The Taiwanese Translation of Tsukuru Tazaki Coming Out Tomorrow

The first Chinese translation of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki is to appear in Taiwan on October 1, 2013.

The translator is Lai Ming-zhu(頼明珠) who has rendered into Chinese practically everything Haruki Murakami has ever written, including his essays (c.f. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/頼明珠).  We are happy to see that her name is printed on the cover.

The book can be pre-ordered until today at a discount price. Here are some links: https://www.facebook.com/hurukimurakami
http://www.readingtimes.com.tw/ReadingTimes/ProductPage.aspx?gp=productdetail&cid=rtai09(SellItems)&id=AIA0962A&itemid=86
http://www.books.com.tw/products/0010597873
http://www.readingtimes.com.tw/
http://www.kingstone.com.tw/book/book_page.asp?kmcode=2028611043818

It seems that the book went on sale a few days earlier in Hong Kong (and has already sold a million copies!), which has some Taiwanese readers irate.

Trailer for the Spanish Translation of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki Posted on the Internet

The Spanish publisher of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki, Tusquets Editores, posted a trailer for the novel on the publisher's webpage. To see it go to:
http://www.tusquetseditores.com/murakami/
and click on BOOK TRAILER.
or you can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/75382101

The Spanish translation is to come out on October 15th. The catalogue on the publisher's page lists the book, its price, even the number of pages (320), but the translator's name is not mentioned, which makes us sad.
http://www.tusquetseditores.com/titulos/andanzas-los-anyos-de-peregrinacion-del-chico-sin-color

This is the Spanish book club cover, which can be found on Curtis Brown website:

http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/haruki-murakami//gallery/

The German Cover of Tsukuru Tazaki

Curtis Brown, Murakami's London agent, has posted the German cover of Tsukuru Tazaki on the agency's website. It has not been posted on the publisher's website yet (http://www.dumont-buchverlag.de).
This is what the book will look like:

http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/haruki-murakami//gallery/

It seems that the title will be Die Pilgerjahre des Farblosen Herrn Tazaki. We have heard through the grapevine that the publisher plans to release the book on January 10, 2014 to coincide with Haruki Murakami's 65th birthday. 

The Internet is Abuzz with Predictions of Haruki Murakami's Nobel Chances

During the last few days, when one Googles "Tsukuru Tazaki," a lot of articles appear about Haruki Murakami's chances for winning the Nobel Prize this year. He is rumored to be leading the list of contenders, followed by Joyce Carol Oates.

In the spirit of the international character of this blog, we thought it would be interesting to put links to and fragments of articles from sources we usually don't quote.  For instance, this Albanian source:

Haruki Murakami kandidati më i mundshë për Nobel

20.09.2013 | 16:53

Edhe sivjet, shumë emra shkrimtarësh do të përmenden si kandidatë për ta fituar Çmimin Nobel për Letërsi. Haruki Murakami ka filluar të spikatet si kandidati më i mundshëm. Njëjtë si vjet. Kur s'fitoi.

Shkrimtari i famshëm japonez Haruki Murakami është favoriti kryesor për ta fituar Çmimin Nobel për Letërsi. Kështu vlerësojnë bastoret letrare.

Bastorja Ladbrokes ofron kuotën më të lartë për të (3-1). Pason shkrimtarja amerikane Joyce Carol Oates, pastaj hungarezi Peter Nadas, koreanojugori Ko Un dhe algjeriani Assia Djebar.

Murakami ka adhurues të shumtë në tërë botën dhe viteve të fundit rregullisht përmendet si fitues i mundshëm i Nobelit. Vitin e kaluar humbi nga shkrimtari kinez Mo Yan.

To read the whole article go to:

http://www.standardi.info/index.aspx?SID=13&LID=2&AID=119023&Ctype=1&ACatID=11



And an article in Romanian:

Japonezul Haruki Murakami, favorit la premiul Nobel pentru literatură

Postat in 20 septembrie 2013 la ora 11:22 de Olivia Tudor

Renumitul scriitor japonez Haruki Murakami este, din nou, favorit la premiul Nobel pentru literatură, potrivit rezultatelor anunțate, vineri, de casele de pariuri.

