Translating Japanese to English, Part 1

How does a book make it from the mind of a Japanese author into the hands of an English-language reader?

In part 1 of this 2-part episode, we'll tackle the question, “Why do some Japanese books get translated into English?" How do publishers decide what gets translated? How do they decide what doesn’t get translated. And we'll take a look at Minae Mizumura's An I-Novel, translated into English by Juliet Winters Carpenter.

Please note two errors in part 1. 

1. Noriko Mizuta Lippit translated "The Smile of the Mountain Witch", assisted by Mariko Ochi. The translation appears in Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch, which is edited by Rebecca Copeland and Linda C. Ehrlich.

2. Author Astrid Lindgren and her Pippi Longstocking series are Swedish—not Norwegian. 

Transcript, notes and sources at the podcast episode page. 

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