SHAKESPEARE IN JAPAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 506, 8 November 1928, Page 12

SHAKESPEARE IN JAPAN

PROFESSOR’S TRANSLATIONS HIGH STANDARD ATTAINED Translation into Japanese of the complete works of Shakespeare, numbering 34 different volumes, has been completed by Dr. Yuzo Tsubouchi, better known by his pen name, “Shoyo Tsubouchi,” honorary professor of Waseda University, and an authority on literature of the East and West, says a Central News message from Tokyo. Dr. Tsubouchi has devoted 43 years of his life to the work of translating Shakespearian dramas into literary Japanese. In celebration of this event in the Japanese literary circles, the pupils of Dr. Tsubouchi have planned the erection of a dramatic library in the compound of Waseda University. Work has already been started on the library, the first of its kind in Japan, which is to be built on an elaborate scale, and wjll include a stage for plays. The work of this Shakespearian scholar is remarkable not so much for the long years he has spent, but for the accurate translation he has achieved. Tribute is paid to the fact that Shakespeare’s works have been translated into good Japanese without waste of words or cutting the originals. Dr. Tsubouchi started his translation of the long Shakespearian series back in 1885,* when he was 26 years old. He began with “Julius Caesar." but was not satisfied with his first effort, and retranslated the book three times before he satisfied his own high standard. He is now 69 years old. For years he has been the chief Professor of Literature at Waseda, and his lectures on Shakespeare are extremely popular with students.