Howard Hibbett on Tanizaki (Grace)

Howard Hibbett on Tanizaki - Grace :)

The talk given by Howard Hibbett on the works of Tanizaki was a very interesting read, as Tanizaki's works and how they have been translated are vastly different from what we have read about in class. Tanizaki, at least to me, seemed to be a very provocative individual who was not afraid to include controversial elements in his works, from ero to guro. However, incorporating such content did have its consequences, most notably, according to Hibbett, Tanizaki's failure to win the Nobel Prize and the harsh criticism he received from American and Japanese academics (Despite both praising the Genji, which includes rape, pedophilia, and misogynistic elements). Contrary to this, it appears that there has been a renewed interest in Tanizaki's works, particularly with international audiences. So, translations of his works are a necessity.

Whilst translating Tanizaki for an international audience, Hibbett encountered a plethora of issues that had to be sorted out before his translations were sent to the printing press. First of all, Tanizaki's provocative, comedic imagery would be difficult to translate into different languages due to their subtly. Hibbett does not explain how he deals with such imagery, but from the examples he gave, it appears that he opted to use descriptive language at times to shift readers' focus to these masochistic elements, such as what he did when translating A Portrait of Shunkin. While I am unsure if he is translating accurately, as the original Japanese is not given, his subtle, yet descriptive language captures the subtle masochism in Tanizaki's work.

In addition to his handling of Tanizaki's comedic masochism, Hibbett also had to deal with a controversial title that would not be received well by international audiences, particularly those with high Jewish populations: Manji. I very much agree with Hibbett's decision to change the title, especially with the end of World War II not being that long ago. However, I do not agree with the new title, Quicksand. I feel that Whirlpool would be a much better title, as the metaphoric symbol of manji coincides with that of swirling water. Why change the medium from water to sand? Was there a metaphor involving quicksand in the novel? Was this for aesthetic purposes? Using Quicksand feels like Hibbett strayed too far from the original text. Either way, I am glad that I haven't encountered extremely sensitive subjects yet in this class, as I am still not sure what I would do in that kind of situation. I am generally in the camp of "don't vastly alter the original text," so I would feel uncomfortable censoring sensitive elements, but I would still feel morally in the wrong if I did not censor anything. I think that this is a good topic to bring up in class for this reason! Overall, Hibbett highlighted a few issues that he experienced while translating the works of Tanizaki, an interesting man who often inserted controversial elements into his work, and explained possible solutions for dealing with these issues. While I do not necessarily agree with the execution of his methods at times (Quicksand), I do believe that he gives good advice on how to deal with sensitive subjects, most notably Tanizaki's masochism, whilst still maintaining the meaning of the original text.