Translators’ Roundtable Series “More than Worth Sharing”

The Emissary by Tawada Yoko

Tawada was born in Tokyo in 1960 and moved to Germany after graduating from Waseda University with a degree in Russian Literature. She has a master’s degree from the University of Hamburg and a doctorate from the University of Zurich. Tawada has received numerous accolades, including the Akutagawa Prize, Tanizaki Prize, Yomiuri Prize for Literature, Goethe Medal, Kleist Prize, National Book Award, and Japan Foundation Award. She writes in both German and Japanese and frequently gives readings and lectures around the world. Tawada currently resides in Berlin.

Erkin, who was born in 1968, received his undergraduate degree from Ankara University’s Department of Japanese Language and Literature in 1991. He went on to earn a master’s degree in history from Hokkaido University in 1996 and then a doctorate in Japanese studies from Ankara University in 2001. He has served as a visiting researcher/professor at the University of Tokyo, Rikkyo University, the National Institute of Japanese Literature, and the National Museum of Japanese History. He is currently a professor of Japanese literature at Ankara University. He has translated authors including Tawada Yoko, Oe Kenzaburo, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Dazai Osamu, Miyazawa Kenji, Murakami Haruki, Murakami Ryu, Abe Kobo, Murata Sayaka, and Natsukawa Sosuke into the Turkish language.

Hassel resides in Oslo, Norway, and is a member of the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators. She received a master’s degree in Japanese studies from the University of Oslo in 2005. She has studied in Japan at two different times and has three years of experience working in Japanese culture-related areas. Her short translations include Ibuse Masuji’s Salamander, Mishima Yukio’s The Fountains in the Rain, Kawakami Hiromi’s Oboreru [Drowning], and Tawada Yoko’s Fushi no shima [Island of immortality] (all published by Solum Bokvennen, 2018). Longer literary translations include Yokoyama Hideo’s Six Four (Kagge, 2019) and Tawada Yoko’s The Emissary (Solum Bokvennen, 2020). She is currently translating Chikyū ni chiribamerarete [Scattered across the Earth] by Tawada Yoko.

Panich has been a translator of Japanese literature and nonfiction to Thai since 2005. Her main translations include works by Tawada Yoko (The Bridegroom Was a Do, 2014; The Emissary, 2019), Murakami Haruki (1Q84, co-translated in 2011; The Colorless Tazaki Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage, 2014; Haruki Murakami Goes to Meet Hayao Kawai, 2018), Abe Kazushige (IP/NN, 2014), Abe Kazushige and Isaka Kotaro (Captain Thunderbolt, 2017) (all published by Gamme Magie), Matsuura Rieko (Ura bājon [Secret version], Earnest Publishing, 2016). She also works as an interpreter in various fields.

Pörtner was born in 1953 and currently resides in Germany. After graduating from the University of Marburg and the University of Tübingen, he studied Japanese philosophy at the University of Tokyo. He worked as a German language instructor at Osaka University of Foreign Studies (current School of Foreign Studies, Osaka University). He then earned a doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 1990, where he became an associate professor. He was a professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Munich’s Japan Center from 1992 until his retirement in 2019, where he focused on the history of Japanese intellectual thought and literature. He has translated the works of many Japanese authors into German, including those by Tawada Yoko, Nishida Kitaro, Kajii Motojiro, and Nakahara Chuya.