Translator Interview: Juliet Winters Carpenter

Juliet Winters Carpenter in Interview

Recently I had the great pleasure of both reading The Great Passage (Full Review coming soon to the Writers in Kyoto site) and also meeting and asking a few questions of the translator.

For anyone who somehow doesn't know, Juliet Winters Carpenter is a name you should know if you have any interest in Japanese literature in English. Her career has been long and full, as along with teaching at Doshisha Women's College, she has translated an absurd number of books. 

On a personal note, the first book I was ever hired to translate for a now defunct magazine was Mrs Carpenter's translation of Nonami Asa's The Hunter and I have always had a few books with her name on them on my bookshelves. 

As for The Great Passage specifically, it is the story of a group of people coming together to create a new dictionary and of the man Majime, who is chosen to lead the group after the older generation has to call it quits. It is an enjoyable read, with a unique look at love; love for friends, love for work and love for that special someone.

JL Carpenter was wonderful enough to share her opinions on the book she brought to an English audience.

What’s the story behind you being asked to translate The Great Passage?

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JWC: I was asked to translate a sample of The Great Passage by Moriyasu-san, an editor formerly at Kodansha international who worked for JLPP and Books in Japan. Of the several samples I did of various works Passage got picked up by AmazonCrossing.

2. Was there any consideration (such as publishers nervous for English readers' reaction) to removing all the Japanese and attempting to find some kind of matching words in English? Did you feel including the Japanese examples was important/more interesting?

The whole point of the book is the love affair with the Japanese language, so I don’t see how it would have worked with English examples. I loved The Professor and the Madman, about the making of the OED, and I saw this as a book in that mold. It’s a fascinating chance to peer into another language and feel it like a native speaker. Also, the readers can think for themselves of comparable conundrums and interesting bits in the English language.

3. One young reader in our group had a bit of a reaction to what he saw as the workaholic nature of much of the book (by the way, once he finished the ending he commented that he loved the book and that the story had come around perfectly). During your wonderful career, have you ever translated something memorable, that in Japanese worked perfectly, but in English couldn’t convey the same meaning or feeling?

Things that work in Japanese but not in English. Yes of course! A small example is the story of the bamboo cutter which forms a background to Kaguya’s part of the story. That’s why her restaurant is named “the back of the moon“ for example. This would all be evident to Japanese readers but goes over the heads of most English language readers, alas. On the other hand, sometimes the translation can do things the original cannot. After Majime meets Kaguya, he is lovestruck the next day at work. His coworker says, “what are you mooning about?” The word “mooning” connects the two scenes and ties in with the night before —the magical moon – whereas the Japanese was something ordinary like ぼんやりor ぼけっと. So it works both ways.

4. If I’m not mistaken, you started translating after the film had been released and won the Japanese Academy Award for best picture. Did you watch the film before translating the book, and do you have any feeling about taking advantage of a visual example of the characters, or avoiding being influenced by the director’s interpretation?
I watched the movie and was interested by the way it introduced the characters’ love of/obsession with language. Majime has a scene where he reels off multiple meanings of kiru , cut, and the subtitles fit in perfectly. I didn’t really use anything from the movie except the title, which was a wonderful gift.

5. Please feel free to share any future projects that people might want to check out, or (if you have any) social media plugs.

Other projects:
March 2019: Heritage Culture and Business, Kyoto Style: Craftsmanship and the Creative Economy. 
By Murayama Yuzo. Japan Library April 2019: 英語朗読で楽しむ日本文学: Gems of Japanese literature  
By Aotani Yuko and Juliet W. Carpenter. Alc

The above contains excerpts from Genji Pillow Book and Narrow Road of the Deep North; passages by Soseki, Dazai, Akutagawa, and Edogawa Ranpo; Miyazawa Kenji’s poem “Ame ni mo makezu”; a Yosano Akiko short story; and part of Gon the Fox. Comes with CD

Other projects include Hirano Keiichiro’s “After the Matinee” due out from AmazonCrossing next year and Minae Mizumura’s “Shishosetsu from Left to Right” (as yet untitled in English) due out from Columbia University Press next year; the final volume of Ryoma ga Yuku due out from Japan Documents eventually (2020?)

Also I will translate Hamada Shoji’s 無尽蔵 and possibly a book on Tokugawa culture by Haga Toru.

Beyond that no plans except I’d love to do more Soseki and more Enchi.

A final thanks again to Juliet Winters Carpenter for her time, in answering our questions, but more so for her years of work bringing Japan to those not able to read Japanese. We look forward to your work in the future.