenn Shaw, and performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin between November 28-29, 1926 by Dublin Drama League Production according to the article “‘The Dance of Death’ Dublin Drama League Production,” The Irish Times, November 29, 1926, p. 6.¹ Yeats highly evaluated it. He was looking for some modern Japanese plays to perform at the Abbey Theatre because he thought that Asian art could give new life to his own art (Suzuki, 2014, p. 220). Yeats first met Yone Noguchi in 1903, Ezra Pound in 1909, and read Ernest Fenollosa’s manuscripts of Japanese Noh plays: Later it was published in book form: Noh or Accomplishment: A Study of the Classical Stage of Japan (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1917). Joyce owned the book in his Trieste library (Gillespie, 1986, p. 95). Yeats probably thought after the “Playboy Riots” in January 1907 that, as he wrote At the Hawk’s Well, it might be better to describe the Irish myths implying some elements of the Japanese Noh plays than to report directly the truths of Ireland and the struggles between Ireland and the British Empire. Joseph Lennon points out in Irish Orientalism that borrowing from the East brought partial solutions to the strained relationship between the colony and the suzerain (Lennon, 2004, p. 283).

Many leading Japanese men of letters such as Kwan Kikuchi, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Yaso Saijo and Sei Ito, were fascinated and influenced by Irish literature when they were young around the 1920s. Throughout their lifetime, they kept their interest in Irish literature finding their own styles in creation. Thus, Japan was ready to receive James Joyce as an Irish novelist.

2. The Introduction of James Joyce and Ulysses: Joyce Fever

James Joyce was first introduced in Japan in a literary magazine Gakuto (March 1918 issue). Yone Noguchi wrote the article on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man at the request of Harriet Shaw Weaver. In December 1922, the first introductory article “James Joyce: Ulysses” by Mirai Sugita (pen name of Matsuo Takagaki, professor of American literature, Rikkyo University, 1890-1940) appeared in another authoritative magazine Eigo-Seinen, December 15, 1922 issue. The Japanese immediately recognized the value of Ulysses.

In 1925, Daigaku Horiguchi wrote an article titled “Shosetsu no Shin-Keishiki toshiteno ‘Naiteki-Dokuhaku’” (“‘Interior Monologue’ as a New Novel Form”), mentioning that the narrative style of Ulysses was influenced by Edouard Dujardin’s Les Lauriers sont coupes (Shincho literary magazine, August 1925 issue). Horiguchi seems to have written his article without directly reading Ulysses.

The first Japanese influential academic introduction to Ulysses was made by Prof. Kochi Doi, Tohoku Imperial University. Doi was said to have known Ulysses in 1922 when he stayed in Boston, but it was in 1923 at James Thin’s Bookstore, Edinburgh that he purchased a first Egoist Press edition (1922) with 3 and half Pounds Sterling.² Soon after returning to Japan in 1924, Doi started to lecture on the frontiers of modern literature featuring Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses at Tohoku Imperial University. It took nearly five years for him to publish an article, “Joyce’s Ulysses” in the Kaizo magazine, February 1929 issue. Doi analyzed the basic structure of Ulysses and emphasized its relationship with A Portrait. Doi referred to Herbert Gorman’s biography and wrote that the Jesuit education Joyce undertook in Ireland made him a man of letters wearing a garment of parodies (Doi, 1977, p. 303-4).

Doi comprehensively read most reviews and articles on Ulysses which are later included in Robert H. Deming’s James Joyce: The Critical Heritage (1970). Doi summarized the trend of early European reviews on Ulysses: “Most reviewers point out or are surprised at its novelty, originality and adventurousness, or connect it to Freud, Einstein, Bergson, or compare it with Pascal, Rabelais and Shakespeare, or only call it as Sensual Impressionism, Literary Futurism, Bolshevism and Psychoanalysis” (Doi, 1977, p. 310). Doi could not find any European reviewer who had read Ulysses precisely (Doi, 1977, p. 310). The most impressive parts of Doi’s article are the long quotations from Ulysses, translated by himself. He used parentheses to express Joyce’s interior monologue for the first time in Japan. His translation is very accurate, including some passages from “Penelope.”

