June 4, 1999
The $2,500 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature was awarded to Elaine Gerbert, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures, last month in New York City. The award is given by the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University.
Gerbert translated "Yamagoi" (Love of Mountains) and "Kura no Naka" (In the Warehouse), works of fiction and literary criticism by Koji Uno. Her book of translations, titled "Love of Mountains," was published by the University of Hawaii Press.
"Uno is a rather peculiar writer, very quirky," Gerbert said. "His prose in Japanese is very convoluted but also subtly ironic. The challenge was to create an English style that conveys the humorous aspect of it."
Uno, who died in 1961, was an eccentric maverick who defied literary conventions at every opportunity.
A Pacific Affairs review of "Love of Mountains" noted that Gerbert's "masterful command of the original Japanese permits her to render 'the excessive garrulity, obsessive repetitiveness, and uncontrolled verbal disorderliness' of Uno's narrators into a flowing and thoroughly readable translation."
World Literature Today called the book stimulating and a "true joy to read." It said Uno "was well served by [Gerbert's] efforts."
Gerbert, who joined the KU faculty in 1990, earned her doctorate at Yale University and her master's degree at the University of Chicago. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of California-Berkeley.
Columbia University's Donald Keene Center annually awards one prize for the best translation of a modern work of literature, which Gerbert won, and a second prize for the best classical literary translation. This year's classical literature award went to J. Thomas Rimer of the University of Pittsburgh and Jonathan Chaves of George Washington University for their translation of "Wakan Roeishu," titled "Chinese and Japanese Poems to Sing," published by Columbia University Press.
Submissions are judged on the literary merit of the translation and the accuracy with which it reflects the spirit of the Japanese original. Eligible works include unpublished manuscripts, works in press, or books published during the two years prior to the prize year.
Winners must be American citizens. To qualify, works must be book-length translations of Japanese literary works: novels, collections of short stories, literary essays, memoirs, drama, or poetry.
For more information, see the Keene Center Web site at www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/dkc.
Contact: Todd Cohen, University Relations, (785) 864-8858 or tcohen@ukans.edu