The Old Capital
Kawabata Yasunari / 陈德文Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. · ChinaJan 2023
Rating 4.6- Word count
- 82K words
- Chapters
- 12
- ISBN
- 9787559663115
Tags
Foreign Literature Fate and FortuneTwin SistersSolitude of LifeTender SentimentTraditional CraftTraditional AestheticsOld Capital ScenesFolk CustomsSummary
An English translation is not needed for this field.Editor's review
An English translation is not needed for this field.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers of literature interested in exploring Japanese classical aesthetics and the culture of mono no aware
- Travelers hoping to learn about Kyoto's seasonal scenery and cultural heritage through fiction
- Deep readers who enjoy finding era metaphors within family-ethics narratives
- Writers currently studying spatial narrative and regional writing in literature
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting strong dramatic conflict and fast-paced plotting
- Beginners with little basic familiarity with Japanese traditional cultural symbols
Reading tips
- Read alongside a Kyoto seasonal almanac or The Tale of Genji to appreciate the lineage of classical aesthetics
- Use chapter-by-chapter real photographs of Kyoto or ukiyo-e prints to build an intertextual experience between text and image
- Pay close attention to the symbolic system of plants (cedars, violets), textiles (Nishijin weaving), and seasonal festivals (Gion Matsuri)
About the publisher
Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 1993Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. is a publisher known for its literature and history titles, with 2,065 books in the collection. Its publishing covers foreign literature, contemporary Chinese prose and essays, history, folk literature, and cultural books. Its list ranges from Sima Qian's complete edition of the Records of the Grand Historian to foreign classics such as The Book of Disquiet, All Quiet on the Western Front, Snow Country, The Stranger, and Jean-Christophe, as well as modern Chinese works including Teahouse and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk. Its authors and translators include Yasunari Kawabata, Fernando Pessoa, Erich Maria Remarque, Jin Xinyi, Zhou Miao, and Chen Chao. Public information is limited, but its catalogue reflects a balance between Chinese and foreign literary classics and historical and cultural works.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 春天的花
- 尼寺和格子
- 和服街
- 北山杉
- 祇园祭
- 秋天的颜色
- 松林青青
- 深秋里的姐妹
- 冬天的花
- 后 记
- 译 后 记
FAQ
What special value does The Old Capital hold compared with Kawabata's other representative works?
This book has the strongest sense of place in Kawabata's oeuvre, casting Kyoto as a living narrative subject; its cultural-geographic writing goes deeper than the portrayal of the Echigo hot-spring country in Snow Country, opening a new dimension of 'writing the urban soul' in postwar Japanese literature.Why does the novel end with the sisters separating again?
This is not a traditional reunion narrative but an expression of Kawabata's aesthetics of mono no aware: the warmth of a momentary convergence and the extinction of inevitable separation create aesthetic tension, hinting at the insurmountable gulf between tradition and modernity, nature and the city—this 'beauty of incompleteness' is the essence of Japanese classical literature.How does the Chinese translation handle Kawabata's distinctive hazy style?
The translator adopts a strategy of 'rendering simplicity with simplicity,' avoiding over-interpretation and preserving the gaps and white space of the original; for cultural specifics such as tea ceremony and waka, brief in-text notes plus detailed endnotes are used, maintaining reading fluency while providing cultural grounding.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Kawabata Yasunari Author · Japan · 1899–1972Kawabata Yasunari (1899–1972) was a Japanese novelist and a leading figure of the New Sensationist school, born in Osaka. A prolific writer, he is represented on this site by 147 works, spanning essays and miscellaneous prose as well as foreign literature. His representative works include The Izu Dancer, Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and The Old Capital; Snow Country in particular exists in multiple editions and translations, a sign of its wide circulation. Kawabata is known for his delicate prose, which interweaves human emotion with natural scenery to express the spiritual character of the Japanese people, and often conveys a sense of the beauty of impermanence in life and death. In 1968 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, an important landmark in the global recognition of Japanese literature; he died in 1972. Beyond his novels, his essays and miscellaneous writings also deserve attention.
陈德文 AuthorChen Dewen is a Chinese translator known chiefly for rendering Japanese literature into Chinese, though his personal details are limited: his birth year, native place and educational background are not clearly documented. Judging from the sixty-eight titles held in the collection, his work centers on introducing foreign literature and classic works, with representative translations including Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow, The Decay of the Angel, Runaway Horses and Forbidden Colors in the Zitu Classic Library series, as well as Kawabata Yasunari's Snow Country and The Old Capital. These translations mainly serve Chinese readers of modern and contemporary Japanese fiction, focusing on major works by writers of high literary standing. Available materials do not systematically record his translation style or views on translation, and the repeated appearance of Snow Country may reflect different editions or reprints, a point that requires further verification. Overall, Chen Dewen's translations offer Chinese-language readers a readable channel into classic Japanese literature.