There are recently many Japanese authors in modern Japanese literature. These include Haruki Murakami, who is also popular overseas and some of you may know. I feel his writing is just like drawing painting and shows me some different world, which seems very close to the real world.
Other modern Japanese authors, as well as Haruki Murakami, express something very profound by usually using a plain Japanese, which is one of major reasons why I like these Japanese authors.
In contrast, most translators of foreign literatures often use difficult Japanese, which takes my interests away from the foreign literatures.
Understanding many difficulties to translate foreign languages to Japanese as mentioned in my last blog (Translation), I still have strong desire to read those literatures in original languages without relying on those translators, which is almost impossible if written in languages other than English.
Good news, however, is that some foreign masterpieces have been re-translated by other translators in different way. These new translations look very easy to read as new translators use a plain Japanese among other reasons. In fact, The Brothers Karamazov became a bestseller a few years ago, when it was translated by other translator, regardless of its difficulties in the original story. Since then, other old foreign masterpieces, including many of Dostoevskii's have been re-translated by other translators.
I welcome these new translations and am looking forward to good translations of modern foreign literatures, which have not been introduced in Japan yet.
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