Doi’s article stimulated many ambitious Japanese novelists. Junichiro Tanizaki’s lesbian novel “Manji” (1928) employed a female narrator using a Joycean interior monologue.³ The stream of consciousness became popular among other ambitious novelists through Joyce›s works. Sei Ito published a Joycean short story, “Kanjo-Saibo no Danmen” [“Section of Emotional Cells”] (1930), Riichi Yokomitsu, “Kikai” [“Machine”] (1930), Tatsuo Hori, “Sei Kazoku” [“The Holy Family”] (1930) and Yasunari Kawabata’s “Suisho-Genso” [“Crystal Illusion”] (1931). Sei Ito also wrote an influential article “Shin-Shinri-shugi Bungaku” [“New Psychological Literature”] (1932). Numerous Japanese began to argue Ulysses, sometimes comparing it with works by other writers such as Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf.

Two groups started to translate Ulysses into Japanese around 1930. One half of the first Japanese translation by three ambitious young men in twenties, Sei Ito, Sadamu Nagamatsu and Hisanori Tsuji, was published by Daiichi-Shobo, Tokyo in 1931. The first Japanese translation was probably the third Ulysses translation in the world after the German translation (1927) and the French translation (1929). Surprisingly, Japanese people could enjoy reading Ulysses in Japanese, although with many deleted parts, before it was legally published in Great Britain and America.

Joyce once complained to Stanislaus Joyce in 1919 that “Here and there passages [of Ulysses] have been cut, ruining my text. They will however be put back when the book is published. It will be printed, I expect, in Japan” (Joyce, [Letters II], 1966, p. 451-42). In fact, however, early Japanese translators or publishers purposely deleted or omitted many obscene sentences particularly from “Circe” and “Penelope” in their editions in order to avoid censorship before World War II. The other half of the first translation was banned on “imaginary descriptions of a middle-aged woman’s sexual desire” only five days after the publication in 1934. Contrastingly, the second translation, with many deleted parts, but more accurate than the first one, successfully passed censorship. It was translated by the team of six well-experienced professors, Sohei Morita, Nahara Hirosaburo, Naotaro Tatsuguchi, Takehito Ono, Ichiro Ando and Eitaro Murayama. The two translating groups could publish each “complete” version after World War II.

By August 1931, Joyce was informed that two different Japanese translations were to be published without asking his permission. There are several letters about that.⁴ Joyce even claimed that “20,000 copies of U in Japanese sold in Japan in 6 months” (18 October 1933, Letters III 287). After all, Joyce could not do anything about that, but received only 200 yen (circa £10) as his copyright from the Japanese publishers.⁵ The popularity of Ulysses in Japan greatly owed to its obscenity, despite its encyclopedic bottomless profoundness. However, the Joyce fever suddenly abated in the mid 1930s due to a series of wars against China, America and their allied countries.

Carola Giedion-Welcker remembers an interesting anecdote about the Japanese translations in her essay “Meeting with Joyce”:

When the Japanese edition of Ulysses appeared in 1932, he showed it to me with special interest. He believed that, because the Japanese mentality was used to an indirect and fragmentary symbol language and also because their form of poetic expression was close to his, they were well prepared for his way of thinking and writing. A Japanese poem which he recited to me in English translation showed the different “‘I’s,” which changed according to the situation. (1979, p. 266)

Joyce’s list of multiple Japanese “I” can be seen in James Joyce Archive 31:233. His list appears as part of Yawn’s speech: “Washywatchywataywatashy! Oirasesheorebukujibun! Watachooshy lot!” (FW 484.25-26). Yawn himself was surprised to know how many “I”s the Japanese language has: “Watachooshy lot!” (so many Japanese “I”s!), and thought, “Mind of poison is” (FW 484.27) which is a literally English translation of the Japanese phrase “Ki-no-doku desu” (I feel sorry [for that]).”

After World War II, the Japanese started enjoying English literature again. New translations of Ulysses and other works of Joyce have appeared one after another. Joyce became one of the most popular writers for English-major students in Japan. A huge number of academic articles and books on Ulysses and other works of Joyce have been published one after another.

