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.¡±
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