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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the translation of musical metaphors and musicalized language in pre-war Japan through a parallel close reading of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem 'Roman' (1870) and its Japanese translation 'Monogatari' by Nakahara Chūya.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the translation of musical metaphors and musicalized language in 1930s Japan through the lens of 'Monogatari', Nakahara Chūya’s rendition of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem 'Roman' (1870). Chūya is known as one of the pioneers of Dadaist poetry in Japan, but also as a translator of 19th century symbolist poets such as Verlaine and Rimbaud. An important recurring theme in both Chūya’s work and that of his French predecessors is the relation between language and music. In Roman/Monogatari, this theme finds expression in the image of the ‘death of cavatinas’ (“sur vos lèvres alors meurent les cavatines”), which marks a hinge point in the narrative and the rhythmical structure of the poem. Through a parallel close reading of Chūya’s translation and the source poem, I show how Chūya’s treatment of this passage attempts to render the musicality of Rimbaud’s French verse into Japanese on two distinct yet intertwined levels. The language of 'Monogatari' can be read as (1) an attempt at a formal imitation of musical structures and rhythms that are implicitly present in the French original, but it is also (2) strongly informed by extra-musical factors such as the cultural prestige associated with Western music in pre-war Japan. I contextualize my analysis of the cultural situatedness of 'Monogatari' with an exploration of Chūya’s poetological writings on the relations between poetry and music, such as the essay 'Sei to uta' (1928).