Ramo Nakajima: Zombie (from his book “Shiritori Essays”)

Image from WikipediaThe following is an original translation of the late counterculture essayist/novelist, Ramo Nakajima and comes from his book “Shiritori Essays.” “Shiritori” is a Japanese word-game where one after saying a word begins the next word with the last letter of the preceding word. For example, if I say “tree,” you may say “eat” [...]

Interface Toward Philosophy: A Translated Excerpt from Kiyokazu Washida’s “The Plastics” (Nature Interface Magazine)

This is my original translation of the first two paragraphs from Kiyokazu Washida’s essay “The Plastics” as published in Nature Interface magazine. I believe this to be the first time this is being presented in English.
The Plastics
It is far from normal to say that human beings are natural. Inside the body, humans are carried [...]

Kiyokazu Washida: “My Body…Dead Body…Corpse” from “The Screaming Body” (JP title: 悲鳴をあげる身体)

This is my unpublished (amateur) translation of Prof. Washida’s work. My tools were a Kanji dictionary and a Japanese-English dictionary. I hope you find this stimulating.
Then there is the question of “whose body is this?” Namely, the person that is my body becomes a problem in the fact that the relationship of “me” to “my” [...]

Selected Translated Poems from Mariko Mori’s book “Zero, Zero, Zero”

I bought “Zero, Zero, Zero” on a trip to Osaka, Japan in the summer of 2001. I think that these translations, although amateur (i.e. unpublished), capture the sense that Mori wishes to express. Enjoy.
Mariko Mori: Zero, Zero, Zero
I look at the clouds as they suddenly tear away from each other.
Somewhere, someone is calling [...]

Masahiro Morioka: The Insensitive Man (excerpt from Chapter one, my translation)

Masahiro Morioka teaches at the University of Osaka Prefecture. His published works include: “Reconsidering the View of Life: From Ecology to Brain Death,” “An Intellectual Method of Facing Onself,” “Brain Dead Person,” “Painless Civilization” among others. The link to his Life Studies homepage can be accessed via my Blogroll. Thank you.
Chapter 1: If Only They [...]

Kiyokazu Washida: The Disproportionate Body (my amateur translation)

The Disproportionate Body
Kiyokazu Wakabayashi
1. The Patchwork of the Body
The Shy Body, The Tense Body
The body is a troublesome thing.
Our body never changes directly by our own will. It is awkward and resistant to change. Not wanting others to see it, we conceal this ugly body. Why is this ugly body of mine so full of [...]