Ep. 34 - Translating Finnegans Wake into Japanese (w/ Kenji Hayakawa)

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Kelly and Dermot are joined by translator Kenji Hayakawa to discuss the gargantuan task of translating Finnegans Wake into Japanese.  We discuss Naoki Yanase's translation of Joyce's classic novel into Japanese, creating special software Japanese characters to tackle Joyce's various coinages, why Japanese is an ideal language in which to read Finnegans Wake, why only translators truly understand Finnegans Wake, the sadism of Finnegans Wake, the influence of Harriet Shaw Weaver, and how Finnegans Wake is the antidote to book club hierarchies.

No need to speak Japanese or have read Finnegans Wake!

July 2020 Update

Thus spake Kenji: “In this podcast, I mistakenly claimed that 50% of the kanji in Yanase' translation were invented by Yanase himself. This was an error. In fact, Yanase only invented two characters. 50% of the characters are obsolete, not invented, including the 'ya' that we discuss, which is found in an old transcript of the lotus sutras.”

Kelly and Dermot are joined by translator Kenji Hayakawa to discuss the gargantuan task of translating Finnegans Wake into Japanese.

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Further Reading

For more information on Yanase's Japanese translation of Finnegans Wake: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13844245._Yanase_Naoki 

Music

Noir by S Strong (https://soundcloud.com/stelios_strong) & Boogie Belgique (https://soundcloud.com/boogiebelgique) is licensed under a Creative Commons licen...



“riverrun" paragraph in English

“riverrun" paragraph in English

Kanji literally meaning "river run" but

Kanji literally meaning "river run" but sounding like the Japanese word for "war”

English thunder word in context

English thunder word in context

Japanese thunder word in context

Japanese thunder word in context

Kelly with the thunder word at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin

Kelly with the thunder word at the James Joyce Centre in Dublin

Japanese translation of "The word is my wife" in context

Japanese translation of "The word is my wife" in context

Translation process of "the word is my wife”

Translation process of "the word is my wife”

Kanji translation process; "wife" becomes "life wife”

Kanji translation process; "wife" becomes "life wife”

“But the duvlin sulph..." paragraph in Japanese

“But the duvlin sulph..." paragraph in Japanese

A paragraph discussed by Dermot and Kelly around 41:24

A paragraph discussed by Dermot and Kelly around 41:24

“Ingen Mingen has to hear" in Japanese

“Ingen Mingen has to hear" in Japanese

More of Yanase's translation notes

More of Yanase's translation notes

An excerpt of "All River Names" that appears in Book 1, Chapter 8

An excerpt of "All River Names" that appears in Book 1, Chapter 8

The Word Editor UI is the interface of the software which Yanase was using at the time, which is an OASYS 30 AX word processor.

The Word Editor UI is the interface of the software which Yanase was using at the time, which is an OASYS 30 AX word processor.

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Ep. 35 - The Hundredheaded Rabble

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Ep. 33 - Nuncle Richie