Centre for Japanese Studies — Missing the Point: Translating Mishima Yukio by Stephen Dodd

Introduced by Dr. Hannah Osborne, this lecture was by Dr. Stephen Dodd, currently professor emeritus at SOAS. He is translator and academic who was behind the 2019 translation of Mishima Yukio’s Inochi Urimasu (Life for Sale), published by Penguin.

Dr. Dodd explained that he’d become interested in the practicalities of translation but is also an academic. He is currently working on the English translation of Utsukushi Hoshi (Beautiful Star), which will be published in April 2022. 

Mishima Yukio, the pen-name of Hiraoka Kimitake, was a novelist, playwright, ‘rather ham’ actor, director and nationalist most well known for his failed coup d’tat and violent, ritualistic suicide in 1970. Dr. Dodd explained that Mishima’s works are often violent, sexual as well as dwelling on death and suicide. Mishima was also the founder of the Tatenokai (Shield Society), a militia, which held especially nationalistic views, making Mishima a problematic author in recent years.

Professor Dodd, an openly gay academic, discussed Mishima’s importance as a writer, as well as his overt sexuality in many of his novels and short stories. He was obviously bisexual; something his wife, Yoko, denied after his death. However his large volume of work dwells on strong sexual themes, including obvious examples discussing characters who are either questioning their sexuality or discussing homosexual themes, such as 1949’s Kamen no Kokuhaku (Confessions of a Mask). 

He explained that translation covers many different things and then provided historical context and how this affects the translation. Professor Dodd also discussed the content of the two Mishima books he’s worked on and then asked the question: What does translation mean?

He explain he decided to do Translation Studies, a massive field. Then discussed the complexities surrounding the written Japanese language, specifically the different writing systems, and the fluidity of kanji. There is also the business of translation, the need for historical context and practical problems.

Professor Dodd explained that Japanese prose is a lot easier than poetry, which has much more stress on placement and nuance. How is meaning conveyed, for example, when words can be placed or written in a specific way to give extra significance. 

There is also the issue with trying to translate Japanese analogies; using a preying mantis or kamakiri (蟷螂, かまきり) as an example which would be rendered in English as ‘thin as a rake’. He also explained why the Japanese often refer to Earth as hoshi (星), as a star: it contains the same character, sei, as wakusei (planet, 惑星) which was a nice linguistic tidbit for me to devour; I’ve been watching a lot of Sailor Moon musicals lately where hoshi is used a lot.

Both books sound very interesting (I’ve not read any Mishima, which is something I now plan to remedy prior to next year’s Japanese Literature module). Life for Sale is dark and violent, while Beautiful Star is obvious sci fi.

The session ended with some really interesting questions from both Dr. Osborne and some of my cohort colleagues, as well as discussion on whether the politics surrounding Mishima (regarded as very nationalistic and right-winged), where the author ended and the politics began. The question was also raised as to whether works by authors with idealogical views different from our own should be translated and how important Mishima’s sexuality was in his works.