My Poison Snake

July 4, 2022 6:07 AM

Erika Kobayashi on growing up in a house of Sherlock translators. Translated into English by Brian Bergstrom.

Erika Kobayashi is a novelist and visual artist based in Tokyo.

Brian Bergstrom is a translator and a
lecturer in the East Asian Studies Department at McGill University in Montréal.

Also from, and about, Kobayashi and Bergstrom:

A Tale of Three Diaries: On Destroyed Landscapes and Lost Narratives, Erika Kobayashi Travels from Auschwitz to Fukushima

Shelf Awareness interview with Kobayashi and Bergstrom on Trinity, Trinity, Trinity: A Novel, Kobayashi's most recently translated work, about the effect of radiation on three generations of Japanese women set during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Alison Fincher in Asian Review of Books on Trinity, Trinity, Trinity.

posted by the primroses were over (8 comments total)

Did I make this post because I loved the first link and am on a train to DC for patriotic protesting, and would like to remember to come back to these links later? Yes, I did.

Did I include the Brian Bergstrom link to the Center for the Art of Translation mainly because I love their cat logo? Also, yes.

Do I hope some of the rest of you enjoy this post as well? Sure, why not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by the primroses were over at 6:18 AM on July 4, 2022 [9 favorites]

I liked it too! Thanks.
posted by umber vowel at 8:04 AM on July 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is the best excuse for a messy room ever.
posted by Bee'sWing at 8:31 AM on July 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

This was very much not the essay I expected when I started reading it, but it was great in its own way. And a new author to look up, too!
posted by Going To Maine at 11:58 AM on July 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I feel a little more human, having read that. The detail about a carpet hidden under piles of books? Either way, nice to read.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:41 AM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

That was a lovely read. Thank you for posting.
posted by Majorita at 1:33 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Ahhh, thank you! In my library hold list now.
posted by Jesse the K at 3:57 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

Circling back to this, I think what I liked best from the essay on her childhood was her description of the way the Sherlock stories transformed her environment:

My father and mother would turn the pages of their books, following the words.

Just as the English would turn into Japanese, Nerima would turn into London.

The drainage canal that ran nearby would become the Thames, and the concrete-walled mental hospital beside it would become St Bartholomew’s. The neighborhood conveyor-belt sushi joint became Simpson’s-in-the-Strand.

Dense white mist would rise up all around us.

My earliest years were spent in a version of Victorian England located in Nerima, Tokyo.

I'd never ridden in an airplane, but it was nonetheless the place that felt most like a hometown to me.

That bit resonated with me so much, remembering the way a story could completely permeate my life when I was little, and the woods behind my house would become the enchanted forest, or under my bed would become the great burrow of Watership Down, or a cardboard box would become the dumbwaiter to hide in to spy on people like Harriet.

Looking forward to reading her latest novel, which I also put on hold at my library
posted by the primroses were over at 5:01 AM on July 6, 2022