ความคิดเห็นที่ 3
ที่ญี่ปุ่น คารามาซอฟได้มีคนเอากลับมาแปลอีกรอบเมื่อปีที่แล้ว (2006) ปรากฏว่าขายดีมาก เป็น bestseller ขายได้ถึง 300,000 เล่ม! เมื่อเทียบกับประชากรญี่ปุ่นซึ่งมีมากกว่าบ้านเรา 2 เท่า แต่ดูยอดขายสิครับ
Surprising boom has Japanese pondering the problems of Dostoevski's day
BY SHIN OSANAI, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Renowned 19th-century Russian novelist Feodor Dostoevski is enjoying an unexpected boom. A new translation of "The Brothers Karamazov," published in five volumes by Kobunsha as part of a series of new translations of classics, has sold more than 300,000 copies, making the book an unusual best seller. For the first time in years, Dostoevski is the subject of panel discussions and publications.
Why is the great literary figure attracting so much attention now?
At its main branch in Tokyo's Marunouchi district, the bookstore Maruzen has a "museum zone" that showcases 10 strong-selling paperbacks. "The Brothers Karamazov" sits next to contemporary novels by Junichi Watanabe, Hideo Yokoyama, Natsuo Kirino and others. No other classic has made it to the museum zone, says a company spokesperson. According to the store, the book is being bought by readers of all ages.
The novel tells a gargantuan story set around parricide but also incorporates questions about faith and love-hate relationships. Translated many times, it is considered one of the finest achievements in literature.
Among works by Dostoevski published in paperback by Shinchosha, "The Brothers Karamazov" ranks fourth in sales after "Crime and Punishment," "Notes from Underground" and "Poor Folk." The three-volume translation of "The Brothers Karamazov" by Takuya Hara that came out in 1978 has sold 490,000 copies.
The translator of the latest five-volume edition, completed in mid-July, is Ikuo Kameyama, a professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The first volume has sold around 94,000 copies, and all the the volumes have gone into multiple printings. Kameyama, who says he focused on "flow and momentum," using current language that is easy to follow.
The four parts and epilogue of the original novel appear in five volumes, each with a "guide for readers" in which Kameyama offers commentary.
Besides the epilogue and commentary, the fifth volume also contains a chronology and bibliographical notes.
"Although the novel has not been introduced on television, it has sold well from the first, though I don't know why," says Minoru Komai, head of the literature section at Kobunsha.
At a symposium at the University of Tokyo in late July, Mitsuyoshi Numano, a scholar of Russian literature, and Kameyama held an in-depth discussion. Numano noted that Kameyama's translation "offers amazingly smooth reading. As a translator he has carried out a 'parricide' of the great translators before him," he noted.
In June, Shueisha published a compilation whose title could be translated as "The 21st century--Dostoevski is coming." The book sheds light on the literary giant's appeal from many perspectives through talks and essays by seasoned literary people such as Kenzaburo Oe, Hisashi Inoue and Otohiko Kaga and young writer Hitomi Kanehara. It is said to be the first thorough compilation of essays on Dostoevski since the 1970s, when Gendai Shiso, a magazine on thought, ran a feature.
Itaru Takahashi, an editor at Shueisha, notes that until the 1970s, appreciation of Dostoevski's works was based on existential interpretations mainly by the postwar generation. "We hoped to include results of study since then, including his novels' contact points with contemporary Japanese works, and show they are compelling even today."
In 2002, a University of Tokyo professor caused a stir when he wrote in a magazine about an "incident" when a graduate student at the prestigious school asked, "Who is Dostoevski?" Since then, prominent writers have been recommending the Russian novelist's works. In September 2004, in the Asahi Shimbun column "Tsutaeru Kotoba" (Words to pass along), Oe wrote, "I recommend 'The Possessed' now."
In the postscript to his new translation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," which came out in 2006, Haruki Murakami cited "The Brothers Karamazov" as one of the "three most important books" he has encountered, the other two being "The Great Gatsby" and Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye." Such praise may be partly responsible for the recent interest in Dostoevski.
At a lecture in Tokyo in August, Kameyama explored possible reasons for the boom, saying that "Karamazov" depicts the "humble existence" of human beings who find themselves at the mercy of a chaotic world. "This bears similarity to the modern world under globalization. We live in an era when we are wedged between huge tragedies such as terrorist attacks and Internet-based information that we read with a guilty conscience," he said.
Tetsuo Matsuda, an editor at publishing house Chikuma Shobo and a book critic, says, "Readers are probably tiring of novels that just make them cry and are tackling the great works of the 19th century." He believes that after 9/11 and serious crimes such as those committed by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, people's attention has returned to tales of a dark world that examine religion, crime and unaccountable human emotions.
"There are profound problems that cannot be solved on the political or philosophical level," says Matsuda. "The farther we were removed from such problems during the economic bubble and the subsequent downturn, the more we long to consider them now
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