The seventh translation by Saiichi Maruya, Reiji Nagakawa and Yuichi Takamatsu was published by Kawade-Shobo, Tokyo in 1964. It was more elaborate than the past six translations. The eighth one, a revised edition of the seventh one with detailed notes by Prof. Hideo Yuki, was published in 1996-1997. Its paperback edition with corrections was released in late 2003. Now most Japanese Joycean readers have the eighth Japanese translation at hand, although Naoki Yanase’s unfinished, posthumous translation is much more conscientious.

Chronology of Japanese Translation of Ulysses

1931-1934: The first full Japanese translation of Ulysses (2 vols) by Sei Ito, Sadamu Nagamatsu and Hisanori Tsuji, was published by Daiichi-Shobo, Tokyo.

1932-1935: The second translation (5 vols) by Sohei Morita, Nahara Hirosaburo, Naotaro Tatsuguchi, Takehito Ono, Ichiro Ando and Eitaro Murayama. Published by Iwanami-Shoten, Tokyo.

1938: The third translation (abridged: one volume) by Sei Ito was published by Kawade-Shobo, Tokyo.

1952: The fourth translation (3 vols) by Sohei Morita, Nahara Hirosaburo, Naotaro Tatsuguchi, Takehito Ono, Ichiro Ando and Eitaro Murayama, was published by Mikasa-Shobo, Tokyo. ^*It is a “complete” version of the second translation without any deletion.

1955: The fifth translation (2 vols) by Sei Ito and Sadamu Nagamatsu was published by Shinchosha, Tokyo. *It is a “complete” version of the first translation.

1963: The sixth translation (2 vols): a revised and corrected version of the fifth one, by Sei Ito and Sadamu Nagamatsu, was published by Shinchosha, Tokyo.

1964: The seventh translation (2 vols) by Saiichi Maruya, Reiji Nagakawa and Yuichi Takamatsu was published by Kawade-Shobo, Tokyo.

1996-1997: The eighth translation (a revised version of the seventh one with detailed notes by Prof. Hideo Yuki) (3 vols) by Saiichi Maruya, Reiji Nagakawa and Yuichi Takamatsu was published by Shueisha, Tokyo. *Its paperback edition with corrections (4 vols) was released by Shueisha, Tokyo in late 2003.

So far, five partial translations have been brought out: Ulysses 15.1296-1991, translated by Chizuko Inoue (1987); Ulysses Episode 14 by Yoshihiko Ogawa (1993); Ulysses Episodes 1-8 by Takao Nakabayashi (1997); Ulysses Episodes 1-12 by Naoki Yanase (2016) [*Episode 12 was originally published in 1996, Episodes 1-3 and 4-6 in 1997]; A Voyage for Reading “Ulysses” (posthumous fragmental translations from Episodes 13-18) by Naoki Yanase (2017).

3. Japanese Translations of Joyce’s Other Works

The history of Japanese translations of Joyce’s works started in 1926 when Haruo Sato, a modern Japanese poet, published his translation of “Golden Hair” from Chamber Music in his poetry collection, without legal permission from Joyce presumably because Sato did not know that Japan had signed the Berne Convention in 1899. Later the translation was deleted in the paperback edition.

Chika Sagawa (1911-1936), a Japanese avant-garde poet and translator, published the complete translation of Chamber Music in 1932. As a poet, she was influenced by modernism, particularly surrealism, and liked to use metaphors of decline, diseases and death while she disliked to describe femininity and her real life. As a translator, she published some works of Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, Molnár Ferenc and Sherwood Anderson. Tragically, however, she died of stomach cancer in January 1936, aged 24.

Chronology of Japanese Translations of Poems of James Joyce

1926: Sato, Haruo. “Kimbatsu no Hito yo” (“Golden Hair” from Chamber Music). In Sato Haruo Shishu (A Poetry Collection of Haruo Sato). Tokyo: Daiichi-Shobo.

1931: Sagawa, Chika. Shitsugaku (Chamber Music) Part I and Part II. First appeared in the literary magazine Shi to Shiron (Poetry and Essays on Poetry), etc. It was published in one booklet Shitsugaku by Shiinokisha, Tokyo in 1932.

