Short Stories in Japanese: New Penguin Parallel Text

by Michael Emmerich (Editor)

Announcing the first expansion in more than 40 years of the venerable New Penguin Parallel Text series.

Here is the perfect introduction to contemporary Japanese fiction. Featuring many stories appearing in English for the first time, this collection, with parallel translations, offers students at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature without having to constantly consult a dictionary. Richly diverse in themes and styles, the stories are by well-known writers-like Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto-as well as by emerging voices. Complete with notes, these selections make excellent reading in either language.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Short Stories, Japan, Fiction, Language, Anthologies, Collections

250 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2011

About the author

Michael Emmerich’s scholarly interests in Japanese literature range from the classical, court-centered prose and poetry of the Heian period to the popular printed fiction of the early modern age, and on from there to the prose fiction of modern and contemporary times. His engagement with the literary products of these diverse periods is informed by a sensitivity to the material and visual forms that writing takes, and by an academic commitment to translation studies with its potential for approaching literature in a manner relatively unconstrained by linguistic and temporal boundaries, both among and within nations. His book The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature (Columbia University Press, 2013) examines the role that translations of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) into early-modern and modern Japanese, and into English and other languages, have played in creating images of the tale over the past two centuries—reinventing it as a classic of both national and world literature. He is currently working on a project that explores the concept of “translation” as it relates to Japan and to various forms of the Japanese language.

In addition to his many publications in English and Japanese on early modern, modern, and contemporary Japanese literature, Emmerich is the author of more than a dozen book-length translations of works by writers such as Kawabata Yasunari, Yoshimoto Banana, Takahashi Gen’ichirō, Akasaka Mari, Yamada Taichi, Matsuura Rieko, Kawakami Hiromi, Furukawa Hideo, and Inoue Yasushi. He is also the editor of two books for students of the Japanese language: Read Real Japanese: Fiction and New Penguin Parallel Texts: Short Stories in Japanese.

Emmerich’s research has been generously supported by a number of grants, including a Fulbright Scholarship and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies. He was also the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University’s Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, from 2008-2009.

Emmerich received a BA from Princeton University. After completing research in Japanese literature studies at Ritsumeikan University in Tokyo, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University. He was a member of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies department at UC Santa Barbara before joining UCLA in 2013.

Reviews

[Koen Crolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're going to read in translation, parallel text is probably the way to go. My Japanese is good enough that I often recognise idiomatically Japanese expressions in translation and occasionally wonder what construction inspired certain turns of phrase, but not so good that I'm up to reading entire novels in Japanese (not least because I, a walking stereotype, only know a few dozen kanji). Parallel text as executed in this short story collection is ideal to me, having both furigana the first time kanji are shown and footnotes elaborating on why certain choices in translation were made.
The quality of the short stories is almost beside the point—this collection exists for the parallel text gimmick and nothing else—but most of them are more than adequate. All eight are by established authors (including Murakami, though his is by far the shortest and not one of his more interesting ones) and all are translated surprisingly well. I'll definitely be reading more of Hiromi Kawakami on the strength of Mogera Wogura.

[hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 japanese authors in a spine of parallel text with 8 endearing stories told and explored through the theme of lifestyle, cultural, selfhood and human relations. I only familiar and have read books by 4 of the authors and was quite enthralled to delve into the other 4 authors as a new reader to their writings.

Personally loved Mogera Wogura (Hiromi Kawakami) the most for its surreal premise of a mole like creature who leisurely living among the humans, working in a day job yet becoming a human kidnapper at night— so quirky on its bizarre alienation perspective, of the mysteries of one’s existence and addictive much on the storytelling part. Both Where The Bowling Pins Stand (Shinji Ishii) and Love Suicide At Kamaara (Sueko Yoshida) were written with a suicidal related narrative. Loved Ishii’s emotional tone— a self-reflection on life and death following a perspective of a taxi driver who accidentally transporting an elderly woman to her destination where she later takes her own life. Yoshida’s story having a gripping postwar backdrop and revolved on a narrative of an old prostitute; of love and one’s survival, expected from the title yet I was still startled at the end.

