Uehashi Nahoko Translation Project
So this is already a huge undertaking, but some commenters have asked for resources linking to other translations of Uehashi Nahoko's other fiction works. I managed to (finally!) get my hands on The Complete Guide to Guardian of the Spirit this week, as well as Uehashi's three early novels, The Sacred Tree, The God Sleeps in the Forest of the Moon, and Beyond the Werefox Whistle.
I've flipped through all of these and find the style of each reasonably accessible, so I'll be trying my hand at these once the first phase is over.
So here's my corralling, in order, of all the current Uehashi novels currently available in translation, with tentative dates on when others should be available.
The Sacred Tree
The God Sleeps in the Forest of the Moon
Beyond the Werefox Whistle
Est. Completion 06/2025
Koukun (Scent)
These are all the translations that are out there at the moment, through official and unofficial sources. If there's any more out there, let me know.
I may try to translate the gaiden/short stories for Beast Player if those don't get picked up for translation, but I'm leaving it off this list until I'm done with the rest.
Translating the first three books of the Moribito series is still on the
table as well, though I won't be able to post my version of the first two
books here.
Yo, this is wonderful news. I know Deer King is supposedly being made into an anime, but I don't know much about most of her work (except Kemono no Souja; gonna buy the English versions when they're both in paperback). I'm prejudiced and expect none will be as good as Moribito, but I'm still really interested to see what they're like. AND, you have the Official Guide now, which means even that extra Moribito short story is on the docket! Gosh, it's like Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit salty the anime for Beast Player was 50 episodes versus only 26 episodes for Moribito.
DeleteI wish Moribito had more episodes but I guess it won't happen :(
At least there was the tv drama though.
I am, too... but also Beast Player had so much friggin' filler. I feel like if you cut out the flashbacks that series would be 2/3 as long. I was also sad when the drama ended up being shorter than it was originally planned to be, but it's nice to have the full series adapted to video. I maintain hope that the series will remain popular enough that the future might hold a sequel, reboot, or totally new adaptation as well. Hope springs eternal. XD
DeleteI watched an episode of Beast Player. It seemed like a sort of interesting show, but the Touda creep me out a lot. Why didn't Nahoko make the beasts that are being ridden something cuter looking like maybe pandas or something?
DeleteDon't get me wrong, I actually love small reptiles and think they are cute, its just when the reptile looks like a western dragon without the cool aspects of western dragons like wings and fire breathing that I feel slightly unsettled.
DeleteOf course its not my place to tell an author how their story should have been written lol.
The central conflict of Beast Player has the Touda used as beasts of war, so there's a limit to how cute and cuddly they can be! :) I also found the second half of the Beast Player anime tedious, mainly because it was too focused on The Agenda to focus on the characters. As a story, it's pretty one-note. For all the complex geopolitical explanations, the central conflict of the novels surrounds whether or not it's ever justified to go to war. Some of the ideas in the anime were better than that, IMHO, though they never really went anywhere.
DeleteThere are two stories in Complete Guide to Guardian of the Spirit; both are short (very short, alas!) but I'll be translating them in their proper place--I think my schedule has them after the main series and before the gaiden. There are some essays on the anime and drama that I might try to translate as well; we'll see when I get that far. I prefer translating narrative and would prefer to do that before diving into extras. :)
ReplyDeleteThe style of "The God Sleeps in the Forest of the Moon" is quite lovely; "Beyond the Werefox Whistle" has the most interesting plot to my tastes. I'm interested in "The Sacred Tree" as Uehashi's first book, not because of its inherent virtues; its structure is a bit odd.
It's possible Uehashi might have a new novel out by the time I finish this... I really hope the Deer King translator doesn't give up!
I wonder if Uehashi suffers from the phenomenon of many authors' first book being their worst. XD I definitely expect she'll keep writing, though! She's a lot younger than I thought at first, so she's got another good, what, 20-30 years of publications in her at least, lol.
DeleteI also noticed you're translating the Dororo novels, too, so that's even more fun stuff to read, eh? Tons of reading material just waiting for a free moment. :)
The "Dororo" novels go really, really slow though (I didn't work on those at all last week! But I'll finish them eventually). "The Sacred Tree" is probably the genesis for a lot of the imagery in the second Guardian of the God book; that's certainly what it seems like based on the blurb. It's done in a much older style than the others, a bit stilted and stiff to my ears (kind of like a folktale collection). I'm still wrestling with how I want to translate it. The others should be easier... here's hoping!
DeleteIt could be. Even reading the first Moribito book and reading the later ones in the series it looks like the author improved somewhat (she seems to do a lot of telling rather than showing in book 1)
ReplyDeleteI have always loved to write, but if you were to compare the things I wrote when I was twelve years old to the stuff I write now you'd notice a very clear change in quality. People get better as they write more. Hoping I can one day become a published author. My current WIP is a paranormal story told from the perspective of an onryo.
