Edward Seidensticker On Nagai Kafu and Kawabata Yasunari (Cat)

 Something this reading made me realize is that we've been talking a great deal about how difficult it is to translate between languages due to their structures, grammar, and whatnot, however, we haven't really touched much upon the writing style of the author his/herself. Seidensticker points out a really interesting point that Kawabata inherently likes to keep subjects vague in his stories even when in his own mind there isn't really a vague subject and there is in deed a correct answer in selecting which subject is performing what action. This is especially interesting because it introduces a new playing field in which I think it is really important for translator to speak to authors in order to be able to convey the full and accurate portrait of a situation or a scene within a book. Even with all of this, however, it can be really difficult contacting the original author since many of the works people find interesting and want to translate are from authors who are dead like Murasaki Shikibu. Then that begs the question of what do we do in those moments, just make it up. But, then its no longer traditional to the original story anymore and may made the story better or worse. Then this idea of making the story better or worse also enters and begs the question if translators should be allowed to fix or clarity things even though they weren't clarified or defined in the original. There doesn't seem to be a realy set rule for things like this other than don't stray too far away from the original text which I appreciate.