The Energy of The Brothers Karamazov – Interview with Ikuo Kameyama

At the second Assembly of the Russian World, Ikuo Kameyama, president of the Tokyo Institute of Foreign Languages, kept a low profile and did his best to avoid journalists. It took three attempts to obtain an interview with the man who has translated the eighth version of The Brothers Karamazov to appear in Japan. We interviewed Kameyama as he was returning from the Kremlin, where President Dmitry Medvedev had just awarded him the Pushkin Medal.

– What is the most important spiritual quality that Russians have?

– What do you think? (Kameyama poses the question to his former students who are working in Moscow and who have gathered in a small restaurant to see the master).  Openness? Are you sure? (He asks a journalist from Sankei Shimbun who is seated at his right hand). What do you think? (turning to me).

– Well, I would add breadth.

– No, that’s not interesting! I’ve thought about this a long time and will say this. The most important characteristic of Russians is their willingness to engage in self-abnegation. What you said is, how should we say, banal. Everything around us points to that. When people ask me about the Russian soul, I always remember the film Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eizenshtein. In the film, the choir is performing a song to the music of Sergei Prokofiev (words by Vladimir Lugovsky – Editor’s note). In the song, there are the words “Rise up, Russians / to a mortal battle / to a dreadful battle.” This song and this film illustrate perfectly the quintessential Russian soul, despite the fact that Alexander Nevsky was filmed in 1938 during Stalin’s Great Terror.

– What other films do you like?

– I like Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror. It was especially pleasing that before me, Mr. Ramirez of the Madrid Chekhov Theatre (Angel Jorge Gutiйrrez Ramirez – Editor’s note) received an award from the Russian president. After the ceremony, I went up to him and asked him whether he knew Mirror. “How could I not know it? I played that role!”

– What was the first Russian film you watched?

– Ivanovo Detstsvo. In one scene, a Russian girl appears, my first love (smiling). This girl was played by Vera Miturich-Khlebnikova, the great niece of the famous Velimir Khlebnikov. I studied Khlebnikov for 18 years, and in the late 1980s, I was able to meet with Vera. She remembered the film’s shooting, how Tarkovsky chose her from a group of 150 children who were candidates for the role.

– What was the first work of Russian literature that you read?

– It was Crime and Punishment, which I read during the summer when I was 13 years old. It was a very strange summer for me in the sense that after reading Dostoevsky’s novel, I decided to devote myself to Russian literature. On the day after reading it, I felt like a criminal myself (smiling).

– Did you understand everything then?

– Yea, I had just read a contemporary translation.

– What about Russian poetry? Do you like it?

– I do like it. I really like Iosif Brodsky. When I came to Amherst in the 1980s, which is near Boston, I had the chance to meet him. By that time, I had already read several of his poems.

– Have you translated him?

– No, the only Russia poet I have translated is Tsvetaeva, and only one of her poems – “The Poem of the Mountain” – to be precise. I’ve also translated Simon Karlinsky’s biography of Tsvetaeva into Japanese.

– Returning to The Brothers Karamazov, in the history of Japanese publishing, have there really been no other million-plus sellers?

– No, although Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore also achieved a print-run of a million recently. This novel was published six years ago, however. The seventh translation of The Brothers Karamazov also reached a print run of nearly a million, although it took 35 years! My Dostoevsky achieved this in a year and a half.

– Why have your translations of Dostoevsky become the absolute champions? 

– The previous translations were more complex stylistically and are replete with old-fashioned figures of speech. I’ve modernized it in a way, in particular the complex Russian names that are difficult for our readers. For example, in most places, I removed the names and patronymics, naming the characters in a Japanese way. I’m doing the same thing now with Crime and Punishment. The main character in my version is Raskolnikov-san rather than Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov or Rodion Romanovich. Both of these are very difficult for Japanese readers. Translators used to follow the text too closely, which made their translations too literal. They didn’t change anything, including the difficult Russian names.

– Was it your idea to divide the novel into five volumes? 

– Well, this has already become a traditional format. At the beginning of each volume, the contents of the previous volume are summarized. It was my idea.

– Will cartoons be made on the basis of The Brothers Karamazov? 

– They’ve already been done. The Karamazovs were already in cartoons long ago, and now, after my translation, a new version has come out. This isn’t something I’ve taken part in, however.

– How is the translation of Crime and Punishment going? 

– I’ve already completed about half of it. When it’s published, the first print-run will be 30,000. The same publisher will release this one, although there will be three volumes this time. Like The Brothers Karamazov, it will be a pocketsize format.

– What is your schedule for translating like? 

– Every day, I translate at least two pages on average. I sometimes sit for 15 hours. I usually work at night, sometimes until five or six in the morning.

– Do you understand all the words, or do you have to resort to dictionaries? 

– I mostly use the electronic version of Dal’s dictionary. Sometimes I consult the print version. Of course, I also use the Large Russian-Japanese Dictionary. I don’t use an electronic translator, though (laughing).

– Have you seen interest in the Russian language increase in Japan? 

– Of course! Take our university, for example. The Russian department is considered our most prestigious, and it’s also the best when compared to similar departments at other universities. Each year, we have 70 students enrolling in our department.

– Do Russian companies give scholarships to Japanese students of Russian to study at Russian institutes? I’ve been told that a number of your students would be interested.

– They would be very interested in such study abroad programs!

– So there are companies that provide such sponsorships?

– There are, but they are Japanese companies. The Mitsui Company provides most of these. The president of Mitsui-Moscow graduated from our university. I saw him recently, and he told me that our university, Mitsui-Moscow and St. Petersburg State University had signed a trilateral agreement on financing study abroad programs in Russia for Japanese students and teachers. I hope that on the Russian side the Russkiy Mir Foundation will become part of this project.

– You have said that Dostoevsky is comfortable in the age of globalization…

– There is something in common between the current age of globalization and the period of Russian history when serfdom was abolished. For example, we see the same sort of polarization with respect to property, the growing gap between the rich and poor.

– Do you receive letters from Japanese readers? 

– I do get a lot of letters from different cities across the country. I was quite surprised when one reader wrote that The Brothers Karamazov had given her a lot of energy. She was quite proud of the fact that such a good translation had appeared in Japan.

– When will Russia experience a similar boom of interest in a Japanese book or film, the same sort of interest that was inspired by The Brothers Karamazov? There are plenty of sushi restaurants in Moscow, but we don’t really see a frenzy with respect to Japanese culture…

– You Russians enjoy the delicacy of Japan’s sushi (laughing), and we enjoy the depth of the Russian soul.

Возврат к списку