Jay Rubin | |
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Born | 1941 (age 82–83) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Alma mater | University of Chicago |
Occupation(s) | Translator, scholar |
Jay Rubin (born 1941) is an American translator, writer, scholar and Japanologist. He is one of the main translators of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami into English. He has also written a guide to Japanese, Making Sense of Japanese (originally titled Gone Fishin'), and a biographical literary analysis of Murakami.
Rubin was born in Washington, D.C., in 1941. [1] Rubin has a PhD in Japanese literature from the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Washington for eighteen years, and then moved on to Harvard University, which he left in 2008. In his early research career he focused on the Meiji state censorship system. More recently Rubin has concentrated his efforts on Murakami and Noh drama. His publications include Modern Japanese Writers (Scribners, 2001) and Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words (Harvill, 2002; Vintage, 2005). His translation of 18 stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa appeared as a Penguin Classics in 2006. His debut novel, The Sun Gods, was released in May 2015 (Chin Music Press) and explores the relationship between a Japanese mother, Mitsuko, and her adopted, American son, Billy, as they face American internment during World War II.
Rubin also translated the "Thousand Years of Dreams" passages by Kiyoshi Shigematsu for use in the Japanese-produced Xbox 360 game Lost Odyssey . [2] In 2018, he edited The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. [3]
Rubin's translation of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami won the 2003 Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature [4] and was also awarded the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 1999.
Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or lit. 'Chinese writing', a Chinese-Japanese creole language. Indian literature also had an influence through the spread of Buddhism in Japan.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, art name Chōkōdō Shujin (澄江堂主人), was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He took his own life at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.
Natsume Sōseki, pen name Sōseki, born Natsume Kin'nosuke, was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat, Kusamakura and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer of haiku, kanshi poetry and fairy tales.
In a Grove, also translated as In a Bamboo Grove, is a Japanese short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa first published in 1922. It was ranked as one of the "10 best Asian novels of all time" by The Telegraph in 2014. In a Grove has been adapted several times, most notably by Akira Kurosawa for his award-winning 1950 film Rashōmon.
John Weil Nathan is an American translator, writer, scholar, filmmaker, and Japanologist. His translations from Japanese into English include the works of Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburō Ōe, Kōbō Abe, and Natsume Sōseki. Nathan is also an Emmy Award-winning producer, writer and director of several films about Japanese culture and society and American business. He is Professor Emeritus of Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The University of Virginia Japanese Text Initiative (JTI) is a project intended to provide a comprehensive online database of Japanese literary texts. Sponsored by the University of Virginia and the University of Pittsburgh East Asian Library, the online collection contains over 300 texts from Japan's pre-modern and modern periods. Pre-modern texts include the Man'yōshū, the Tale of Genji, the Kokin Wakashū, and the Hōjōki. Modern texts include works by Natsume Sōseki, Mori Ōgai, and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke.
James Philip Gabriel is an American translator and Japanologist. He is a full professor and former department chair of the University of Arizona's Department of East Asian Studies and is one of the major translators into English of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.
Edwin McClellan was a British Japanologist, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture.
The Miner is a 1908 novel by Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki. The novel recounts the story of a young man who begins working in a mine following a failed relationship, with extensive attention paid to his perceptions, both at the time of events and in retrospect as a mature adult. It was translated into English in 1988 by Jay Rubin. Critically panned at the time of publication, The Miner has since been reassessed for its literary innovation.
Beongcheon Yu (Korean: 유병천) was a Korean-born translator of Natsume Sōseki's novel The Wayfarer and author of a critical study on Natsume. Yu was born in Korea on 29 December 1925, a twenty-eighth generation descendent in the Yu Clan of Chungju. He was selected to attend the Dai-Ichi-Koto Gakko, now part of the University of Tokyo. He graduated with his BA in French literature from Seoul National University in 1948. He received his MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1954 and his PhD in English from Brown University in 1958. Known for his critical analyses of Hemingway, Melville, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, the Korean authors Han Yong-Un and Yi Gwangsu, and the life and writings of Lafcadio Hearn, he also wrote about the impact of orientalism on western literature. He wrote a review of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, "Ishmael's Equal Eye: The Source of Balance in Moby Dick." Yu was professor emeritus in English at Wayne State University.
Hell Screen is a short story written by Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It was a reworking of Uji Shūi Monogatari and originally published in 1918 as a serialization in two newspapers. It was later published in a collection of Akutagawa short stories, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke zenshū.
Dragon: the Old Potter's Tale is a short story by Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It was first published in a 1919 collection of Akutagawa short stories, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke zenshū. The story is based on a thirteenth-century Japanese tale, with Akutagawa's Taishō literary interpretations of modern psychology and the nature of religion.
The Nose is a satirical short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa based on a thirteenth-century Japanese tale from the Uji Shūi Monogatari. "The Nose" was Akutagawa's second short story, written not long after "Rashōmon". It was first published in January 1916 in the Tokyo Imperial University student magazine Shinshichō and later published in other magazines and various Akutagawa anthologies. The story is mainly a commentary on vanity and religion, in a style and theme typical to Akutagawa's work.
Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature is a Japanese literary award that is part of the Noma Prize series. It is awarded annually for new translations of modern Japanese literature. It was founded in 1990.
Nowaki is a short Japanese novel by Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916). Written in 1907, the novel was published in the magazine Hototogisu in January. The year 1907 was a turning point in the author's life when he left his Tokyo University teaching position to write full-time for the daily Asahi Shimbun. He also serialized the novel Gubijinsō (虞美人草) the same year.
Sanshirō (三四郎) is a 1908 Japanese novel by Sōseki Natsume. It is the first in a trilogy, followed by Sorekara (1909) and The Gate (1910).
Tokyo Stories: A Literary Stroll is an anthology of Japanese short stories set in Tokyo. The translator and editor Lawrence Rogers won the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature from the Donald Keene Center of Japanese culture in 2004 for his work on this book. The stories are ordered by the areas of Tokyo in which they take place.
The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema is a short story by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, written in 1982. The title references "The Girl from Ipanema", the famous Bossa nova song that was first released in March 1964 in the album Getz/Gilberto. The story follows the musings of an unnamed narrator as he contemplates the song, detailing one memory to the next. It culminates in his meeting with the metaphysical girl from the song, and his expression of longing for a union with her.
Ted Goossen is a professor emeritus of contemporary Japanese literature at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is known for translating the works of a number of Japanese authors into English, most notably Haruki Murakami. Other authors he has translated include Shiga Naoya and Ibuse Masuji.
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is a 2018 English language anthology of Japanese literature edited by American translator Jay Rubin and published by Penguin Classics. With 34 stories, the collection spans centuries of short stories from Japan ranging from the early-twentieth-century works of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki up to more modern works by Mieko Kawakami and Kazumi Saeki. The book features an introduction by Japanese writer and longtime Rubin collaborator Haruki Murakami.