The Latvian and Haruki Murakami

In one short morning, my long-awaited Friday was sullied by no less than one Latvian, a trumpet-tooting Chinese and half a year's worth of lessons I'm no longer sure I want to continue with.

so the latvian translates murakami into latvian for a living. and she does so by referring to the english and russian translations. my already tightly wound spring was twisted several notches further when she started complaining about the shoddy work done by the translators. i have read almost every book by murakami, both in english and japanese, and i happen to think that peter gabriel does a beautiful job of conveying the nuances of murakami's prose into english.

it took five lifetimes worth of self-control for me not to beat her down right there in the classroom, but when i mentioned peter gabriel she shook her head and said she had no idea who he was.

i cannot imagine what sort of english translations the girl has been reading if she has never heard of peter gabriel. murakami's books have only been translated into english by jay rubin and peter gabriel, and both these men happen to be exemplary academics in their field with long careers translating and researching traditional and contemporary japanese literature. to be accused of mediocrity by some unknown know-it-all is possibly the worst kind of insult ever.

if the latvian has ever done her homework, she will know that passages in original works are sometimes deleted from the translated texts NOT because the contents are "too difficult" to be translated, but because the passages in question imply the knowledge of certain cultural contexts that foreign readers might not otherwise possess.

in other words, translation is not simply a case of coverting the entire text lock stock and barrel, because it requires the delicate consideration of what to include and what not to so that foreign readers will be able to enjoy the novel as much as people reading the same book in the original language would, with or without prior understanding of specific cultural and literary concepts.

so perhaps the problem lies not with the translations but the latvian's stubborn egocentricism and a severe underestimation of the skills necessary to ensure good translation work.

two hours later i found myself listening to a chinese man telling me how difficult his work as an interpreter was. it was meant to be a talk by former foreign students about their experiences working in okinawa, and normally i would have swallowed the speech whole like a bad dose of medicine, but somehow, the chinese man became hugely unpalatable after the lavian fiasco. he was merely blowing his own horn, and it was all jarring noise to my ears.

what will it take for me to find employment as a foreigner in japan? the country's not hyped up about "foreign talent" like singapore is, and foreigners are not encouraged to play up their non-japanese traits because the issue invariably degenerates into a debate about "fitting in".

i was told that i might have to play down my assertiveness because a woman in her 20s with a habit of displaying her initiative might not go down well with a room full of middle-aged men looking to fill a position in their company.

just when i thought i knew japan and okinawa well enough not to be unpleasantly surprised any more, i get stopped in my tracks with situations like this.

too much for a friday, and too much thinking for me to arrive at a decision by this time next year.