Differing Demands of ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Narratives from the Heian Period for the Translator

Abstract

This essay addresses the different demands of translating texts of high art and works of a lower literary register from Japan’s mid-Heian period (10th to 11th century). The author has shifted from translating highly literary texts such as the ‘Kagero nikki’ (‘The Kagero Diary’) and ‘Sarashina nikki’ (‘The Sarashina Diary’) to translating the ‘Ochikubo monogatari’ (‘Tale of the Lady of the Low Chamber’), which may be considered representative of Heian popular fiction and is itself a parody of a Cinderella type romance. A comparison of passages from the diaries and the ‘Ochikubo monogatari’ shows how stylistic differences between the two types of narrative have required the author to adjust and often reverse previous translation principles and strategies.