Customer Reviews

Breaking Into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book offers seven short pieces of Japanese literature, along with more or less parallel English translations. Each and every kanji has a translation, so you do not have to worry about that. This is a good learning tool for intermediate students, say at the level of two years of college Japanese.

I have two problems with this book. First, the stories are all a bit gruesome and negative. I did not enjoy any of them. Maybe your taste is different, but be forewarned. Second, and more substantively, the translation is not as close as I would have liked. Sure, it is accurate, and it reads just fine in English. Indeed, a verbatim translation would not be as pretty. But, for a student, it is more helpful to have a verbatim translation than one that is written stylishly in English. After all, the English is only there to be informative. The point is to learn Japanese.

Here's an alternative that I like much better and is suitable for students of the same level: buy a copy of the first Harry Potter book in Japanese, and another copy in English. Both are available from Amazon.com. The translation is excellent and more nearly verbatim than I would have thought possible. All but the most basic kanji have furigana. (If you do not know what I am talking about, or if you do not know about 100 kanji, then chances are that both of these books are going to be very frustrating for you.) Sure, you are not reading "Japanese literature," but you are reading a book that millions of Japanese have read and which is written for a real Japanese audience.

The presentation of these stories makes it possible for a Japanese student at almost any level to read and enjoy a piece of lovely literature. The only absolute necessity is to master your hiragana. There is almost no katagana and about every single kanji is translated once at the bottom of each page, where it appears. This means that you can start reading any story, and a complete translation will be there for you. Even someone who already reads Japanese without difficulty will be charmed by the stories and the corresponding well acted mp3-files, which can be downloaded on the internet.

This is easily the most interesting and well structured bilingual Japanese book I have found so far.

There comes a time when any student of Japanese must dare to read his first book of Japanese literature in the original. "Breaking into Japanese Literature" was the perfect book to prepare me for this step. I have read many translations of modern and contemporary Japanese literature in the past few years and for every English book I read I made sure to buy the Japanese original as well (I live in Tokyo where second hand Japanese books can be found at about the 20th of the price of their translations so this is a very small investment).
Now, after spending a few weeks with Mr Murray's book I have finally broken into that unused part of my library.
I have been particularly pleased with the selection of authors and stories as I have always hoped to read Soseki and Akutagawa in Japanese. The stories are captivating, the translation is very careful and elegant and the narration provided online is a wonderful bonus. My Japanese teacher always advised me to read aloud in Japanese, the narrations provided here are not only very entertaining but also very useful.

This is absolutely brilliant. The stories are interesting and captivating, and never too long to overtly intimidate or tire the reader. You start with really short stories, and as your confidence with reading literary Japanese increases, the stories get longer and more complicated. I have learned and cemented more from reading this novel than by any other method but emersion experiences in Japan. I have a huge collection of modern Japanese literature and, though it was inaccessible before, this novel has made reading, guessing, and understanding Japanese fiction a blast. Note: it won't stop being difficult, even after this. But the satisfaction of reading and comprehending a story in it's original language, and being able to find fault in translations and such, is a really remarkable experience.

Highly recommended, and I hope to see a volume 2! I would buy it in a heartbeat!