1933: Kitamura, Chiaki. Ippen Ihhen zutsu no Shishu (Pomes Penyeach). Tokyo: Shiinokisha.

1933: Nishiwaki, Junzaburo. Joisu Shishu (A Poetry Collection of Joyce). Tokyo: Daiichi-Shobo. Including Chamber Music, Pomes Penyeach and an abridged translation of the Anna Livia chapter of Finnegans Wake (see below)

1937: Hamana, Yoshiharu. Shitsunaigaku (Chamber Music) in Yaku-Shishu Bohemia-ka (Translated Poetry Collection of Bohemian Songs). Tokyo: Shoshinsha.

1959: Fukuda, Rikutaro. Shitsunaigaku and Ikko Ichi-penii no Ringo (Pomes Penyeach) in Sekai Meishi Shutaisei (World Great Poetry Collection Vol 10 UK II). Tokyo: Heibonsha.

1966: Sawasaki, Junnosuke. Shitsunaigaku, Ikko Ichi-penii no Ringo and “Ecce Puer.” In Chikuma Sekai Bungaku Taikei [Chikuma World Literary System] vol. 67 Joyce I. Tokyo: Chikuma-Shobo.

1972: Deguchi, Yasuo. Shistsunaigaku (Chamber Music) [including Pomes Penyeach]. Tokyo: Hakuohsha.

Chronology of Japanese Translations of Dubliners

1928: Nishikawa, Hikaru. “Araby” in Sosaku Monthly.

1928: Adachi, Zuiho. “The Boarding House” in Bungei Kenkyu [Literary Studies].

1929: Sasaki, Tatsu. “The Boarding House” in Eigo to Eibungaku [English and English Literature], January-February 1929].

1929: Nagamatsu, Sadamu. “Clay” and “Eveline” in Fusha

1930: Ando, Ichiro. “The Dead” in M.E.L. Sosho. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.

1932: Nagamatsu, Sadamu. Joisu Tampenshu [Short Stories of James Joyce]. Tokyo: Kinseido.

1933: Nagamatsu, Sadamu. Dabulin no Hitobito. Tokyo: Kinseido. ^*The first complete translation.

1940-1941: Ando, Ichiro. Dabulin Shiseigoto. Tokyo: Kobunsha.

1952: Ando, Ichiro. Dabulin Shimin. Tokyo: Kawade-Shobo. ^*It was republished by Kodansha, Tokyo in 1969, and Shinchosha, Tokyo in 1971.

1955: Iijima, Yoshihide. Dabulin-jin. Tokyo: Mikasa-Shobo. ^*The paperback edition was published by Kadokawa-Shoten, Tokyo in 1958.

1972: Takamatsu, Yuichi. Dabulin no Shimin. Tokyo: Chuokoronsha.

1976: Toda, Motoi. Dabulin no Hitobito. Tokyo: Chikuma-Shobo.

2004: Yuki, Hideo. Dabulin no Shimin. Tokyo: Iwanami-Shoten.

2008: Yonemoto, Yoshitaka. Dabulin no Hitobito. Tokyo: Chikuma-Shobo.

2009: Yanase, Naoki. Dubliners. Tokyo: Shinchosha. ^*There are many other partial translations of Dubliners by numerous researchers/translators.

Chronology of Japanese Translations of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

1930: Nagamatsu, Sadamu. “Umi no Hotori ni” (“By the Sea”). In Shin-Kagakuteki [New Scientific], edited by Yoishi Nakagawa. September 1930. ^*A partial translation.

1930: Ito, Sei. “Joisu-sho” (“Joyce Abridged”) in Gendai Eibungaku Hyoron (Modern English Literature Criticism). ^*A partial translation.

1931: Ito, Sei. “Young Stephen Dedalus” in Shin Bungaku Kenkyu [New Literature Studies], No. 1 (January 1931). ^*A partial translation.

1932: Nawa, Rentaro. “A Portrait of Young Artist” in Shin Bungaku Kenkyu, Nos. 1-5 (January-May 1932). *A partial translation.

