Takahashi Blanca, "To Tokyo, Serbia" Summary and Impressions - Japanese debut novel by a Serbian writer under the guidance of Kayoko Yamazaki.
We are pleased to present "To Tokyo, Serbia" by Blanca Takahashi, published by Michitani in 2016.
Let's take a quick look at the book and its author.
Takahashi Blanca
Writer, born in 1970 in the former Yugoslavia.
He studied under the tutelage of Kayoko Yamazaki at the Department of Japanese Language at the University of Belgrade, from which he graduated in 1993. He is the author of "The First 37" (published in Russia, 2008) and "Moon Stories" (published in Serbia, 2015). She won the Kraljevo Writers' Club Award for "The Moon's Tale."She debuted as a rising star Japanese-language writer of Serbian literature. Being an atheist in the Eastern Orthodox country of Serbia, being a woman in a male-dominated world, loving and being loved... With her natural cheerfulness and spirit of ethnic humor, she depicts people's troubles, secrets, and even death in four short stories.
In the 1990s, when almost all of the speculation about Yugoslavia converged on war, it was literature that made sense of it. (......) With rich ideas, delicate lyricism, or fierce self-criticism, these works explored the nature of human life at the mercy of history, religion, and politics. This work, woven together with light humor and warm human observation, is a continuation of this trend. (......)
The term "world literature" comes to mind, but it is not an indefinite and ambiguous "world. It is a literature unique to the author, nurtured by the solid space from Serbia to Tokyo that spreads out in her mind.
Blanca Takahashi's "To Tokyo, Serbia" is very interesting when considering the issue of translation. The author, born in Serbia, a former Yugoslavia, studied under Kayoko Yamazaki at the University of Belgrade and became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1998. She translates works created in Russian into Japanese and Serbian, and also writes in Japanese and translates them into Serbian and Russian herself (......). The flexibility of her point of view will probably unsettle readers who are looking for a stable narrative. The fluctuation of a narrative that is not fixed. But it is also indescribably fascinating." (Amiko Enami, Book Magazine, February 2017)
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As mentioned in the book's introduction, the author, Branka Takahashi, is a writer from Serbia. She studied Japanese language at the University of Belgrade, where her advisor was the poet Kayoko Yamazaki, whom we have mentioned in this blog.
Now, before we look at the works in the book, we will look at the author's afterword. I understand that the work itself is important, but I am always curious about who the author is and what kind of thoughts he or she had when writing the work. Therefore, when I read a book, I always read the foreword and afterword first.
So let's see what the author has to say.
I am an eighteen year old Japanese. I mean I became a naturalized citizen of Japan in 1998. ...... I was born in Serbia. I also spent more than ten years in Russia and Germany. I studied Japanese at the Japanese Language Department of the University of Belgrade. Incidentally, Ms. Kayoko Yamazaki won the 66th Yomiuri Literary Award for "Belgrade Diary" in 2003. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate her. （I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate her.)
There is probably no one who does not know about the Yugoslavian conflict. It was reported on the news very frequently. If you watched TV, you saw the cruelty of the towns and the misery of the people. I can't help but feel saddened and angry that not only are people dying and being displaced from places where they have lived for generations, but that everything is being blamed on Serbia alone. Along with that, I am also ashamed. We have lived together for seventy years, and now we can no longer live together. Then we don't have to part ways in such a barbaric way. ...... Behind the scenes, the U.S., the U.K., and the Muslim countriessvarga (heaven-like realm visited as a stage of death and rebirth)andwhipto get things moving at ....... That is no longer a secret, though,another personI have to admit that it is the stupidity of us Yugoslavs that is to blame, not the Yugoslavs. That is what I am ashamed of.
I do not want you to look at Serbia only from the aspect of the secession/independence conflict. Serbs are, after all, a cheerful, witty and spiritual people. No matter how dire the situation may be, they never forget their sense of humor. When two Serbs get together, they can tell endless little stories about who's idea it was to get together. Themes can be anything - politics, gender relations, parent-child relationships, blonde women who are supposed to be empty-headed. ......
He pretends to be overly proud of his small country and laughs at himself as well. The title of this book is Srbija do Tokija, which is meant to rhyme, but it is all Serbia all the way to Tokyo ("Tokija" is the genitive of "Tokyo"). It is a bit of self-deprecation: small in area, but great in country.
