Worlding Sei Shônagon: The Pillow Book in Translation

Iván Augusto Pinto Román, Oswaldo Gavidia Cannon, and Hiroko Izumi Shimono (2002) Spanish

223 Iván Augusto Pinto Román, Oswaldo Gavidia Cannon, and Hiroko Izumi Shimono El libro de la almohada de la dama Sei Shônagon Colleción Orientalia. Centro de Estudios Orientales. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial, 2002 Peruvian scholars Pinto Román (b. 1950) and Gavidia Cannon (b. 1963) collaborated with Izumi Shimono (b. 1964), a Japanese literature specialist then resident in Lima, to translate the entire Pillow Book. (They later went on to translate jointly the Tosa Diary, the early tenth-century travel journal by Tsurayuki mentioned in my introduction , as well.) This very comprehensive and scholarly Spanish -language edition, with a cover designed by Izumi Shimono (see Appendix II), appeared at almost the same time as Sato’s shorter, more popularized version came out in Argentina . The Peruvian project was originally inspired by an academic seminar that met for a critical reading of Morris’s translation. For their translation from the Japanese, “both German versions” (i.e. those by Bode and Watanabe), as well as the “renowned” version by Beaujard, were consulted. The list of existing translations into various languages that is provided includes neither Sakai’s Spanish-language selection nor, despite the fact that they share the same publisher, Sologuren ’s anthology of just a decade earlier. Román, Cannon, and Shimono (2002) 224 The concluding paragraph of Pinto Román’s appendix on the Japanese language in this volume reads as follows: “A highly personal feature of this author’s style is the use of incomplete sentences, open nominal clauses. At the same time, her lively sense of humour keeps the tone from wallowing in the severe or tragic tone of the literary compositions that predate her zuihitsu, offering instead a realistic, satirical, and above all entertaining view of her environment . Sei Shônagon takes the classical Japanese language, kogo, and transforms it into a vehicle for her living personality , with her brushstrokes full of ingenious grace and striking economy of means” (525–226; my translation). These translators opt to title each section with the initial words of the original Japanese passage, drawing the reader’s attention to the fact that this is in fact a translation—a deliberately foreignizing strategy. Also of note is the fact that the third paragraph omits any mention of the sound of either the wind or the insects. Finally, unlike in Sato’s contemporaneous translation, the word for “servants” is here given in the masculine form. Spanish 225 Haru wa akebono1 En primavera, la alborada es lo más hermoso. Al deslizarse la luz por sobre las colinas, sus contornos se tiñen rojizos y puñados de nubes purpúreas le siguen el rastro encima de ellas. En verano, las noches. No sólo cuando brilla la luna sino también en las noches cerradas, cuando las luciérnagas revolotean de un lado a otro; e incluso si llueve, ¡qué hermoso es! En otoño, los atardeceres; cuando el esplendente sol se hunde al filo de los montes y los cuervos vuelan de regreso a sus nidos: en tríos, cuartetos, duetos; y es más encantador aún si una bandad de ocas silbestres se distingue en lontananza, cual manchitas en el azul. En invierno, las mañanas temprano. Es bello en verdad cuando la nieve ha caído durante la madrugada; pero espléndido así mismo cuando la tierra está blanca de escarcha ; o, incluso cuando no hay nieve ni escarcha, si simplemente arrecia el frío y los criados se apresuran, de aposento en aposento, reavivando los braseros y trayendo nuevos carbones. ¡Cuán bien todo se ajusta al modo invernal ! Pero, conforme se aproxima el mediodía y amaina el frío, nadie se cuida de mantener vivo el fuego de los braseros , y pronto no queda en ellos otra cosa que pilas de cenizas blancas. (p. 45) 1 En letra cursiva se escribe en japonés latinizado la primera frase o el nombre de cada anotación, a renglón seguido las palabras equivalentes en castellano. Román, Cannon, and Shimono (2002) 226 Haru wa akebono1 In spring, the daybreak is the most lovely. As the light glides over the hills, their outlines are dyed reddish and handfuls of purple clouds follow the trail above them. In summer, the nights. Not only when the moon shines but also in dark nights, when the fireflies flutter from one...