Fairly enjoyed the others as much; a dreamy on solitude, love and one’s sincerity in Concerning The Sound Of A Train Whistle In The Night (Haruki Murakami), that quietude setting with lingering grief plot in A Little Darkness (Banana Yoshimoto), both Genjitsu House ((Masayo Koike) and The Silent Traders (Yūko Tsushima) for its motherhood and single parenting premise (I liked Tsushima’s tone in exploring her character’s emotional longing and alienation struggles) as well the peculiar and unsettling plot for The Maiden In The Manger (Kazushige Abe)— fun with nothing explicit despite having a character with otaku obsession on a rare adult toy.

Such an appeling collection overall and totally liked the neat parallel structure— might go and get the other parallel text in the series soon!

4.3/5*

[Enrique Mora Roás · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por fin terminé los dos relatos que me quedaban. Creo que es un libro interesantísimo desde el punto de vista de la traducción y el aprendizaje. Si a esto le sumas que han ajustado el nivel para que vaya subiendo y que hay relatos importantísimos creo que merece mucho la pena. Me han gustado especialmente los de Banana, Tsushima y Yoshida Sueko. También está bien leer la faceta más simple de Murakami y la más surrealista de Kawakami aunque me hayan gustado un pelín menos. En general creo que es un paso intermedio maravilloso a leer una novela como tal.

(Me gustaría hacer uno de estos en español y que las ediciones bilingües no se queden solo en la poesía)

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Concerning the sound of a train whistle in the night or On the efficacy of fiction" - Haruki Murakami
★★★★★

"A little darkness" - Banana Yoshimoto
★★★

"Genjitsu House" - Masayo Koike
★★★★

"The silent traders" - Yûko Tsushima
★★

"Mogera Wagura" - Hiromi Kawakami
★★★★★

"The maiden in the manger" - Kazushige Abe
★★★1/2

"Where the bowling pins stand" - Shinji Ishii
★★

"Love suicide at Kamakura" - Sueko Yoshida
★★★★★

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh man, I finally finished this book!

I started reading it SO long ago! I didn't find the short stories inside very interesting overall, and so I lost interest trying to plod through them in Japanese and in English. While it is certainly useful to have an English translation next to the Japanese, it is also... well, now that I have been reading books in straight Japanese, it's distracting to have the English there, and it takes me much longer to read the Japanese because I keep pausing to read the English. I kind of wish that the book just had the additional translation notes included in the text or as footnotes in the stories instead of in the back of the book.

I also want to say, while I do get that the editor was trying to include a wide variety of literary texts and flavors to go along with them, I couldn't help but wonder if just including more popular-level Japanese stories might be better for learners. Literary fiction generally has a more high-faluting style, which is DEFINITELY true of some of these stories, and that style can be hard even for native speakers to read, and thus seems... not really ideal for learners. I read a thriller novel in straight Japanese that was quite entertaining last month, and it was a lot easier and a lot more gratifying than some of these stories.

My least favorite was Maid in the Manger (or something like that--don't make me look it up, I'm lazy). It was written in a ludicrous style, filled with vocabulary and overly complicated grammar, and had a sleazy-but-pseudo-sophisticated tone mixed with a wild sense of humor before plunging into grotesque darkness. Yuck. Not my thing.

Anyway, I am glad I finished the book. It went through a lot over the last few years--I accidentally ripped off the back cover, and had it repaired at my home library back in Iowa, and have carried the book with me back and forth across the world--usually barely opening it to read even a page on the way. Just... I am glad it's done.

[Till Raether]

This is a DNF because the furigana are too small for me and my glasses 😢

[Mythlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection, though the twists are inevitably weird and depressing. The last story is particularly grim.

[Ichii · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of the stories but some were weird af so I had to give it only 4 stars. Great translations! I had fun practicing my Japanese a bit

[Nicki Markus · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of stories for Japanese learners.

