Botchan - Natsume Soseki (Trans. Joel Cohn; 1906/2005)
Men Sleeping at the Train Station, c. 1910 - Asaga Tairin
A refreshingly light and charming novel that follows the exploits of Botchan, a mischievous boy that grapples with the question of morality in a rough-and-tumble fashion as he grows up, often simultaneously too quick to judge others and oblivious to his own faults. Still, there is something honest in his naivete, and our Edoko finds himself somewhat lost in the provincial town no "bigger than a cat's forehead" where he finds himself stationed as a middle school mathematics teacher.
"Of course I'm inexperienced. I'm only twenty-two years and four months old, just like it says on my papers."
"No matter how much mischief I was involved in, I still had my honor. If you're just going to lie your way out of the punishment afterward, well, you shouldn't have done anything to begin with."
Many of the criticisms of his colleagues and students are still relatable today, if not moreso. The trope of students that keep favourite teachers "under surveillance like a pack of detectives" is very much intact, as are those that namedrop "Russian novelist[s]" to virtue signal their intelligence. As to the latter, I admit that I picked up on this habit in my early youth. (Thinking on it now, it probably signaled the exact opposite of what I had intended. Alas, Dostoevsky & co. make up a good portion of my to-read list. Perhaps such figures will come up naturally in conversations from now on.)
"How was a math teacher like me supposed to know the difference between Gorky and Porky?"
I used to take translations for granted, as most translated books that fell into my hands were translated quite well, and I lacked sufficient knowledge of the original language and source material to know if the translation communicated the intent of the author. Through this book, the true variance of translated editions has been elucidated to me. After switching from Yasotaro Mori's translation (available through Project Gutenberg) to Joel Cohn's edition (published with Penguin Books), I found the prose to flow much more pleasantly, and certain cultural and historical artefacts elucidated upon in a manner more digestible to the foreigner. The former humbly included the following in his foreword, and as such I hold no ill will towards his translation, which may in fact be suitable to an audience more acquainted with Japan and its customs.
"[These remarks] are made in the hope that whoever is good enough to go through the present translation will remember, before he may venture to make criticisms, the kind and extent of difficulties besetting him in his attempts so as not to judge the merit of the original by this translation. Nothing would afford the translator a greater pain than any unfavorable comment on the original based upon this translation." - Yasotaro Mori
I have not read any other translations, but it may be interesting to observe the manner in which a third party tackles Soseki's original prose (which I have been told is unique in both a literary and graphical sense).
Overall, an enjoyable experience that succeeds in provoking both chuckles and contemplation. Strongly recommend!
"Unless things are set out for me in clear black and white, it's hard for a simple type like me to figure out which side to take."
"Not being able to eat some dumplings when you wanted to felt pathetic."
"Really, there's nothing in the world as undependable as human beings."
⃰ A note on my rating habits. This probably seems low, given the immense praise I have lauded this book with. Perhaps this is a result of my sparse media consumption thus far, but I find that I rarely dislike things. Thus, my ratings tend to be quite left-skewed. To rectify this, I reserve the highest rating category for works that are otherwise inexpressible and/or life-changing. For example, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse was a 5/5 for me.
