Translating Nishiwaki: Beyond Reading
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TRANSLATING NISHIWAKI: BEYOND READING by HO SEA HIRATA B.A., McGill University, 1979 M.F.A., The University of British Columbia, 1981 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES PROGRAMME IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August 1987 (c) Hosea Hirata, 1987 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. ^-BeparirnenT of Ogmv^gy,'/C The University of British Columbia 1956 Main Mall Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Y3 Date /4tA^ . JO j ^7 DE-6(3/81) Abstract This dissertation is divided into two parts. Part Two contains my translations of Japanese texts by Nishiwaki Junzaburo (1894-1982): three essays from Chogenjitsushugi shiron (Surrealist Poetics) (1929), his first and second collections of poems written in Japanese, Ambarvalia (1933) and Tabibito kaerazu (No Traveller Returns) (1947), as well as a long poem from his "middle period," entitled "Eterunitas" (1962). Part One, consisting of three chapters, attempts to expose various theoretical issues that these translations bring forth. Through this "expose," several major issues surface, namely, the concepts of Language, Poetry, and Translation. Further, these concepts are interrelated by a "paradisal" centre—the notion of "non-meaning." Chapter One presents a deconstructive examination of the notion of translation. Two opposing manifestations of Language, writing and reading, are set forth by way of Roland Barthes's textual concepts, "l£ scriptible" and "le_ lisible." "Writing" is here defined as a language-movement of production that opposes "knowledge," while "reading" is regarded as the consumption of codes, that is, "knowing." The question posed at this point is: what status does "translation" possess in terms of these two opposing language-movements? Is it writing or reading? Through Walter Benjamin's essay on translation, "Die Aufgabe des Ubersetzers" (The Task of the Translator), as well as through Jacques Derrida's reading of it in his "Des Tours de Babel," translation is revealed to hold an essentially paradoxical function: a translation is secondary to the original in its status, yet it deconstructs the original and triggers the survival movement of Language towards its paradisal state of non-meaning. Thus translation is seen as partaking of an originary movement of writing, which Derrida elsewhere names "differance." In Chapter Two, Nishiwaki's notion of Poetry presented in his Surrealist Poetics is discussed along with Georges Bataille's notions of "depense" and "non-savoir," as well as with Derrida's grammatology. Nishiwaki proposes a negative evolution of poetry whose ultimate end is the (self-)extinction of poetry. Similarly, Bataille locates Poetry in the self-sacrificial "jouissance," beyond identity, beyond knowledge. Derrida*s notion of "arche-writing" in turn exposes the "always-already" existence of the essentially transgressive movement of "writing" everywhere in our logocentric universe. Through these discourses, then, Poetry is envisioned as the death of writing, located outside of Language, in the paradise of non-meaning. Every writing strives towards this paradisal goal. At the same time, for Nishiwaki, this paradise includes an origin (the origin of poetry) which he names "tsumaranasa (boredom, insignificance) of reality." Poetry thus begins and ends in this fundamental loss of language, meaning, and knowledge. In Chapter Three, the translated poems of Nishiwaki are discussed as representing not "reality" but a certain movement of Language, be it Benjamin's "translation" or Derrida*s "arche-writing." The text of Ambarvalia essentially presents fissures in the Japanese language caused by the invasion of foreign tongues. Thus it is Nishiwaki's translatory textual strategy that produces a "new" poetic language. In No Traveller Returns, Nishiwaki's willful appropriation of past traditions is brought forth. In "Eterunitas," we witness the failure of silence, Language's failure to attain Poetry, initiating the incessant flow of writing, poetry, and translation, beyond reading. Contents Abstract ii Introduction 1 Part One: Translating Nishiwaki, Beyond Reading Chapter One: Translation and Paradise 7 Chapter Two: Poetry of Sovereignty, Pure Poetry 39 Chapter Three: Ambarvalia to Eternity 79 • Part Two: Translations of Works by Nishiwaki Junzaburo I. Surrealist Poetics Profanus 124 The Extinction of Poetry 151 Esthetique Foraine 165 II. Poetry Ambarvalia 189 No Traveller Returns 230 Eterunitas 325 Works Cited 344 1 Introduction This dissertation is divided into two parts. Part One contains materials "introductory" to Part Two. Yet the reader will be well-advised to begin with Part Two, which contains my translations of Japanese texts by Nishiwaki Junzaburo. Nishiwaki Junzaburo was born in 1894 and died in 1982. He is commonly regarded as the father of literary modernism in Japan. By profession he was a professor of English and linguistics at Keio University in Tokyo. His main scholarly interest was in Medieval English literature; but his artistic interest was clearly drawn towards modernism, which he absorbed during his three-year stay in England. His linguistic abilities were quite exceptional. He knew Latin, Greek, German, French, and English very well. In fact he began writing poetry in foreign languages and did not even attempt to write poetry in Japanese till he was in his late thirties. My translations consist of his first collection of Japanese poems entitled Ambarvalia published in 1933, his second collection Tabibito kaerazu (No Traveller Returns) published in 1947, and a long poem "Eterunitas" ("Eternity" in Latin transliterated) published in 1962, as well as a selection from his theoretical writings published as Chogenj itsushugi shiron, translated here as Surrealist Poetics. Part One, consisting of three chapters, attempts to expose various issues that these translated Nishiwaki-texts bring out. There are several central issues that are interrelated and woven through the text: Language, Poetry, and Translation. And if there must be a centre, a unifying focus, the notion of "non-meaning" should be named. This is a study of the "non-meaning" toward which Language, Poetry, and Translation all aspire. 2 First, three textual movements of language are distinguished. They are writing, reading, and translation. The distinction between writing and reading is drawn from the notions of the writerly and readerly texts presented in Roland Barthes's S/Z. According to Barthes, reading is an activity of consumption, that is, consuming of established codes. Writing is an act of pure production in which reading of codes becomes impossible. This notion of writing is very similar to Georges Bataille's notion of / "depense," designating an extreme expenditure whose only goal is to lose. In this sense, writing becomes paradoxically an act of production without products, production to the point of losing. Reading can be thought of as an act of knowing. Writing, on the other hand, moves in the opposite direction from knowing, towards what Bataille calls "non-savoir," the sacrifice of knowledge. Writing thus becomes an act of unknowing. What is translation in relation to these opposing notions of writing and reading? Is translation reading or writing? In order to respond to these questions, the notion of translation expounded in Walter Benjamin's "Task of the Translator" becomes the focal point in Chapter One. According to Benjamin, all languages strive to become one in what he calls "pure language." Pure language is a certain absolute state of language in which the separation between signifier and signified ceases, where meaning is no longer necessary, where the word is instantly truth. Benjamin thinks that translation is the only means to achieve this paradisal unity of languages. Translation for Benjamin, however, is not a simple means to transmit the content or the meaning of the original text. The paradisal state of non-meaning, of pure language, is already in the original text, in a poem. Benjamin says "No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the listener" (69). Therefore, the task of 3 translation is to carry the incommunicable elements, the very non-meaning, across languages so that the languages will be united in pure language, in the paradisal non-meaning. What emerges from these notions of writing, reading, and translation is a certain drive towards non-meaning seemingly inherent in language itself. This drive towards non-meaning or non-savoir is also clearly visible in Nishiwaki's theoretical writings. In an attempt to define poetry, Nishiwaki posits a negative evolution of poetry unto its own death. He claims that poetry is essentially an anti-expressive act. That is, poetry is an effort not to express. It is indeed an effort to abolish itself. He writes that the most advanced mode of poetry is that which is closest to its own extinction. Nishiwaki also claims that poetry must be founded