[Carola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe I started this in 2021 (and even almost abandoned it twice). It took me forever to finish because, to be honest, none of the stories were very interesting. I'm not a big fan of anthologies anyway, and really only read this one to keep up my Japanese, but it was so boring it felt like a chore. It doesn't have to be that way - I enjoyed the contents of Read Real Japanese quite a bit. Alas.

[Tombo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making enjoying the original Japanese so accessible and educational. An irreplaceable collection.

[Kenyu Ishikawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a japanese learning english, this book was a perfect book to practice both language at the same time, this book include many short stories which is easy to read but very hard understand the main topic or idea, I still can not understand the main idea of many of the stories in this book since the story is expressed in many different words that may or maynot have a different meaning to it. I am not sure. But I am sure that I enjoyed reading this book because of how interesting the stories are. The way the book is poetraid keeps me interested for a long time even tho I am not great at focusing on one task. I believe that if you are a language learner, it will be very helpful to try this book and shorty stories in new penguin parallel texts.

[Izzati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally, I enjoyed the translation works, they seem pretty accurate. However, as is usually the case with any compilation of short stories written by various authors, some stories just pale in comparison to others.

1) Concerning the Sound of a Train Whistle in the Night or On the Efficacy of Fiction
⭐⭐⭐
I feel like the title is longer than the story. It's short and sweet though. I usually cannot finish reading Murakami's works but this one was enjoyable enough.

2) A Little Darkness
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I've never read anything by Yoshimoto Banana before and I must say, I quite enjoyed this one. It's about everyone having that little fear inside. That even if you're married to someone, there might still be parts of you they don't know. About the kind of love and respect for one another where you try to understand and compromise.

3) Genjitsu House
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I've never heard of Koike Masayo so this story was a pleasant find. I loved how candid the narrator was being with her honest thoughts about babies. I also loved what the narrator's friend said about giving birth:
"... giving birth is like consciously deciding to die. Because you can't think about what comes after."
"... giving birth actually kills a woman, once, and then brings her back again. I mean, you actually feel like someone is pregnant with you, even though it's you who's pregnant, and like you're the one who's been born, even though you were the one to give birth."

4) The Silent Traders
⭐
This was so boring it was like I was reading a lengthy Facebook post about what someone's doing, instead of an actual short story. I couldn't even get on board with the author's attempt to justify her protagonist's fears to speak up and thus succumbing to the Japanese culture of keeping things unsaid. You can word it in any fancy way, but the truth is the character's just scared.

5) Mogera Wogura
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Although the very idea of moles living among humans is kind of creepy, I actually enjoyed this one. It's about people who have fallen, exhausted and they couldn't get back up. People who are still alive, but not quite living their lives.

6) The Maiden in the Manger
⭐⭐⭐
At first this gave me the impression that it was going to be another boring recounting of daily life, but boy that ending scored the 3 stars for me!

7) Where the Bowling Pins Stand
⭐⭐⭐
This sounded promising at first, but then it ended pretty abruptly. If it had explored into a more thriller/mystery/horror path, I would have enjoyed it so much more.

8) Love Suicide at Kamaara
⭐
This was 100% not my cup of tea at all. It was kind of sad that I had to end the book with this story. I hated everything about it. Even the title, because it somewhat gave an inaccurate impression.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a long, hard, unforgiving slog, because it was my first bona fide attempt to read short-form fiction in the original Japanese. In this particular collection, the presence of a (very good) side-by-side English translation makes this a much less tortuous exercise than it’d have been otherwise.

All this is to say that it was a rewarding experience for my Japanese language-learning aspirations. In terms of the stories, however, the verdict is less full-throated.

Japanese literature, I’ve noticed, seems largely less about presenting a neatly bow-wrapped narrative with a beginning and end, and more about creating snapshots evoking moods, painting metaphors, or reflecting on the ephemerality of things.

To my English-reading eyes, this often results in stories that seem as recondite and insubstantial as haikus, over before they have even begun, their subtleties lost in translation in a way that even meticulously annotated translations cannot convey - these make up the bulk of the stories in this collection.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that my most-liked stories int the list are a bit more plot-driven, and have a more definite sense of closure - stories like Mogera Wogura, about an intelligent rodent that works a desk job and cares for lost souls that he picks up in his spare time; Where the Bowling Pins Stand, about the often-complex tensions underlying the cab-driver trade; or Love Suicide at Kamaara, which depicts, with a tragic and historical vividness, the events leading up to the titular event.

There is genuine and unalloyed pleasure when one reads great stories in Japanese and is able to parse, to an albeit limited degree, the stylistic choices that Japanese writers have made to express themselves. But equally important is the pleasure one gets from the story itself, irrespective of language, and in this department this book is a somewhat mixed bag, but one that contains rare gems that made the whole exercise feel like a somewhat exhausting triumph when I finally got through it all.

I give this collection: 3.5 out of 5 lighters

[Trevor Kew · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first bought this book, it took me about as long to read a page of Japanese as it would have taken me to read the whole book in English, leading to the predictable result that I put it aside for quite some time after struggling through the first two stories. Picking it up recently, several years later, was a good reminder of how far my Japanese has come! (A good boost, as one sometimes struggles to feel the improvement on a day to day basis.)

It also reminded me of what I have learned about learning another language in that time. Books like this one are not really about learning Japanese through checking it against English, they are about comparing the ways that two writers, one a translator, try to tell the same story with different grammar/syntax, writing systems, and cultural contexts. Obviously like any Japanese text, these stories can be used for language learning; I made vocabulary lists for each story in the dictionary app on my phone as I went (which has a handy flash card option), but this could have been done just as effectively without the English.

One thing that definitely helped me enjoy the stories more that I hadn’t really thought about was the speed of my reading in Japanese. It made the suspension of disbelief requisite for enjoying fiction so much easier to sustain despite it being my second language. I enjoyed all the stories, but particularly the last one, the short Murakami one, and the one by Banana Yoshimoto.

As a (non literary works) translator myself, I also appreciated the excellence of these translations...anyone who wants a ‘literal translation’ of a literary work does not understand the nature of translation or its purpose.

[Frank Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a study tool, this book has at least three annoying flaws:

-the translations aren't literal, as would be be useful for language learning, but (halfway) literary;
-there are notes, but they mainly provide information on the settings or other locations mentioned, not on grammar or structure, which would have been more helpful;
-the stories are supposed to be "roughly in order of increasing difficulty", but in my opinion this was not the case, so why claim it does and force people to read it that way unnecessarily?

Most of the stories are kind of vanilla as well, but at least two of them were pretty good: Banana Yoshimoto's and Love Suicide at Kamaara. Especially the latter makes this collection still worth your while, I believe.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good selection of short stories by some well-known authors including Haruki Murakami (although his story is less than two pages long), Banana Yoshimoto, and Hiromi Kawakami.

The format was good with Japanese with furigana on one page and the English translation on the facing page (it feels a bit weird because you want to turn the page in different directions depending on whether you're reading the English or Japanese). The translation notes at the back were informative, but not as extensive as in other bilingual books I've read.

I found the last story "Love Suicide at Kamaara" the most memorable.

[hisuin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have specially liked the first five stories. With the last three I couldn't connect, they were either too strange, long or boring.
The book comprises:
*"Concerning the sound of a train whistle in the night or On the efficacy of fiction" - Haruki Murakami
*"A little darkness" - Banana Yoshimoto
*"Genjitsu House" - Masayo Koike
*"The silent traders" - Yûko Tsushima
*"Mogera Wagura" - Hiromi Kawakami
*"The maiden in the manger" - Kazushige Abe
*"Where the bowling pins stand" - Shinji Ishii
*"Love suicide at Kamakura" - Sueko Yoshida

[Igor Galvão · Rating 2 out of 5]

A proposta do livro, de ser uma coletânea de contos bilíngue, é excelente. Entretanto, com exceção da última história e da primeira, um conto de duas páginas que certamente só foi incluído para usar o nome Haruki Murakami para vender mais livros, as histórias são péssimas. Superar o tédio e chegar ao final delas é um desafio maior que o desafio do idioma, o que tira todo o mérito da proposta de "estudar se divertindo",

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories themselves are hit and miss for me, but the value of this book as a resource to me as an aspiring translator can't be understated. I love being able to read the Japanese, come to my own translation, and see how it compares to the "official". Plus, there are glorious, glorious foot notes in the translations!