When I finish, I would like to move on to writing my own fantasy novel and doing so in a style that would be reminiscent of Moribito. What would you say gives Moribito its charm? What weaknesses do the books have? And what makes characters like Chagum or Balsa seem so appealing?
Everything gets better with practice. :) I've been writing for a long while, too, though most of what I do is technical these days.
DeleteThere are a lot of appealing things about Moribito, but what drew me to them initially was that they were fantasy/action with a strong female protagonist. I would have read the whole series in English if it had been available at the time. I like seeing Balsa navigate a world that is very much like ours in some ways--cultures are steeped in racism and sexism, for example--and yet, at the same time, the world is not ours. Balsa's options and reactions are informed by the life she's led and the world she lives in. It's clear that the author loves the world, gave it a fair amount of thought, and shaped her characters to fit within it rather than shoehorning in a soapbox message or making characters act like they're from our world in an ancient fantasy setting.
I also think the series has broad age appeal and appeal across genders; the adults are going to love Balsa, Tanda, Hugo, Tosa and the more complex adult characters while the kids are going to latch like barnacles onto Chagum, Asra, and Chikisa, since these are essentially ordinary kids with extraordinary destinies and powers.
The series is also thematically and ideologically consistent, with a strong focus on protecting what's been given to you to protect. That's true of small stakes (Balsa saving Chagum's life) and large ones (Chagum saving all of New Yogo's people from drowning--with help, of course). Characters bound by this theme are usually not family, but that bond makes them closer than family, in the end. Protection is how Balsa shows love. :) The character interactions and relationships that result from this theme are life-affirming and heartwarming. Everyone has something or someone that they would give their lives for. The series explores what putting your life on the line means, and what it can cost.
Mostly, though, I like this series for its characters. I love how they think and how they talk; there's not a dummy among 'em, and nearly everyone is trying to do what they think is right, even the "bad guys." There's a nuanced view of reality in this world where no one is truly "good" or "bad." I think it's true to life. No one gets up in the morning and wants to do a lousy job at work or make another coworker's life miserable thanks to some bad habit or other, but these things happen whether we make a conscious choice to do them or not. The negative results of character actions are usually something that a character couldn't be expected to foresee. This makes even the villains more compelling as characters, because it's harder to believe they're wrong.
Good luck breaking into publishing! It is hard, but keep on trying if that's your dream. :)
I very much agree about the found-family themes. Chagum's real dad is a jerk, but Tanda and Balsa are these wonderful parent figures who take him in without a second thought. Asra and Chikisa are penniless hunted orphans, and Tanda and Balsa take them on, too. Then Martha steps in as their mother. Torogai stepped in to be Tanda's parent when Tanda's own (shitty) family rejected him because he was weird and different. Jiguro became Balsa's father to such great extent that he killed his own friends to save her. (And we all know Mon is everyone's dad among the Hunters. ;P ) I think it's a nice message.
DeleteAnother theme that seems to pop up again and again, which fits with Uehashi's background, is the idea of folklore/legend, how it's formed, how it's passed down, how it influences the cultures around it. The New Yogo founding myth is a great example of that, but also the stories of Sada Talhamaya and of the Hyohlu. When the chain of folklore transmission is broken or twisted, problems arise: people try to kill the Nyunga Ro Chaga, people try to steal the luisha from the Mountain King, people try to use Talhamaya's power to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity.
And yes, everyone has real and generally reasonable motives, even the really lousy ones like Raul and Shihana and, ugh, yes, the Mikado. They are products of their upbringings and you can see how they might not have turned out to be jerks if they'd been raised a little different. All the more the tragedy. :/
@Great Seishin:
DeleteWhat would you say gives Moribito its charm?
Amazing worldbuilding, good themes, great characters, all as discussed above. Fantasy without being fantastical - the world feels like you could live in it, and like it could exist somewhere. It rings true.
What weaknesses do the books have?
Uehashi likes to end the book on a cliffhanger and then jump to an epilogue that just has everything already resolved, which I find super obnoxious. Maybe I *wanted* to see how Eshana got out of being murdered? Maybe I need more of a denoument than "and then everything was fine the end!"?
And what makes characters like Chagum or Balsa seem so appealing?
They are clever, tough, and good, doing the best they can, but they also have real weaknesses. For instance, Balsa can be bloodthirsty and struggles with expressing her emotions. They are also very much a product of what they've lived through. Balsa learned bloodthirstiness and emotional stoicism as survival tactics when she was on the run from Kanbal for years and years. They're not substanceless Sues, one-note action heroes, weak damsels who wait to be rescued when in a bad situation. They have agency. And flaws. And history.