去年の木 新美南吉 The Tree From Last Year, Nankichi Niimi
So this is my first literary translation. The work I translated is 去年の木 (The Tree From Last Year) by 新美南吉 (Nankichi Niimi). Niimi was an who lived through the early 1900’s and died March 22nd, 1943 at the age of 29. He presumably died from complications due to tuberculosis. He had written a number of works in which he showed considerable talent and was known for depicting accurate and lively images of humans through writing. His most famous work is Gon, The Little Fox (ごん狐) which is about an orphaned fox who dies young. I may translate this work next.
去年の木 (The Tree From Last Year) is about a little bird and a tree who are close friends. But the bird must leave for the winter and promises to return to sing for the tree. But next year, the tree is gone and the bird must find where it is so he can keep his promise.
I translated this work as a way to display my translation skills and should not be taken as an official translation. One can find the original work in Aozora Bunko’s database (essentially the Japanese version of Project Gutenberg). Here’s a link to the original text.
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000121/files/4719_13221.html
If you would like an audio version of the story, here is a link to Fanta Jikan’s audio reading of the work.
Just click the little yellowish button that says 朗読 (read aloud).
http://fantajikan.com/lineup/niimi/06.html
—-Enjoy!
There once was a Tree and a Little Bird who were very close friends. One day, the Little Bird sat on the Tree’s branches and sang a song; and the Tree listened to the Little Bird’s song all day.
But the cold Winter was approaching, and the Little Bird had to bid farewell to the Tree.
“Goodbye. Come back again next year and sing to me.”
Said the Tree.
“Sure. Wait for me until then, okay?”
The Little Bird said and then flew South.
Spring had returned. And the snow had melted from the fields and the forest.
The Little Bird had returned to where the Tree from last year was.
But, what had happened? The Tree wasn’t there. Only a stump had remained.
“Do you know where the Tree that stood here went?”
The Little Bird had asked the stump.
The Stump said,
“A woodcutter cut down the down the tree, and took it away down to the valley.”
So the Little Bird flew to the valley.
At the bottom of the valley there was a big mill, and the sound of trees being cut could be heard.
The Little Bird landed on top of the mill’s gate.
“Mr. Gate, do you know what became of my friend, the Tree?”
The Little Bird had asked.
The Gate said,
“The Tree was finely chopped up and made into a match. Then the match was sold at the village over there.”
So the Little Bird flew to the village.
There was a little girl next to a lamp.
The Little Bird asked,
“Hello, do you know of a match?”
Then the little girl said,
“I already lit the match. But the flame is still in the lamp.”
The Little Bird firmly stared at the flame and landed descended upon it.
And then, the Little Bird sang the song from last year to the flame. The flame wavered and flickered, for it seemed to be happy from the bottom of its heart.
When the Little Bird finished singing, the Little Bird continued to stare at the flame. And then, the Little Bird flew away.
I even decided to give the publishing information a go while translating. Here it is.
Original Text: Gon, the Little Fox, Nankichi Niimi’s Fairy Tale Compilation 1, Tenori
Books Dainippon Tosho Publishing Co., Ltd.
1988 (Showa 63) August, 8th First Edition
Original Text’s Source: Nankichi Niimi’s Complete Revised Works, Dainippon Tosho Publishing Co., Ltd.
Input: Meiko
Proofreading: Atsushi Suzuki, Junji Morimitsu
Updated September 29th, 2003
