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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]The Twelve Kingdoms
Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows
:
B
OOK
I
十二国記
(Juuni Kokki)
The Twelve Kingdoms
月の影・影の海
(Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi)
“Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows”
written by
不由美小野
(Fuyumi Ono)
translated by
Eugene Woodbury
edited by
immi
written by Fuyumi Ono
translated by Eugene Woodbury
The Twelve Kingdoms
Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows
:
B
OOK
I
Book I
Translated from the Koudansha Bunko Edition (ISBN: 4-06-264773-7)
Cover: Koudansha X Bunko White Heart Edition (ISBN: 4-06-255071-7)
written by Fuyumi Ono
translated by Eugene Woodbury
The Twelve Kingdoms
Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows
:
B
OOK
I
Introduction
suki no Kage, Kage no Umi
introduces Youko Nakajima as the principal
character in the first of two novels from Fuyumi Ono’s epic series,
The
Twelve Kingdoms
, that together form the foundation of the subsequent
narratives. It is also where the
begins.
However, the anime conflates several plot elements and invents others.
Sugimoto, for example, does
not
accompany Youko to the Twelve Kingdoms. Asano is
completely made up (they attend an all-girl's school, after all), and he quickly disappears
from the stage. Including these characters as convenient dramatic foils unfortunately
adulterates an otherwise compelling account of wrenching personal growth. In the book,
Youko faces her demons very much alone.
The starkness of her plight deepens the desperation of her actions and heightens the
substance of her resolve. The moral evolution of her character, symbolized by her
encounters with the harassing id of a monkey spirit, extends over the first volume of the
book and builds towards a more profound and satisfactory resolve.
Ono’s novels are wildly successful in Japan, which makes it all the more difficult to
understand, given the popularity of anime and manga, why no U.S. publisher has picked
up the series. One obstacle might be that the Swords & Sorcery genre, from King Arthur
to
Lord of the Rings
and even
Star Wars
, has long reflected presumptions about the
European history and culture, even when the story happened “a long time ago, in a galaxy
far, far away.”
Fuyumi Ono is also reaching back for a historical context, but to China. Her “Middle
Earth” is suspended between modern Japan and ancient China. The fall of the Han
Dynasty in the third century A.D. was followed by a period of political upheaval
commonly known as the “Three Kingdoms.” The era also produced China’s most
important literary work,
. The title of Ono’s series
undoubtedly echoes this historical reality.
The philosophical counterpart to Christianity (Tolkien was a devout Catholic) would,
of course, be Confucianism. The second half of the novel, especially chapter 59, serves as
a primer on the political implications of Confucian metaphysics, with the Royal En
quoting almost verbatim from Chapter 13 of
The Analects of Confucius
: “How can he
who cannot rule himself rule others?” (Compare Proverbs 16:31-33.)
This could be said to constitute the theme of the book as a whole.
written by Fuyumi Ono
translated by Eugene Woodbury
The Twelve Kingdoms
Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows
:
B
OOK
I
Rest assured, though. Just as you need not be a medievalist to read J.R.R. Tolkien or
C.S. Lewis, Ono’s narrative stands well enough on its own. The historical precedent Ono
is drawing upon does present certain challenges to the translator, however. As noted
above, she has created in the Twelve Kingdoms a uniquely complex geopolitical
landscape, detailing a hierarchy of governance that includes even the structure of the
education system.
The problem is, she often creates her own compound words (think of descriptive
terms such as “nation-state” and “city-state,” and then extend that to a made-up term like
“county-state”). The map that accompanies the novel clearly identifies kingdom, province,
and city/town/village. But then Ono throws in three additional geopolitical divisions
between city/town and province.
The first of these is a county or shire. The second resembles a Japanese prefecture
and has a governor. If the European Union were a kingdom, then Great Britain would be
a province, and Scotland a prefecture. The division above the prefecture is a “district.” As
defines it, “Nobody actually lives in a district; it is for administrative
purposes only” (similar to a federal appeals court district).
Ultimately, the most convenient reference point is the
of China:
province, prefecture, county, township, and village/hamlet.
Japanese
English Equivalent
Overseer
Example
Federal Jurisdictions
国
(koku)
Kingdom
King/Empress/Royal
Kou
州
(shuu)
Province
Province Lord/Marquis Jun
郡
(gun)
District (for administrative purposes only)
Fuyou
State Jurisdictions
郷
(gou)
Prefecture
Governor
Rokou
県
(ken)
County/Shire (ward subdivisions)
Shin
党
(tou)
City (county and prefecture seats)
Municipal Jurisdictions
街
(machi)
City (walled)
族
(zoku)
Township (for administrative purposes only)
里
(ri)
Town (walled)
Elder
Hairou
廬
(ru)
Hamlet (un-walled farming community)
In one instance, though, Ono’s vocabulary resists translation: the title. The
translation I have used, “Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows,” is a literal one,
applying the more common meaning to
kage
. However,
kage
can be also be translated as
“reflection,” as in “reflected light” or “reflected image.” This usage is found in a haiku
from the
Kokinshu
(10
th
century, author unknown):
written by Fuyumi Ono
translated by Eugene Woodbury
The Twelve Kingdoms
Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows
:
B
OOK
I
Ko no ma yori
Morikuru
tsuki no
Kage
mireba
Kokorozukushi no
Aki wa kinikeri
木の間より
もりくる月の
影見れば
心づくしの
秋はきにけり
I look up and see
moonlight
slipping through the trees
And so I know
that fond autumn
has come at last
The phrase
tsuki no kage
here means “reflection of the moon,” or “moonlight.” In the
novel, Ono specifically uses the phrase to describe the reflection of the full moon off the
surface of the ocean. In other words, in English, the opposite of “shadow.”
In another instance, Youko is standing on a cliff looking down at the Sea of
Emptiness (
Kyokai
), and sees the stars of the Milky Way shining up from the dark,
translucent depths. In this case,
kage
refers to the shadow-like surface of a sea that “even
in the light of dawn, looked like night” and the glowing starlight scattered through it “like
grains of sand.”
This dual meaning shows up in the Kurosawa film
Kagemusha
, or “Shadow
Warrior.” The title comes from
kage
(shadow/reflection) +
musha
(warrior). The movie
concerns a lowly samurai who is discovered to be a doppelganger for his commanding
general. When the general is killed in battle, the samurai is installed in his place to
deceive their enemies. But he is a reflection of his dead lord, doomed to be nothing more
than the man’s empty silhouette.
A more accurate translation of
Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi
might be, “The Moon’s
Reflection on a Sea of Stars.” But that is a bit too pretty, and lacks that sense of
“otherness” that the original Japanese creates. Even as a somewhat strained transliteration,
Shadow of the Moon, a Sea of Shadows
works well enough that I am loath to give it up.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Translation, as opposed to reading, really does focus the mind on what the author
actually
means,
as opposed to simply propelling you along the narrative track. So the real
credit goes to Fuyumi Ono for writing some of the most fascinating and creative novels
in the high fantasy genre—in any language—and that only gets more interesting and
morally complex as you go along.
Turning what began as an exercise in studying Japanese into readable prose was not
a solo effort. I leaned heavily on Yoshie Omura's collection of
resources.
Yuko generously answered my questions about Japanese syntax and semantics. I'm
indebted to Wiebe for pointing out typos and inconsistencies in the translation along the
way, and to immi for slogging through the hard and too often thankless work of
copyediting the entire novel.
written by Fuyumi Ono
translated by Eugene Woodbury
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