1932: Ono, Matsuji & Tomio Yokobori. Wakaki Hi no Geijutsuka no Jigazo. Tokyo: Sogensha. *The first complete translation.

1937: Nahara, Hirosaburo. Wakaki Hi no Geijutsuka no Jigazo. Tokyo: Iwanami-Shoten.

1955: Iijima, Yoshihide. Wakaki Hi no Geijutsuka no Shozo. Tokyo: Mikasa-Shobo. The paperback edition was published by Kadokawa-Shoten, Tokyo in 1957.

1956: Nakahashi, Kazuo. Wakaki Hi no Geijutsuka no Shozo. Tokyo: Kawade-Shobo.

1960: Ebiike, Shunji. Wakaki Hi no Geijutsuka no Shozo. Tokyo: Chikuma-Shobo. It was republished in a different book by the same publisher in 1967.

1969: Maruya, Saiichi. Wakai Geijutsuka no Shozo. Tokyo: Kodansha. The paperback edition was published by Shinchosha, Tokyo in 1994.

1972: Nagakawa, Reiji. Wakai Geijutsuka no Shozo. Tokyo: Chuokoronsha.

2007: Osawa, Masayoshi. Wakai Geijutsuka no Shozo. Tokyo: Iwanami-Shoten.

2009:Wakai Geijutsuka no Shozo. By Saiichi Maruya. Tokyo: Shueisha. ^*The revised translation of the 1969 edition. The paperback edition was published by Shueisha, Tokyo in 2014. ^*Two complete Japanese translations of Stephen Hero are available, by Hiroshi Ebine (1998) and Kazuo Nagahara (2014).

Chronology of the Japanese Translations of Finnegans Wake

1933: Nishiwaki, Junzaburo. Anna Livia Plurabelle (FW 196.01-19 & FW 213.11-216.05) in Joyce Shishu (The Poetical Works of James Joyce). Tokyo: Daiichi-Shobo. ^*Nishiwaki translated it with the guide of C. K. Ogden’s “Basic English” translation.

1966: Osawa, Masayoshi, Shigeru Koike, Junnosuke Sawasaki & Motoi Toda. “Shem the Penman” (FW 169.01-170.24) with detailed notes in Kikan Sekai-Bungaku (World Literature Quarterly, No.2, Winter 1966). Tokyo: Toyamabo.

1968: Osawa, Masayoshi & Junnosuke Sawasaki. FW I.8 (FW 206.29-207.20), III.1 (FW 418.10-419.08) & IV (FW 627.34-628.16) with detailed notes in Shueisha’s “Gendai Shishuu” (“Collection of Modern Poems”) of Sekai Bungaku Zenshuu 35 (The Selected Works of World Literature, vol. 35). Tokyo: Shueisha.

1970-1972: Osawa, Masayoshi, Kyoko Ono, Shigeru Koike, Junnosuke Sawasaki, Kenzo Suzuki & Motoi Toda. Anna Livia Plurabelle I -VII (FW 196.01-208.05) with detailed notes serialized in Kikan Pædeia (Pædeia Quarterly, nos.7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 & 15). Tokyo: Takeuchi-Shoten.

1969-1974: Suzuki, Yukio, Ryo Nonaka, Koichi Konno, Kayo Fujii, Tazuko Nagasawa & Naoki Yanase. FW I.1-3, Finnegan Tetsuyasai sono-1 (Finnegans Wake 1) (FW 003-074). Tokyo: Tokyodo-shuppan, 1971. *Part of the translation serialized in Waseda Bungaku (Waseda Literature) from Feb. 1969 to Dec.1974.

1978: Osawa, Masayoshi, Kyoko Ono, Shigeru Koike, Junnosuke Sawasaki, Kenzo Suzuki & Motoi Toda. 5 fragmental translations of FW (FW 169.01-170.24, FW 206.29-207.20, FW 418.10-419.08, FW 593.01-18 & FW 627.34-628.16) with detailed notes in Sekai no Bungaku (World Literature) vol.1. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1978. Recollected in Chikuma Sekai Bungaku-taikei (Chikuma Institution of World Literature) 68: Joyce II / O›Brien. Tokyo: Chikuma-Shobo,1998.

