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Title: Snow Country by Edward G. Seidensticker, Yasunari Kawabata ISBN: 0-679-76104-7 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.94 (31 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A beautiful and haunting novel, among the world's best
Comment: SNOW COUNTRY, the masterpiece of 1968 Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata, deserves its place among the finest novels of the 20th century. A tale of a heart-wrenching love affair between a wandering playboy and a geisha in a remote hot spring in Japan's northwest, SNOW COUNTRY quickly becomes more than it seems with the addition of a strange other girl, omnipresent even when she is offstage.
Kawabata maintains an element of mystery among each character, especially the enigmatic Yoko about whom even the careful reader can find out little until it all clicks in the end. But in spite of the complexity of their personalities, the characters do come alive and in the end their actions make total sense, even if the reader was baffled in the pages before. Make no mistake, SNOW COUNTRY is a difficult work, especially in translation, but its ending, involving a glorious epiphany for its protagonist, is transcendent and mystically beautiful.
In spite of the pains of confused love which forever torment Simamura and Komako, SNOW COUNTRY is full everywhere of beauty, especially the pure white landscape which is perpetually in the background. Kawabata presents such powerful images: Yoko reflected in the train window super-imposed on the blur of the countryside, moths dying in droves in the autumn, the fire consuming the theatre, and finally perhaps the most important scene in the novel, the "Heavenly River" descending from the sky straight into Simamura's soul. Kawabata writes with such precision and uses not a single unecessary word that it is as if this slim volume holds an entire world within it.
Regrettably this translation, the only one available in English, is incredibly poor. Edward Seidensicker is know for the quantity of his translations from Japanese, he tackled a ton of Japanese classics from authors as diverse as Kawabata and Lady Murasaki. He is not known for the quality of his translations. Case in a point, the ending: Seidensticker translates Komako's wail as "She's crazy", whereas in at least the Russian translation and the Esperanto translation it's rendered as "She'll go crazy" (future tense), which is important because it makes a reference to an earlier part of the novel. As Simamura is jostled in the crowd, slips, and has his rendevous with destiny, Seidensticker translates this section in an almost comical fashion, as if Simamura was a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. Seidensticker wasn't really capable of translating a novel such as SNOW COUNTRY, which was written in a very austere and frigid style befitting its setting, because he couldn't help trying to add unnecessary warmth and texture to Kawabata's novel. I first read SNOW COUNTRY in the translation into Esperanto by Konisi Gaku, and I would in fact recommend that for Westerners. If English is one's only language, however, Seidensticker's translation, poor as it may be, is unfortunately the only option.
Independent of which translation one reads, it does bear saying that, just as with every other creation of the Japanese language, SNOW COUNTRY undoubtedly loses some of its essence in translation. Also, Japanese etiquette may seem nonsensical to Westerners. I notice I wasn't the only one driven mad by Komako saying "I'm going now," Simamura responding "Ok, fine, go," and then "She sat down." or Komako retorting "No, I'm staying." Nonetheless, these are no reasons not to experience this jewel of world literature.
I wholeheartedly recommend SNOW COUNTRY and truly hope that it becomes better known in the West. This novel leaves an indelible mark in one's soul, and its tragic passion juxtaposed with an uplifiting glimpse of higher reality stay with the reader long after Simamura is left under the Milky Way.
Rating: 4
Summary: Snapshots from the snow country
Comment: There are no revelations, no unwindings, no developments present in this book. Other than the change of season marked by two visits of the male protagonist Shimamura to the snow country, there isn't even a sense of time. Instead offered is a collection of beautiful, serene, _static_ images. Alongside the somewhat monotone dialogues between Shimamura and Komako, images of the Japanese countryside (on Hokkaido island) are "displayed" rather than "described."
Characters in this novel are, so to say, lost (the Japanese have a long tradition of writing about lost characters, Murakami Haruki being the one of the latest of such authors). Komako, being a geisha and understanding that Shimamura is already married, cannot do anything. Shimamura, even after realizing he is in love with Komako, doesn't do anything. The beauty of their relationship lies in their inaction, indulgence, and pensiveness. These attributes were frozen into colorful yet subtle moments. I enjoyed such images.
Rating: 5
Summary: What are you really thinking, I wonder?
Comment: Kawabata is one of Japan's most respected authors, and "Snow Country" is his masterpiece. However, that does not mean that this is a book for everyone, or that everyone will necessarily understand or enjoy the novel. In fact, I got my copy as a cast-off from a friend who said it was incredibly boring and he didn't want to keep it.
It is a demanding read, one that expects the reader to be able to catch the substance of the unsaid, the implied. Almost nothing is spoon-fed. There is no action, no crisis, nothing that most literary traditions has lead readers to expect from a novel. It demands patience, even though it is a slender volume.
Personally, I found it captivating, and intensely deep and moving. Having read other Kawabata, I was prepared for the subtlety of style and the sparseness of language and story that is his trademark. He is the inheritor of the Haiku, which implies with as few words as necessary. The emotional depth of the novel is incredibly deep, much deeper than many novels I have read who express with much more fanciful language. The Geisha and the Dilettante, the one who affects love but cannot know true love, and the one who gives herself to love even though she knows it cannot be. It is a passionless affair, yet intense. Like the snow country itself, the landscape of their hearts is sparse, yet life lies under the surface covering of insulation.
I did find the translation annoying and disappointing, and I was surprised to find such a lackluster translation on one of Japan's premier novels. The constant use of quotations for "mountain trousers," for instance, instead of just naming it once and using the Japanese term. I am sure that a better translation could capture the novel even better, and perhaps transport it for a new audience.
All in all, one of the best Japanese novels that I have read. Simply incredible, and worth the time. But remember your patience.
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Title: Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata ISBN: 0679762655 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 26 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, Edwin McClellan, Soseki Natsume ISBN: 0895267152 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oë, John Nathan ISBN: 0802150616 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: January, 1988 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata ISBN: 0679761055 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe ISBN: 0679733787 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 16 April, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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