With translations across every genre from mysteries to literary classics to horror to feminist works, Japanese storytelling has earned a starring role on the international stage of literature. The often unsung heroes behind the overseas hits are the translators. The Japan Times will highlight one working translator a month, exploring this literary pursuit.
Jay Rubin, 78, who is a professor emeritus of Japanese literature at Harvard University, took his first steps in translating with “Sanshiro” by Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) as a young graduate student. As a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago in the late ’60s, Rubin studied under the scholar and translator Edwin McClellan, who is perhaps best known for his translation of Soseki's “Kokoro.”
“McClellan would assign something and I would translate it. I don’t tend to question things all that much,” Rubin recalls. “I enjoyed the process of turning a Japanese text into English, I loved learning kanji and it was as simple as that. I was really shocked later to realize that not all professors of Japanese literature are translators.”