1998: ---. Anna Livia Plurabelle (FW 196-216) in Bungei-zasshi Umi (Literary Magazine Umi) (Dec.1982). With some of Joyce’s related letters. Recollected in Chikuma Sekai Bungaku-taikei (Chikuma Institution of World Literature) 68: Joyce II /O’Brien (Tokyo: Chikuma-Shobo, 1998).

1991-1993: Yanase, Naoki. Finnegans Wake I-II. Tokyo: Kawade-Shobo-Shinsha, 1991. ---. Finnegans Wake III-IV. Tokyo: Kawade-Shobo-Shinsha, 1993. ^*The paperback edition (3 vols) was published by Kawade-Shobo-Shinsha in 2004.

2002: Hamada, Tatsuo. Finnegans Wake 619-628: Book IV, ALP’s final monologue. The Abiko Annual, no. 22.

2003: Hamada, Tatsuo. Finnegans Wake 196-216: the ALP chapter, Book I, Chapter 8. The Abiko Annual, no. 23.

2004: Hamada, Tatsuo. Finnegans Wake 196-216: the ALP chapter, Book I, Chapter 8. The Abiko Annual, no. 24. ^*Revised translation.

2004: Miyata, Kyoko. An Abridged Translation of Finnegans Wake. Tokyo: Shueisha. An abridged translation with detailed notes (628 pages); about half-length of the original text.

2006: Hamada, Tatsuo. Finnegans Wake 3-29 & 169-195: Book I, Chapters 1 & 7. The Abiko Annual, no. 25.

2007: Hamada, Tatsuo. Finnegans Wake 104-168: Book I, Chapters 5-6. The Abiko Annual, no. 26.

2008: Hamada, Tatsuo. Finnegans Wake 30-103 & 593-619: Book I, Chapters 2-4; Book IV. The Abiko Annual, no. 27.

2009: Hamada, Tatsuo. Finnegans Wake, Book I & Book IV; 3-216 & 593-628. Kashiwa, Chiba: Abiko Literary Press (ALP). *The above translation from The Abiko Annual, nos. 22-27 in one book.

2018: Okuda, Ryoji. Reading the Prologue of “Finnegans Wake” (^* a translation of the first 41 lines (FW 3.1-4.13) with detailed notes). Tokyo: Shunpusha.

2011: -ongoing Oshima, Yukio. Finnegans Wake Book I, Chapters 1-4; Book III and Book IV. Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology Institutional Repository (TUMSAT-OACIS), vols. 7-18.

In addition, there are three Japanese translations of Exiles: By Ryozo Iwasaki (1954), Yushi Odashima (1976) and Kojin Kondo (1991). The Cat and the Devil and Giacomo Joyce were translated by Saiichi Maruya (1976/1978). Also, critical writings of James Joyce were translated by numerous scholars one by one until Shin Kikkawa published Jeimuzu Joisu Zen-Hyoron (The Complete Critical Writings of James Joyce, 2012) including 61 pieces.

Furthermore, Herbert Gorman’s biography was translated into Japanese by Sadamu Nagamatsu in 1932. Richard Ellmann’s biography was also translated by Kyoko Miyata in 1996 as well as John Stanislaus Joyce’s My Brother’s Keeper (1993) and John McCourt’s Years of Bloom (2017). Miyata even translated Jane Lidderdale and Mary Nicholson’s Dear Miss Weaver (2020) while she wrote numerous books on Joyce from biographical perspectives.

Conclusion

As we have seen, Japan has produced numerous different translations of works of James Joyce. This demonstrates how the Japanese have been interested in James Joyce for many years and how many ambitious readers have been trying to interpret Joyce’s difficult texts.

