Poet sisters Marie Mariya and Megumi Moriyama spoke at Tokyo's Setagaya Literary Museum about their back-translation of Arthur Waley's English version of 'The Tale of Genji,' drawing over 100 attendees. They shared touching memories of meeting Donald Keene and his passion for the work. The event ties into an ongoing exhibition on Keene's legacy.
A talk event featuring poet sisters Marie Mariya and Megumi Moriyama took place on Saturday at the Setagaya Literary Museum in Tokyo, focusing on Arthur Waley's English translation of 'The Tale of Genji.' The sisters, who retranslated Waley's version back into Japanese, drew over 100 attendees. They discussed the unique appeals of Waley's edition and their own work, along with discoveries and anecdotes from the translation process.
The event connects to an ongoing exhibition on Donald Keene, the Japanese literature scholar who died in February 2019 at age 96 and cherished 'The Tale of Genji' throughout his life. The sisters recounted a December 2016 meeting with the then-94-year-old Keene at a haiku circle event where he was a guest. Presenting a copy of Waley's 'Genji' and explaining their back-translation project, they noted his joy, with his eyes sparkling as he passionately spoke in English about the tale's brilliance. They described feeling a heart-to-heart connection with the scholar, previously seen as distant.
A year later, they gave him the first volume of their retranslation, and he responded with a photo of himself smiling while holding the book. The complete four-volume work finished in July 2019, after Keene's death, though he had encouraged it until the end.
The exhibition runs until March 8 and includes two more events: one on February 23 with Keene's adopted son Seiki performing Joruri storytelling with shamisen, and another on March 1 featuring Yukio Kakuchi, translator of Keene's later works, lecturing on Keene's history with Japanese literature and personal interactions.
