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Once, I was invited to a literary festival in Canada, and was surprised to find myself listed in their program under "Literature of Color." At first I thought it was describing my work as colorful,

HAHAHAHAHA

As for Rose’s father, he’s gone off the radar. Not dead, but apparently stuck in that zone where fathers get lost — the Bermuda Triangle between their job, their best mate and one or more women somewhere.

Back then, California didn't yet have the reputation of a warm, comfortable place that it has now. If anything, the majority of German authors living in exile there struggled to adapt to the climate. Leonhard Frank once said that in California "there is no air inside the air." He complained about the lack of seasons, describing Hollywood as a hell "where one is permanently exposed to the sun, far removed from life."

She talks about her frustration with her Friday-night shrink, a woman. [...] When she walks out, exhilarated, tearful or joyful, those three-quarters of an hour have become like semicolons in the narrative of her life. Meaning builds, like the construction of a house, but for now there are too many doors and windows all over the place.

I’m scared because I remember DNFing his other book earlier this year (The Course of the Heart) because I was very lost. But his prose is *chef’s kiss*

いくつもいくつも、彼女はキーウイを食べた。飢えた子供たちがむしゃぶりつくように、あるいは病んだ老婆が嘔吐するように食べた。アイロンのかかったブラウスも、美しても、すぐにベタベタになった。

Snyder tr: she stood there eating kiwis, one after another. She consumed them like a starving child, dizzy with hunger. Her carefully ironed blouse and her beautiful hands grew sticky.

This translation is so lacking. She was basically DEVOURING the kiwis and sucking on it intensely, like an old crone regurgitating.

... I don't like the flower

Uh. I read the first story while having my morning poop. It was unnerving

Wait, why is every single one of my WITM'26 selection such a fucking hit

I didn't know how to reach him, where to find him... it's so mysterious, the land of tears.

どうすれば思いを届けることができるのか、心と心を結ぶことができるのか。いつの間にか、涙で何も見えなくなっていた。本当に、不思議だね。涙って、どこから湧き出してくるのだろう。

This translator added some extra flair; something like "How do I reach my thoughts to him, or connect one heart to another? Before I knew it, tears had blurred my vision. It's truly strange. Where do tears come from?

"that has awakened my long-standing rancor toward the plays that are popular now, one that is equal to my dislike of novels of chivalry; for drama, ... should be a mirror of human life, an example of customs, and an image of truth, but those that are produced these days are mirrors of nonsense,"

「彼女にはそうした密やかさがとてもよく似合っていた。色白の肌や、真っすぐで長い髪の毛や、うつむいた時できる目元の陰が、侵しがたい静寂を醸し出していた。」

"The pale skin, the long, straight hair, the shadows under her eyes when she bowed her head — it all lent her a kind of tranquility that I think we didn't want to disturb"

Somehow "shadows under her eyes" in the English translation felt like eyebags LOL. Also I would have translated "didn't want to disturb" as an "inviolable quietness"...

Their gossiping was fuelled by jealousy: only their own happiness could possible by authorized — they scoffed at the luck of others. Everyone, in reality, is only liked in proportion to their misfortune.

The father now lay in bed for good. The summer grew hot. In August all the grass burned up, brown. Often he didn't have the energy to keep himself clean, they had to wash him and change him. His gaze was often glassy, stiff, distant: he didn't hear, didn't react. Was like a thing.

Reading this side by side with the English translation (titled Revenge) and realising how much is omitted through editorial streamlining...... at this point I no longer feel like reading Japanese literature in English lol

I love the feeling when you just started on a book but immediately KNOW this is going to be one of your favourite books

My mother, in her last moments, said she was floating. She said other words, made incoherent pronouncements from the land of her brain, which was starting to dry up; the water was gone and the fish were dying.

Oh I can read about racism in Japanese now LOL

この星は１９０９年に、トルコの天文学者が発見したんだ。トルコの天文学者は、国際会議で自分の発見を報告した。でもその時、天文学者はちゃんとしたスーツではなく、トルコふうの服を着ていたんだ。それでヨーロッパの学者たちは、報告を信じなかった。大人たちって、そういうものなんだ。

"A Turkish astronomer discovered the asteroid in 1909 ...the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomy Congress... But he wore a Turkish costume, so no Europeans believed what he said. Grown-ups are like that..."

"Knights, or squires, or whoever you may be: you have no reason to call at the gates of this castle, for it is more than clear that at this hour those inside are asleep, or are not in the habit of opening their strongholds until the sun is high in the sky." -- Me to my ex-boss who used to message me at 6am