[Markéta Effenbergerová · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was super cool to read in Japanese with the English-language crutch on the next page. Some of the short stories were pretty great, couple of them not so much. But the most important for me was the practice part, so it was fine. Reading other stuff than texts from school was bloody amazing.

[Dika Nurul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only finished for the English part, though.

Actually I didn't see any relation between all of the eight short stories, but the way it keeps the original text in Japanese makes me rate for 4 stars.

[Edwin Setiadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eight Japanese short stories

Right from the introduction, editor Michael Emmerich provides his impressive knowledge about the history of Japanese literature and mentions about the "different ways of constructing sentences, different ways of representing dialogue and thought, all kinds of grammatical patterns, and lots of vocabulary."

He then proceeded to present us with his selection of Japanese short stories to illustrate these points, 8 stories to be exact, written by some of the best in Japanese literature that encapsulate the unorthodox writing styles. The authors are: Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Masayo Koike, Yūko Tsushima, Hiromo Kawakami, Kazushige Abe, Shinji Ishii, and Sueko Yoshida.

As Emmerich remarks, "[a] trip to the gym affects more than just particular muscles, of course: it makes you feel good all over. It makes your whole body work. And that's what this book tries to do as well." "In fact," Emmerich continues, "I would go so far as to say that the main point of this volume is to help you build up your overall health, strength, and endurance as an English-speaking student of Japanese or a Japanese-speaking student of English."

This is shown by the organization of the book, where it is written in two languages, English on the left side and Japanese on the right side, which could indeed be very handy for those English-speaker who want to learn Japanese, and vice versa.

Emmerich then elaborates, "[b]y the time you arrive at the end of this collection, you will undoubtedly have picked up lots of new words and grammar, but more important, you will have had the opportunity to practice getting along on your own as a reader, without relying on detailed notes, simply using the translations to figure out why the original means what it does, and how it means it, or vice versa."

Now I'm not planning to learn Japanese Kanji letters anytime soon, but the English side of the book is enough to teach me one or two things about Japanese literature, not to mention plenty of fresh new writing styles.

And in the end of the day I came for the stories, and these 8 stories by 8 authors did not disappoint one bit. Every single one of them contributed to the overall uniqueness of the book, and they show the fresh vantage points of life in the Japanese society. Especially the story of the weird creature and the war-time prostitute, not to mention the shortest story by Haruki Murakami that blew me away right from the beginning of the book. Great selection of stories, they perfectly fulfill my new obsession of Japanese literature.

[Jared Pangier · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading over 100 pages of these short stories, vacillating between Japanese and English, I can say two things:
1) These stories are rich with meaning;
2) The language (for me) is very challenging

Having read a previous parallel reader with Japanese short stories in the past, I enjoy the process of challenging my ability to read Kanji characters, as well as testing my vocabulary. Reading is the area of Japanese that needs the most work and this is one method that can really help me build my vocabulary and ability to read more Kanji characters. Because furigana are provided at the start of each story, as new Kanji are introduced, it is possible to read the entire story, though it does require going back to the beginning of the story to look up unfamiliar kanji again in order to read them. I found it more engaging to guess based on my knowledge of kanji meaning (even if I couldn't remember how to pronounce the word), flicking my eyes to the left page often to clarify my understanding of the story.

As for the stories, they are rich, ranging from a story about a girl visiting a famous graveyard only to remember tragic memories of her own mother to a mole (Mogera Wogura) husband and wife team in charge of all the humans who have lost the spirit to live, and consequently fallen down the hole into the care of the Mogera Wogura family. The stories tackle important issues of death and what it means to really live, among other topics, providing a vast array of perspectives that stimulate deep thinking about our own lives.

I recommend this book as much for the richness of stories as I do for its use as a method to develop your Japanese (or English). Saying that I may need to step down to something a bit easier next!

[Garyu Ide · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Penguin Parallel Text: Short Stories in Japanese

This book was unique and I loved all the 8 stories I had read, but my favorite stories were Mogera Wogura, The Maidan in the Manager, A Little Darkness, and The Where The Bowling Pin Stands. I really want to know what happens after the story. I think this book is a great book to study both Japanese and English.
Every single story had its different characteristics and I really enjoy reading all of them. With the windows 3 program, I now started to get to enjoy reading than before, So I think this was a great book for a person like me who wants to read lots of stories. I think I will be reading this book multiple times. This book was really enjoyable. But I think all the stories must be read seriously to understand the whole story. I loved the book because this book includes a few books that are my favorite types of books, but one story was not really my cup of tea. But after all, including the whole thing, I think this book deserves a 5 star.

Garyu Ide

[Athirah Idrus · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish reading this. As with most - if not all collection of stories, some stories are good, but some are just not worth your time. This collection begins with a really really short one by Murakami. I've read a number by Murakami in the past and I can't say that I'm a fan, but i did enjoy this one.

So I began to have faith that I would enjoy the collection right till the end. However, as I progressed I had to content myself that the first story would be the one that I enjoyed the most.

One good thing about this parallel text is that the Japanese version is on the right side and I was able to plow through the book without having to rely on a dictionary.

Plus, the translation gives the exact context in which the original story was written. (though I have to say that I was able to grasp better because I was able to read the original text in japanese and appreciate the nuances that are limited when it comes to translated texts)

Now it'd be rather unfair if I were to give this book a general rating as each story has its own merit and demerit. I'd say if you're bilingual, either you're a native Japanese speaker wanting to learn English or vice versa, this book would be a great accompaniment to your study materials.

[Irina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book to get into reading fiction in Japanese, even though it still took a very long time to finish and I only managed to get into a "reading flow" very occasionally. I also really liked the selection of short stories, and the translation seemed spot-on (for once, I was able to be some sort of judge of this) and was also pleasant to read. I liked the fact that a certain kanji only had furigana on its first appearance - or well, liked as in admitted it to be useful practice even though it was frustrating at timees. Translator's notes were also a good addition.

My favorite stories were "A Little Darkness" by Banana Yoshimoto, "Silent Traders" by Yuko Tsushima and "Where the Bowling Pins Stand" by Shinji Ishii. Will definitely check other works by these writers – in English, unfortunately, reading in Japanese is still quite the challenge.

[Hila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite short stories: A little darkness and Genjitsu House
(The Silent Traders and Mogera Wogura were also great!)

"What darkness do I carry in me? I have no problem going home when I know people are expecting me, and I'm not afraid of boxes. Eventually, though, I thought, it will appear. That's what growing is all about. How will I face it? How will I learn to deal with it? I'm still young, fearless. I can even look forward to it. I want to see for myself what it's like. From the outside, our family was ridiculously sweet, almost too peaceful, and yet we harbored a little, deep darkness with a secret history as pregnant as the silence of this graveyard. It wasn't anything to be ashamed of."
p.32

[Gergana Minova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kindle edition sucks

Sadly the Japanese text is not real text but pictures amd really hard to read as too small. You'd have to zoom in the image which sucks as a user experience. Also not all kanji have okurigana so I don't know how to read them unless I know them.

Stories are interesting sadly this book's kindle edition sucks.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a student of Japanese, so the parallel language wasn’t pertinent for my experience. Overall the stories were not my cup of tea. They tended toward grim and macabre with open endings - I’m not sure if this is just the stories gathered here or reflective of a cultural style.