For people who don't read Japanese

There is a sketchbook which I call "1995 note," most contents of Hajimmie's Kitchen
especially which on the Japanese pages are from it and they were written in Japanese,
in 1995.

At first I planned to translate all the works from Japanese into English but I found difficulty
in doing it. Not only because of lack of my ability to translate but because of the language
gap between Japanese and English, some translations wouldn't seem making sense.
Or rather, since I was able to think in English, I've been kind of thinking most of those
works might be able to be tasted only when they are in Japanese.
Of course there must be a certain extent of cultural difference between a Japanese native
and an English native, however, since they both are human beings, the difference that
about their sense of beauty or sadness or whatever more likely depends on each individual's
background. Indeed, even to Japanese natives, some of them ( or a lot of them ) won't feel
what I represented in the Japanese pieces, naturally.
On the other hand, billions of literary works that were written in a lot of different languages
were translated and they are in fact enjoyed. I also used to read translations of British,
American, Russian, German and etc --- literature and enjoyed them.
Of course, however, to understand or feel those literary works exactly, we should read its
originals, that are in that languages. For instance, although a lot of haiku works, which is
one of Japanese traditional formats of very short poem, are translated into various of different
languages, personally I think it is not easy to get how and what the poet represented
his/her emotion in the translations.

So my conclusion was, let's do it anyway. It might be an interesting experiment.
I selected some works from the Japanese pages and translated them from Japanese into
English. Those selections are which I thought that translating would be possible. When I
translated, I was in both Japanese-mode and English-mode.

I am not an actual writer or poet or anything though, some of you might feel something on
my works. If you get a sympathy and all --- I can't think of any accurate word --- or get
interested, that's where I want to achieve.

In addition, the original of some works on the English pages' are in English from the beginning,
which means I made them in English. They are new --- I made them after I came to NYC,
which means after 1997. I have changed in myself a lot since I came here.
Up to now, I have no plan to make translations of them from English into Japanese.

Last, although it seems apparently that Hajimmie's Kitchen's main section is Japanese
pages so far, I have been interesting in creating things in English rather than Japanese in
these days except updating the Japanese page's guestbook which is called "Rakugaki-cho"
( it is like my diary or something but a guestbook, in a way. I write things almost every day.
You will find what's happening around me and my life in NYC. And about music & FZ, too.
Well, sorry for you don't read Japanese. )

 

I hope you will enjoy.

Jan '99

 

Hajimmie