Five English translations you can read in a day
The world is full of stories. As a monolinguist, I rely on the generosity of strangers to enable me to read stories that weren’t originally written in English. Here are a few of my favorite English translations that can be read in a day.
Modern Classic
First published in 1928-9 as a newspaper serial, Some Prefer Nettles is considered the most autobiographical of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki’s work. Tanizaki lived in the cosmopolitan Tokyo area until the earthquake of 1923, when he moved to the Kyoto-Osaka region and became absorbed in Japan's past.
Translated into English by Edward G. Seidensticker.
Blurb for Some Prefer Nettles:
The marriage of Kaname and Misako is disintegrating: whilst seeking passion and fulfilment in the arms of others, they contemplate the humiliation of divorce. Misako’s father believes their relationship has been damaged by the influence of a new and alien culture, and so attempts to heal the breach by educating his son-in-law in the time-honoured Japanese traditions of aesthetic and sensual pleasure.
Non-Fiction
Staying in Japan, we travel to present-day Tokyo to meet Rental Person Who Does Nothing. The memoir of Shoji Morimoto explores his unique endeavor; to hire out his services as a person who does nothing. Translated into English by Don Knotting.
Blurb for Rental Person Who Does Nothing:
Need a rental person who does nothing?
Shoji Morimoto provides a fascinating service to the lonely and socially anxious. After an old boss told him that he contributed nothing and that it made no difference whether he showed up to work or not, he wondered if a person who ‘does nothing’ could still have a place in the world. With a tweet, his Rental Person service was born.
Have a deep secret you desperately need to reveal, so deep that you can’t tell a friend or family member?
Have you spent a long time home alone, and want to know what it’s like to have somebody with you at your apartment?
Or for someone to simply think of you on a stressful day? Or wave to you as you leave the train station on a long journey?
Morimoto is dependable, non-judgmental and committed to remaining a stranger throughout each request, and his encounters are revelatory about both Japanese society and human psychology.
Mystery Thriller
Before we leave Japan, a mystery thriller that I read in one sitting because I needed to know what happened next. A stunning debut by Kanae Minato, Confessions will leave you guessing until the last page.
Translated into English by Stephen Snyder.
Blurb for Confessions:
Her pupils killed her daughter.
Now, she will have her revenge.
After calling off her engagement in wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation.
But first she has one last lecture to deliver.
She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a maniacal plot for revenge.
Psychological Horror
In Argentina, we learn The Dangers of Smoking In Bed, a short story collection by Mariana Enriquez.
Translated into English by Megan McDowell
Blurb for The Dangers of Smoking In Bed:
Welcome to Buenos Aires, a city thrumming with murderous intentions and morbid desires, where missing children come back from the dead and unearthed bones carry terrible curses.
These brilliant, unsettling tales of revenge, witchcraft, fetishes, disappearances and urban madness spill over with women and girls whose dark inclinations will lead them over the edge.
Dystopian
Into the dystopian future that screams with the echoes of the past, it’s time to meet The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica. Translated into English by Sarah Moses.
Blurb for The Unworthy:
In the House of the Sacred Sisterhood, the unworthy live in fear of the Superior Sister's whip. Seething with resentment, they plot against each other and await who will ascend to the level of the Enlightened - and who will suffer the next exemplary punishment.
Risking her life, one of the unworthy keeps a diary in secret. Slowly, memories surface from a time before the world collapsed, before the Sacred Sisterhood became the only refuge.
Then Lucía arrives. She, too, is unworthy - but she is different. And her presence brings a single spark of hope to a world of darkness.
Thank you translators. Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to enter these worlds or understand a word.
Further reading
Need more reading material? I’ve got you.
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