64が米国でも発売へ

64がSix Fourとして英訳されたことは以前このブログでも取り上げましたが、発売はイギリスだけのことでアメリカではようやく今月出るそうです。

それに合わせてニューヨークタイムズが書評ではなく横山秀夫と64の本の紹介をしていました。作家になるまでの道のりや英訳出版までの事情などを知ることができます。

A Japanese Crime Thriller in Which Crime Is the Least of It
By MOTOKO RICH FEB. 2, 2017

英訳版出版までの経緯を紹介しているところです。方向性が違うのに日本のStieg Larssonと売り出しているようですがこれはイギリスの出版社がStieg Larssonを出しているからかもしれませんね。アメリカでは初版1万1千部刷るようです。

The publisher Bungeishunju released “Six Four” in 2012, and Japanese critics praised it for subverting the traditional police procedural. In a culture where an increasing number of workers are frustrated by hierarchical bureaucracy, the novel was a big hit.

At a dinner party in Tokyo, Jon Riley, editor in chief of Quercus, a London-based publisher that released the Stieg Larsson novels in Britain, heard of the novel’s popularity and commissioned an English summary. On the basis of that report, Quercus bought the rights to translate “Six Four” into English, and hired Jonathan Lloyd-Davies, an accomplished translator of Japanese fiction.

Writing in The Guardian last year, Alison Flood described “Six Four” as a “slow burn” crime novel that provided a “layered insight into internal police politics.” The novel was shortlisted for an International Dagger Award for crime fiction.

In the United States, where “Six Four” will be released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in Mr. Lloyd-Davies’s translation, the publisher is planning an initial print run of 11,000 hardcover copies and hopes American audiences will be drawn to the discursive police drama.

この記事では64の意味を詳しく説明しています。一方ワシントンポストの書評では“Six Four” (the title refers to a particular year in the Japanese calendar)とさらっと書いています。まあ、特に必要なければさらっとした説明でいいかもしれません。

Mr. Yokoyama frantically pumped out four new books in five years, while also working on and off on the manuscript of “Six Four.” It takes its title from the reign of Emperor Hirohito, the father of the current Japanese emperor, Akihito, and denotes the year in which the cold kidnapping case at the center of the novel took place. (The Japanese count the years of each emperor’s reign separately from the Gregorian calendar year, and the year of the emperor’s death was known as “64.”)

David Peaceが翻訳小説を読む意義を説いている部分です。日本も内向きになっていますからこのような指摘は我々にも当てはまります。

David Peace, the Tokyo-based author of the crime novels “Tokyo Year Zero” and “Occupied City,” who was an early champion of the novel, argues that more such translations are vital, and not just for literary reasons.

At a time when the United States and Britain are becoming “more inward-looking than they already are,” Mr. Peace said, “our need for translated literature and to try to understand other cultures and countries is greater than ever.”

英語学習者として興味が出るのが翻訳者の存在。 Jonathan Lloyd-Daviesさんのインタビューをネットで見つけました。翻訳者になるまでの道のりや翻訳方針など様々な質問に答えています。

HOW TO BE A JAPANESE TRANSLATOR WITH JONATHAN LLOYD-DAVIES
WINNER OF THE 2012 SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD IN TRANSLATION
SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 • 1559 WORDS WRITTEN BY KRISTEN DEXTER • ART BY AYA FRANCISCO

Q. HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN LITERARY TRANSLATION?
I have always loved reading and writing and languages, and they all come together in literary translation.

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Q. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE FOR YOU TO LEARN JAPANESE AND THEN TO GET YOUR FIRST JOB IN YOUR FIELD?
I studied Japanese for 4 years in university, and graduated into a job as a CIR with JET.

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Q. WHAT RECOMMENDATIONS OR ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR SOMEONE WHO IS STILL LEARNING JAPANESE?
Make sure you spend time with the language, either by living in Japan or hanging out with Japanese people. Speaking the language is by far the quickest way to becoming proficient.

元々読書や物を書くのが好きだったようですが、Lloyd-DaviesさんSpeaking the language is by far the quickest way to becoming proficient.とスピーキング推しです。