Mieko KawakamiBreasts and Eggs by Sam Bett David Boyd

Abstract

and at others not even a verb (“Choppy, their conversation”), serve both to mirror and intensify the monotony of the protagonist ’s life. Overall, Labinger’s translation deftly reflects the style, tone, and rhythm of Saccomanno’s prose. At times, however, it falls short. Consider the phrase la melenita castaña a lo garçon, which loses not only the original’s cadence but also its specificity in Labinger’s rendering: “the chestnut-colored hair in a boy cut.” The Spanish melenita, which is the diminutive of melena (mane, long hair) suggests the expression a media melena, which refers to bobbed hair. While the phrase a lo garçon does imply a boyish haircut, Saccomanno’s phrasing is more elegant. At times, too, Labinger’s word choices create connotations that diverge from the meanings present in the original. Consider the use of “fool” for baboso. From the word baba, meaning “spittle” or “drool,” the noun baboso occupies a more colloquial, even pejorative, register. Consider, also, the use of lúgubre in this sentence, Los engrajes y su resonancia lúgubre, which Labinger renders as “The gears and their gloomy reverberation .” “Gloomy,” which is generally used to describe a space or emotion, is, at best, an infelicitous choice. In this sentence, Saccomanno uses the higher and more mellifluous lúgubre (mournful, lugubrious) to describe a sound that serves to reinforce the dronelike repetition of the protagonist’s life. Of interest , too, are Labinger’s multiple translations of the word patota, which appears, in both singular and plural forms, seven times, rendered variously as “gang members,” “kids,” “the crowd of kids,” and twice respectively as “the gang” and “the mob.” While patota is polysemic, the meaning seems to be consistent throughout the text. The shift between the anodyne “kids” and the more menacing “gangs” and “mobs” fails to capture the continuity of meaning present in the original . I offer these comments fully aware that each translator reads the text in their own way, and their word choices reflect that reading. My goal here is not to police Labinger’s translation but to point out the often subjective—and complex—nature of translation. All in all, Labinger’s translation of The Clerk is a welcome addition to the growing collection of Saccomanno novels now available in English. Let us hope, then, that Open Letter brings us other titles in Labinger’s translations. George Henson Middlebury Institute of International Studies * In my review of Saccomanno’s earlier novel, 77, also in Andrea Labinger’s translation (WLT, Summer 2019, 84), I referenced this novel, which had not yet been translated, and provided a bracketed English translation (The party-liner), as is the custom for untranslated works. The problem is, I read oficinista (clerk) as oficialista (party-liner). I regret the error. Mieko Kawakami Breasts and Eggs Trans. Sam Bett & David Boyd. New York. Europa Editions. 2020. 448 pages. READERS OF THE WORK under review might be forgiven for thinking that they were enjoying Kawakami Mieko’s (b. 1976) Breasts and Eggs, a novella first published in 2008. The hundred-page work won the Akutagawa Prize, securing, thereby, a stamp of legitimacy for the singer-turnedauthor . That version of Breasts and Eggs offered a focused window into the life of the narrator/protagonist as a provocative rumination on womanhood. The breasts, as markers of sexualized desirability, were those of her elder sister, about to be augmented . The eggs were those of her niece, just entering the flower of womanhood and full of uncertainty. The protagonist, Natsume Natsuko—in all senses in between these two women—offers cogent commentary on their emotional struggles. It was a powerful tale. Be forewarned: the novel under review, coming in at over four hundred pages, is not that novella. In 2019 Kawakami published Natsu monogatari (literally “Summer stories” but translated here as Breasts and Eggs). A substantially reworked version—and that is being generous—of her novella now forms the first third of this Breasts and Eggs (“Book 1”). To that is added a significantly longer section (“Book 2”) exploring Natsuko ’s relationship to the notion of pregnancy and sperm donation. Book 1 hews fairly closely—although there are obvious sections where...