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Japanske Folkeeventyr
Tag med på en rejse ind i Japans fortid, med de japanske folkeeventyr. Gamle mænd, der danser med dæmoner. Formskiftende mårhunde, der laver ballade. Smukke prinsesser fra en anden verden. Legender om mystiske munke, der belønner de gavmilde og straffer de griske. Kløgtige børn, der narrer indbildske voksne. Buddhaer, guder og magiske talismaner! Der er hundreder af fortællinger i den japanske kulturkanon med rødder tusind år tilbage, som stadig fortælles den dag i dag. Denne bog er den hidtil største samling af japanske folkeeventyr tilgængelig på dansk, og den belyser en del af den japanske kultur, som de færreste danskere hidtil har haft adgang til.
228 pages, Paperback
Published September 25, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 9, 2019
I absolutely love the fact that this is the biggest collection of Japanese fairytales in Danish so far. And I love the fairytales themselves. I'm a gigant fan of the video game Okami which draws heavily on Japanese myths and fairytales and it was supercool to finally read the stories that the characters from the game originate in.
It's the book I have issues with, hence the three stars.
It's marred by more than a few spelling and grammatical errors and considering that it was the second edition I read, there's really no excuse.
Then there's the language… The translator has no doubt done an admirable job rendering the stories into Danish and I thank him. But the text felt really bland. The tone and choice of words reminded me of other collectors of stories, especially Evald Tang Kristensen, so maybe the translator, doing a similar work, unconsciously slipped into that way of writing. But this means that, if you strip away the actual Japanese nouns, there's nothing really to distinguish the stories as being, well, Japanese. Change "oni" to "troll" and "rice" with "potatoes" and there are several stories that you could have told me were local legends from Studstrup.
The whole thing lacks poetry is what I'm getting at.
Lots of points for effort, not quite as many for the actual execution.
It's the book I have issues with, hence the three stars.
It's marred by more than a few spelling and grammatical errors and considering that it was the second edition I read, there's really no excuse.
Then there's the language… The translator has no doubt done an admirable job rendering the stories into Danish and I thank him. But the text felt really bland. The tone and choice of words reminded me of other collectors of stories, especially Evald Tang Kristensen, so maybe the translator, doing a similar work, unconsciously slipped into that way of writing. But this means that, if you strip away the actual Japanese nouns, there's nothing really to distinguish the stories as being, well, Japanese. Change "oni" to "troll" and "rice" with "potatoes" and there are several stories that you could have told me were local legends from Studstrup.
The whole thing lacks poetry is what I'm getting at.
Lots of points for effort, not quite as many for the actual execution.
September 5, 2021
En observation: Efter lange arbejdsdage er det godt for mit velbefindende at læse et par historier om fattige landsbyboer der møder Oni'er, Kami'er og Tannuki'er, før jeg lægger mig til at sove.
October 29, 2019
I read this book because a teacher at university used it as a source for telling about Japanese fairytales for a Japanese class, and I later used it as a resource for further studies of Japanese fairytales.
It does have one or two spelling/typing mistakes that I could find (third edition), but other than that, it is incredibly true to how stories are told in Japanese. Unlike one of the other reviews here, I actually quite liked the fact that the author didn't add any poetic structures to it, which aren't in the originals (he even talks about this in the foreword).
So apart from the fact that this is clearly a book published on a budget and the author probably couldn't afford a proofreader, I think it is great.
It adds nothing to make it more like a Danish fairytale (like rhymes) and it takes almost nothing away from it, other than things that would probably need footnotes. You just get the stories as they are actually told in Japanese, as well as can be retold in Danish.
The fact that he included the original titles of the stories was also very helpful for looking them up on my own afterwards in Japanese.
Highly recommendable if you want to read actual Japanese fairytales and not watered down versions of them or simply stories "inspired" by Japanese fairytales made to please the average Danish reader.
EDIT (Incoming rant from someone actually studying folktales)*
I just want to add that one of the defining features of folktales, which is what this is a collection of, is that the language is simple. So when someone criticizes it for a simple language, it shows a lack of understanding of folktales.
Also concerning the stories being interchangeable with Danish stories just by changing the nouns, it again is because they are folktales. Folktales are simple stories that follow certain structures and fall into certain categories, no matter where they are from.
So saying that you can make stories into Danish folktales by changing words like "rice" and "oni" with "potatoes" and "troll" shows that the whole point of the book has been missed.
Sorry for the ranting. It just really gets me annoyed that the book has been negatively critiqued for doing EXACTLY what a collection of folktales is supposed to do, in the EXACT style it is supposed to be done. There is no "unconscious" slipping into a way of writing in this book (if you ask me). Comparing this book to works of Evald Tang Kristensen is, in my opinion, a great honor.
It does have one or two spelling/typing mistakes that I could find (third edition), but other than that, it is incredibly true to how stories are told in Japanese. Unlike one of the other reviews here, I actually quite liked the fact that the author didn't add any poetic structures to it, which aren't in the originals (he even talks about this in the foreword).
So apart from the fact that this is clearly a book published on a budget and the author probably couldn't afford a proofreader, I think it is great.
It adds nothing to make it more like a Danish fairytale (like rhymes) and it takes almost nothing away from it, other than things that would probably need footnotes. You just get the stories as they are actually told in Japanese, as well as can be retold in Danish.
The fact that he included the original titles of the stories was also very helpful for looking them up on my own afterwards in Japanese.
Highly recommendable if you want to read actual Japanese fairytales and not watered down versions of them or simply stories "inspired" by Japanese fairytales made to please the average Danish reader.
EDIT (Incoming rant from someone actually studying folktales)*
I just want to add that one of the defining features of folktales, which is what this is a collection of, is that the language is simple. So when someone criticizes it for a simple language, it shows a lack of understanding of folktales.
Also concerning the stories being interchangeable with Danish stories just by changing the nouns, it again is because they are folktales. Folktales are simple stories that follow certain structures and fall into certain categories, no matter where they are from.
So saying that you can make stories into Danish folktales by changing words like "rice" and "oni" with "potatoes" and "troll" shows that the whole point of the book has been missed.
Sorry for the ranting. It just really gets me annoyed that the book has been negatively critiqued for doing EXACTLY what a collection of folktales is supposed to do, in the EXACT style it is supposed to be done. There is no "unconscious" slipping into a way of writing in this book (if you ask me). Comparing this book to works of Evald Tang Kristensen is, in my opinion, a great honor.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews