From “Literary Translation” to “Cultural Translation”:Mori Ogai and the Plays of Henrik Ibsen

摘要

Mori ōgai (1862–1922), one of the most prom inent authors and translators in Japan, translated four plays by Henrik Ibsen into Japanese: Brand (1866 ) in 1903, John Gabriel Borkman (1896 ) in 1909, Ghosts (1881) in 1911, and finally A Doll's House (1879) in 1913. In Boku shi, ōgai's translation of the second act of Brand, he wiped away the matters concerning Christianity in such a way that the essence of the origina l text was distorted and ma nipulated. In his translation of John Gabriel Borkman ōgai changed his translation strategy. A lthough the central ideas in the play were somewhat blurred, there was no distinct omission or ma nipulation in ōgai's version. His critical comments on the original play, however, were recast and placed outside the translated text, namely in his own novel Seinen (1910). Translating Ghosts as Yū rei, ōgai used the same translation strategy as in John Gabriel Borkman, but this time he narrowed the focus on the concept of 'ghosts'—'gengangere ' in Norwegian, mea ning 'something that comes back,' which corresponded to his evoked interest in 'past' and 'h istory' in general. My paper elaborates on his challenging way of 'cultural translation' with special reference to the transition from 'literary' to 'cultural' translation.