Site-ul Ladbrokes.com a afișat, vineri, o cotă de 3-1 în favoarea romancierului japonez la premiul care va fi anunțat, luna viitoare, în Suedia. În același top, Murakami este urmat de americanul Joyce Carol Oates, cu o cotă de 6-1 și de scriitorul ungar Peter Nadas, cu o cotă de 7-1.

Murakami a fost nominalizat în mod regulat pentru acest premiu în ultimii ani și a fost desemnat favorit, și anul trecut, în topul Ladbrokes, când premiul a fost câștigat de scriitorul chinez Mo Yan.

(...)

Romanul său în trei volume, ”1Q84″, are succes pe plan internațional, iar acum fanii așteaptă cu nerăbdare noul său roman ”Shikisai wo Motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to Kare no Junrei no Toshi” (trad. „Tsukuru Tazaki cel fără culoare și anii săi de pelerinaj”), ce va fi publicat anul viitor.

For the whole story go to: 

http://rnews.ro/2013/09/20/japonezul-haruki-murakami-favorit-la-premiul-nobel-pentru-literatura/


There are also articles in the Himalayan Times (the biggest Nepalese newspaper):
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Japan%27s+Murakami+favourite+for+Nobel+&NewsID=391534

and the Hindustan Times:
http://www.freenewspos.com/news/article/f/274473/today/japan-039-s-murakami-favourite-for-nobel-prize-again-hindustan-times

A Kenyan page published an article titled: Why Ngugi wa Thiong’o ‘won’t bag Nobel Prize’ 
explaining that Haruki Murakami and Joyce Carol Oates are this year's favorites. 

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/?articleID=2000093695&story_title=why-ngugi-wa-thiong-o-won-t-bag-nobel-prize

Ngugi wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan-born writer, currently a professor of literature at University of California,  Irvine. 

Tsukuru Tazaki's Possible Ancestry

In June, we posted a link to an article on Japanliteratur.net comparing Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki to South of the Border, West of the Sun. But when rereading A Wild Sheep Chase recently, I noticed a passage where Boku talks about having received a letter from the Rat. He checks the stamp to see where it had been sent from:
          "The Rat's words had reached me from a small town on the northern tip of Honshu, smack in the
           middle of Aomori Prefecture. According to my book of train schedules, about an hour from the
           city of Aomori. Five trains stopped every day, two in the morning, one at noon, two in the
           evening." (A Wild Sheep Chase, tr. by Alfred Birnbaum, Vintage International, 1989, p. 91)

The book came out in Japan in 1982. I wonder if most 30-year-old Japanese guys had "a book of train schedules" for all of Japan at home. If not, perhaps this Boku from 31 years ago has something in common with the train-station-and-time-table loving Tsukuru Tazaki?

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Lost/Found in Translation Stops Posting Installments of Tsukuru Tazaki

The author of the blog Lost/Found in Translation was recently asked to stop posting installments of his own English translations Tsukuru Tazaki, as it constituted copyright infringement.  He mentioned in his post explaining the sudden change that in a way he felt flattered that he had been contacted by "Murakami's literary reps," since it meant that he was getting a decent amount of attention.

A Helpful Page for Tsukuru Tazaki Translators and Readers?

The fans of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki don't rest!

We have written before about Lost/Found in Translation (http://lostfoundintrans.wordpress.com) expressing some reservations about copyright issues (the author is posting his own English translation of Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki. He is currently working on Chapter 5).  A new post appeared today on Lost/Found in Translation advertising another blog: http://nihonbungakugadaisukida.blogspot.be/.

The author of this one explains:

Hi! I'm a big fan of Japanese literature. One of my favorites is Haruki Murakami. I'm currently reading his latest novel (色彩を持たない田崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年) in Japanese. Its English title is “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage”.
I started making a basic word list based on Jim Breen's superb free online dictionary (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?9T). I only listed the words that I didn't know. I will try to add at least one page per week (depends on my busy job).

This could potentially be a big help for those who are considering translating or reading the book in the original. This is what a page looks like: