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Sayaka Murata (author), Ginny Tapley Takemori (translator), Life Ceremony, Granta Books, 2023. 272 pgs.
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Sayaka Murata’s Life Ceremony is a disturbing and provocative collection of short stories that point out and challenge society’s arbitrary definition of “normal”. Japanese culture, which has been heavily influenced by Shintoism, draws clear distinctions between self and other, purity and impurity. Murata’s stories destabilise societal structures and norms by presenting “bizarre” situations in a casual and almost beautiful manner: death is celebrated in the form of elaborate meals made from the deceased’s body; veils of human skin adorn the heads of brides; and curtains act as the third “person” in love triangles. Ginny Tapley-Takemori’s translation offers a perfect balance of matter-of-factness and absurdity, preventing an otherwise gruesome collection from turning off the English reader.
Tapley-Takemori has demonstrated a genderising tendency in both this collection and her translation of Convenience Store Woman, or konbini ningen (literally: convenience store human). When comparing a randomly selected story, “Lover on the Breeze”, to the Japanese, there was a similar discrepancy when the protagonist remarks that “blue is for boys”. The Japanese makes no reference to gender, and instead explains that the shade of blue will make it hard to distinguish the time of day. If read in tandem with the Japanese, this “mistranslation” could simply reflect the arbitrariness of gender as a social construct; however, since most English readers either can’t or won’t read the Japanese, this was likely not the intent. These genderised translations are then read as a gross imposition of Western notions of masculinity and femininity and an uncharacteristic reinforcement of social structures. But whether this is a fault of the translator, editor, or even the author herself, it is unclear.
Of the twelve short stories in the collection, “Lover on the Breeze” and the title story “Life Ceremony” have stayed with me the most. There is something light and airy about the prose in “Lover on the Breeze” that perfectly encapsulates the narrator—a blue curtain. Tapley-Takemori handles the simple voice perfectly to convey innocent love, allowing space for the humour that keeps the reader from taking things too seriously. “Life Ceremony” is much different in tone and subject, more closely mirroring the aloof voice of Furukura in Convenience Store Woman. The story throws readers for multiple loops as the narrator fluctuates between her present situation and long, expository reflections that serve to characterise our narrator. Emotional scenes are rendered with just the right amount of emotional distance that allows the life ceremony to be touching and disturbing. “Poochie” is one short story that I felt was a little wanting. A story about two high school girls and their salaryman “pet”, I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to leave the story feeling. The syntactical rhythm is awkward in a way that feels unintentional, and the humour of the Japanese is almost entirely lost in the translation. The English almost seems to take itself too seriously, rendering the comical absurdity of the plot moot.
Overall, there is a lot of food for thought across the stories. The translation fluctuates in quality, but it shouldn’t deter potential readers because when the translations hit, they really hit.
How to cite: Najmulski, Grace. “When The Translations Hit, They Really Hit: Sayaka Murata’s Life Ceremony.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 6 Apr. 2024, chajournal.blog/2024/04/06/life-ceremony.
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Grace Najmulski is a second year at the University of Iowa’s MFA in Literary Translation who translates from Chinese (simplified and traditional characters) and Japanese. They learned both languages in their undergraduate studies at Middlebury College after a YOLO moment made them decide to major in both. Inspired by the words of Gayatri Spivak, they hope to challenge English language norms by introducing the beauty of other languages in their translations. Very anti-colonialist spirit. Hobbies include: reading, bookstagram, badminton, eating, napping, rewatching the same shows on Netflix, and worshipping their cat (what a cutie patootie). [All contributions by Grace Najmulski.]