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(★)(´NI-0287´es mismo libro.Translated by Sammy I. Tsunematsu／ Titulo original : 二百十日[Nihyaku Toka]／ First published as ´Nihyaku Toka´ in 1906, ´The 210th Day´ is published here for the first time in English. Focusing on two strongly contrasting characters, Kei and Roku, as they attempt to climb the rumbling Mount Aso as it threatens to erupt, it is a celebration of personal experience and subjective reaction to an event in the author´s life. During their progress up the mountain --where they encounter a storm on the 210th day (the lunar calendar day traditionally associated with typhoons)-- and during a stopover at an inn along the way, Roku, the main protagonist, banters with Kei about his background, behavior and his reaction to the things they see. Kei surprises his easy-going friend by advocating a radical social agenda.／ Written almost entirely in the form of an extended dialogue, carried over several episodes, the book reveals Soseki´s gift for the striking image and his vivid imagination, as well as his talent for combining Eastern and Western genres --the Western autobiography and the Japanese traditional literary diary-- into a work with a unified theme and atmosphere.／ In his Introduction to the book, Dr. Marvin Marcus, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Literature at Washington University, provides insight into both Soseki the man and writer and ´The 210th Day´ as ´an intriguing literary experiment´.／ ◆Soseki Natsume (1867-1916) is widely considered the foremost novelist of the Meiji period (1868-1914). After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1893, Soseki taught high school before spending two years in England on a Japanese government scholarship. He returned to lecture in English literature at the university. Numerous nervous disorders forced him to give up teaching in 1908 and he became a full-time writer for the Asahi newspaper. In addition to fourteen novels, Soseki wrote haiku, poems in the Chinese style, academic papers on literary theory, essays, autobiographical sketches and fairy tales.／ Sammy I. Tsunematsu is founder and curator of the Soseki Museum in London, and the translator of several of Soseki´s works. He has also researched and published widely on the Japanese artist Yoshio Markino, who was a contemporary of Soseki´s living in London at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tsunematsu has lived in Surrey, England, for thirty years.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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