In Finnegans Wake, Joyce’s insertion of Japanese words and phrases are sometimes accompanied with his English translation: “For he could ciappacioppachew upon a skarp snakk of pure undefallen engelsk, melanmoon or tartatortoise, tsukisaki or soppisuppon, as raskly and as baskly as your cheesechalk cow cudd spanich” (FW 233.32-35; first appeared at the stage of the Pages from The Mime, with additions; 47477-163v; JJA 51: 230). Here Joyce translated the Japanese saying “Tsuki to Suppon,” literally “moon and soft-shelled turtle/tortoise” meaning “as different as chalk from cheese.” Another example is in the dialogue between the Japanese St. Patrick and the Chinese Archdruid in Book IV: “you pore shiroskuro blackinwhitepaddynger” (FW 612.18; “shiroskuro” inserted in the phrase of “you poreblackinwhitepaddynger” at the stage of the Retyped pages of extradraft material (47488-109; JJA 63: 177). In Japanese “shiro” means white, and “kuro” means black. Joyce seems to have left the English translation of the Japanese words or the Japanese translation of the English words in the text as proof of his study or a linguistic help for readers.

The works of James Joyce and the Japanese translations had been mutually affected. A large crop of new Japanese translations on Joyce’s masterpieces will appear as long as the Japanese maintain their interests in and continue to study Joyce. Hundreds of articles and books related to Joyce have been published by hundreds of authors and researchers so far. Despite the global tendency of the decline of humanities including literature, Joyce, especially Ulysses, has been fascinating Japanese people for over one hundred years.

• 1
  Cf. “A Dramatist of Japan,” The Morning Post, Wednesday, March 31, 1926 (Suzuki, 2014, p. 218-19).
• 2
  The list price was £2 2s (Kawaguchi, 2005, p. 60).
• 3
  The interior monologue itself was already lectured in the English Department of Tokyo Imperial University since c. 1900 when some English professors argued William James.
• 4
  Cf. Letters III 228, Letters III 246-47, Letters III 513, Letters I 320 and Letters III 287.
• 5
  To Harriet Shaw Weaver dated 6 September 1932 (Letters I, 325).
• *
  All English translations from the original Japanese texts were done by Eishiro Ito.

Referências

• Deming, Robert. H. (ed.). James Joyce: The Critical Heritage 2 vols. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970.
• Doi, Kochi. Doi Kochi Chosakushu (A Collection of Doi Kochi), Vol. 1. Tokyo: Iwanami-Shoten, 1977.
• Giedion-Welcker, Carola. “Meeting with Joyce.”. In: Willard Potts, (ed.). Portraits of the Artist in Exile San Diego: Harvest/HBJ, 1979, p. 256-80.
• Gillespie, Michael Patrick. James Joyce’s Trieste Library: A Catalogue Austin: U of Texas Press, 1986.
• Igoe, Vivien. “Masayoshi Osawa (1928-2020).” James Joyce Broadsheet, no. 117 (October 2020), p. 4.
• Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Hans Walter Gabler with Walter Hettche (eds.). New York: Vintage Books, 1993.
• Joyce, James. The James Joyce Archive [JJA]. 63 vols. General ed. Michael Groden. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1978.
• Joyce, James. Letters of James Joyce, Volume I [Letters I]. Ed. Stuart Gilbert. New York: The Viking Press, 1966.
• Joyce, James. Letters of James Joyce, Volumes II [Letters II] and III [Letters III]. Ed. Richard Ellmann. New York: The Viking Press, 1966.
• Joyce, James. Ulysses London: The Bodley Head, 1986.
• Kawaguchi, Kyoichi. Showa-Shonen no “Ulysses” (“Ulysses” in the Early Showa-Era). Tokyo: Misuzu-Shobo, 2005.
• Lennon, Joseph. Irish Orientalism: A Literary and Intellectual History Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2004.
• Paternel, Joan. “Laurel Sicks, ‘Rag’ Words, and James Joyce: Crossroads of East and West.” James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 34, No. 1/2, Joyce’s Women (Fall 1996-Winter 1997), p. 135-43.
• Suzuki, Akiyo. Ekkyo suru Sozoryoku: Nihon Kindai Bungaku to Ireland (Border-Jumping Imagination: Modern Japanese Literature and Ireland). Osaka: Osaka UP, 2014.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 Oct 2023
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  15 Sept 2022
• Accepted
  18 Nov 2022
• Published
  Dec 2022