Translation is the bread that nourishes my life. From my time as a grade schooler, when I would read world literature collections aimed at children, to the present, discovering the richness of world literature through translations has always been a source of surprise and joy to me. I was especially enthralled with the charm of French literature when I was in high school, and I also came to admire people who were known as “French scholars”. I had wished to have a career in translating and researching French literature, just like them. And after I finished studying abroad in France, from the publication of modern novelist Jean-Philippe Toussaint’s The Bathroom in 1989 to last year’s release of my translation of 19th century novelist Gérard de Nerval’s Daughters of Fire, I had been translating and researching French literature for 30 years, so it is safe to say that I made my high school dream come true.
But what I find really strange, despite my successful career as a translator, and despite the joy and ease I feel when I translate, is that I do not really feel that I learned any techniques or skills. When I am about to start my next translation, I always feel like I am about to confront the unknown, to begin a reckless adventure. I often worry and wonder if I even have the right to call myself a translator. But even when I am dealing with such distress, translation continues to be a fresh experience to me. This is what makes me want to challenge myself with the next book. Perhaps this means that I am genuinely scatterbrained, and an optimist.
It was a great fortune for a perpetual amateur like me to have been able to work for the pre-selection committee for the Literary Translation Prize of the Konishi Foundation for International Exchange, and then the selection committee later on, for 20 years. Participating in the severe selection process every year has given me the chance to think seriously about the act of translation. And receiving this prestigious award has aroused in me a sense of gratitude and the feeling that I have reached a new start line for myself.
This award will encourage me greatly to take on the next sentence.