This week I have been reading Hiromi Kawakami’s 2001 novel, 「センセイの鞄」SENSEI NO KABAN (The teacher’s bag/briefcase), translated as ‘Strange Weather in Tokyo’ by Allison Markin Powell.

In this post, I will address 3 elements of the story and of the required translation that stood out.

Firstly, why on earth is SENSEI written in katakana, which is (usually used for foreign origin words?

This irregular use of katakana is addressed by the narrator right at the start:

「先生」でもなく、「せんせい」でもなく、カタカナで「センセイ」だ。SENSEI DE MO NAKU, SENSEI DE MO NAKU, KATAKANA DE SENSEI DA.

(My literal translation: it’s not ‘sensei’ in kanji characters, neither is it ‘sensei’ in hiragana, it’s ‘sensei’ in katakana.

Of course, my awkward translation clearly wouldn’t make sense to ordinary readers.

The translator neatly rearranged the sentence as: ‘Not Sir, or Mr, just Sensei’.

My guess for why the author used katakana for someone’s name is that it suggests intimacy, as well as uniqueness. Sensei in kanji 先生 looks like a job, in katakana センセイ it looks like a name. And using the kanji: 先生 would make the teacher undistinguishable from any other Sensei. Any thoughts anyone?

Secondly, I was struck by the sudden informal speech and language used in a conversation, between the female narrator, Tsukiko Omachi, and an former male classmate called Kojima.

Tsukiko starts the conversation by asking a question:

「小島くん、今何してるの」KOJIMA-KUN, IMA NANI SHITERU NO ‘Kojima, what do you do now?’

「サラリーマン。大町は」 SARARIIMAN. OMACHI WA? I work in an office. And you?

「OL」OOERU Me too.

「そうか」SOUKA Really?

「そうよ」SOUYO Really.

From the original translation, both Omachi and Kojima’s jobs are exactly the same.

But in Japanese, Omachi’s job is described as OL pronounced オーエル OOERU is short for office lady who usually performs clerical tasks.

Whereas Kojima’s describes his job as a サラリーマン SARARIIMAN which covers a broader range of jobs and applies to men.　

The word サラリーマン SARARIIMAN has apparently been in the Japanese language for over 100 years used to describe a wide range of fixed-salary, office-based jobs.

It seems both of these dated words are now falling out of use (the novel is 20 years old). According to this Japanese website, this gender-discriminatory language is now disappearing as more men and women use the gender neutral: 会社員 KAISHA-IN (company employee).

Finally, to illustrate some of the extreme formality of the language in the novel, I will introduce some dramatic words from Sensei, the eccentric retired Japanese Language teacher who is the romantic object of attention for the narrator.

Sensei and Tsukiko are sat together on a park bench. In contrast to Kojima and Tsukiko who speak informally with each other all the time, Sensei and Tsukiko’s conversations are filled with the polite -DESU and -MASU forms, including the following words from Sensei:

「ワタクシと、恋愛を前提としたおつきあいをして、いただけますでしょうか」WATAKUSHI TO RENAI O ZENTEI TO SHITA O-TSUKIAI O SHITE ITADAKEMASU DESHOU KA

(My literal translation: Would you be able to do me the favour of going out with me on the premise of love?)

(Translator’s translation: Would you consider a relationship with me based on the premise of love?)

The Japanese expression is extremely formal. Following a -MASU verb with -DESHOU to soften the request would never be used in conversations with friends.

This level of extreme formality is hard to express in English. The fact it is being used between 2 people about to enter a relationship makes it more striking.

Sensei is a bit of an anachronism. He doesn’t seem to belong in the 20th century let alone the 21st. That’s part of his charm.

He even refers to himself with the more formal WATAKUSHI not WATASHI. This use of a different pronoun for the self in Japanese still catches me by surprise.

We don’t have that option in English - unless I have missed something.