The award ceremony is scheduled to take place next year to prevent further spreading of the novel coronavirus.
Asako TANIGUCHI
Winning Work
Gustave Flaubert
”Three Tales”
Kobunsha Koten Shinyaku Bunko, 2018
"Three Tales", while often overshadowed by longer novels such as "Madame Bovary" and "Sentimental Education", is a gem of a collection of short stories to which author devoted his heart and soul in later years.
Each of the "Three Tales" is written in a different and distinctive style, but Taniguchi's work deserves to be praised for the way in which it is both translated and kept consistent. It is also a wonderful invitation to enter the world of Flaubert, with an explanatory commentary that provides the reader with the nuts and bolts of understanding the work and an afterword that helps the translator's proactive engagement with the work resonate with the reader in a straightforward manner.
It is a great pleasure for the screening members to award the the 25th Japanese-French Translated Literature Award to Ms. Taniguchi, who has so masterfully produced a fresh translation of the work that should definitely be widely read by young readers.
Jacques JOLY
Winning Work
MARUYAMA Masao
”Essais sur l’histoire de la pensée politique au Japon”
Les Belles Lettres, 2018
Jacques Joly's translation of Maruyama Masao's "Studies in the History of Japanese Political Ideology" was praised by all the committee members. The text of the original book is difficult to understand and can come across as a test for the reader's patience, so the translator had the important task of rendering the work easily-understandable in French. The translation is written in easily-understandable French, and is highly praised for the fact that it's been edited so as to provide the reader with the vast amount of information that the original work has to offer. Overall, the choice of terminology seems to be extremely accurate. The translator has not only made it possible for French readers to read important texts pertaining to critical thinking of Japan, but has also made a reference book out of the original work for French readers to understand the history of Oriental thinking.
Based on the above reasons, the screening committee in France has decided to gave the 25th Japanese-French Translated Literature Award to MARUYAMA Masao, "Essais sur l’histoire de la pensée politique au Japon", Les Belles Lettres, 2018, translated by Jacques Joly.