Wars between countries or ethnic groups attract the attention of many people, but battles and conflicts also occur within a single person. There are many writers who write about conflict, the so-called big subject, but war is an emergency situation that most people may never experience. However, we are human beings from birth to death. I continue to write about that human condition. Perhaps I will never look away from that infinitely deep theme in the future.
Michitani, Blanca Takahashi, "To Tokyo, Serbia," p. 201-204.
After reading this afterword, I really thought to myself, "I would definitely like to take the time to read this author's work. Especially the last one,
Wars between countries or ethnic groups attract many people's attention, but battles and conflicts also take place within a single person. There are many writers who write about the so-called big subjects of conflict, but the world within an individual, or the relationship between individuals, is the subject I am most interested in. How do people live and why do they die? How do we love and hate? What does it mean to be human? Each of us isanother personHow do you see yourself in the eyes of the Are you being true to yourself? I don't think there is anything bigger than these themes. War is an emergency situation that most of us may never experience. However, we are human beings from birth to death. I continue to write about that human condition. Perhaps I will never look away from that infinitely profound theme."
I nodded deeply and said, "Oh...that's really true...
Some people believe that the work and the author are two separate things, but I believe that what comes from the author's own inner self has a great influence on the work. That is why I value what kind of person the author is and what kind of thoughts he or she put into writing the work. After all, there are things that ooze out from the work. I believe that by getting to know the author, we can feel such things more deeply.
Now that we have talked so much about the author himself, let's look at his work.
To Tokyo, Serbia" contains four works.
While "Choice" is a bit longer, at about 100 pages, "Lake Hasan," "Happiness," and "The Red-Haired Woman" are all fairly compact works that can be read at a quick pace.
The one that particularly impressed me was "Happiness". The relationship between "I," a shy woman who tends to stay in her shell, and Dahlia, a woman who is the envy of everyone and the envy of everyone who is into her because of her genius. I found myself repeatedly moved by the way the people around Daria are viewed through the inner life of "I".
What I also felt throughout the book was the complexity of human beings, or in other words, the duality of truth. In other words, I felt that there are two sides to the truth. In this book, I felt the atmosphere that what we see is not the only truth.
These dualities of truth reminded me of the Russian writer Chekhov. Speaking of ChekhovThe SeagullandUncle Vanya."He was originally a writer who published a vast amount of short stories, although he is best known for plays such as
Of the two, "To Tokyo, Serbia" is said to be the most characteristic of Chekhov's work, and I feel a connection to his short film "People in Disguise.
Russian literature scholar Seiro Sato had this to say about the work
The structure of Chekhov's major works is based on the contrast between "front" and "back," "false" and "real," and "dream" and "reality," and the plots are built on such skillful contrasts. In just a few lines, the two sides of life are skillfully depicted, and it is truly brilliant. （The plot is built on a contrast.)
I consider this Palm to be one of the important starting points of Chekhov's literature. I think that the author has aptly captured in a concise and clever example that there is no one in this world who does not wear a masquerade or pose in some way or another. The people who pass before us in our daily lives are all people in disguise. People use disguises to hide their weakness, sadness, and meanness. However, this "disguise" conversely reinforces weakness, sadness, and meanness.
Isn't literature about stripping off the "masquerade" to reveal its true nature? To be aware of the "masquerade" is a sign of cleverness, but it is the ruthlessly wise eye that sees through the masquerade. It is of course a sign of Chekhov's cleverness to see the "real" at the bottom of the "false" of everyday life, but it is also a sign of his sense of ethics.
Chikuma Shobo, Seiro Sato, The World of Chekhov's Art, p. 35-36
The gap between what we see and what is true.
In fact, it is the things that seem enviable, especially from the outside, that are actually the true forms of sadness. This work reminds us of such things.
I felt such Chekhov-like human insight when I read "To Tokyo, Serbia.
The author wrote in his afterword, "The world within an individual, or the relationship between individuals, is the subject I am most interested in. How do people live and why do they die? How do we love and hate? What does it mean to be human? Each of us isanother personHow do you see yourself in the eyes of the Are you being true to yourself? I don't think there is anything bigger than these themes."This is exactly what he was stating.
I dare not give a synopsis or commentary on each of the works here. Please read them.
Delicate inner depictions. There is humor that makes you giggle.
Reading "To Tokyo, Serbia" with the author's thoughts and feelings was extremely stimulating and enjoyable.
I would highly recommend it.
The above is "Blanca Takahashi, "To Tokyo, Serbia" What is a Serbian work? A Serbian writer's Japanese debut under the guidance of Kayoko Yamazaki".
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