Haruki Murakami fans discussion

This thread is for discussion about direct and indirect translation of Murakami’s works into various languages.

There are two separate definitions of indirect translation.
1) Source language translated to 1st target, e.g. English. Then translation from 1st target to 2nd, e.g. German.
2) Indirect translation as a technique where: a) The source and target languages have significant grammatical or structural differences. b) Cultural references or idioms exist in the source text that don’t have direct equivalents in the target language. c) Preserving the original flow and style of the text is crucial.

I will try to find articles that explore both and, if possible, provide examples.

Please add your thoughts, examples, or questions from Murakami works. The examples do not need to be from the English translations.

An earlier, 2014, article from nippon.com that discusses “The English Version as Master Text” (at least in earlier retranslations) as part of a larger article entitled “Orchestrating Translations: The Case of Murakami Haruki”.

https://www.nippon.com/en/column/g00144/

Note that friends have written me that direct translations are more likely the norm in more recent translations. This article focuses on the initial German translations and the follow up.
“ As for the translations of Murakami’s books, a new era seems to have arisen with the further outreach of his literature into even more languages and readerships. The argument that translating from an English version would speed up the availability of his texts for an international audience never really made sense, but it is thoroughly undermined when we look at the publication history of his most recent works in other languages. South of the Border, West of the Sun, the object of the dispute in Germany was published in a number of hardcover, paperback, and special editions over the years, until in 2013 another version came out: a direct translation from the Japanese under the new title Südlich der Grenze, westlich der Sonne. It reminded many readers of the earlier Murakami dispute, and critics revisited the passages which had caused the commotion more than ten years ago, stating that now Murakami’s narratorial intentions were much more transparent, and the sexual descriptions sounded less drastic. Whatever the reactions may have been, though, it is a fact that to the publisher, this author seems worthy of a retranslation in order to do justice to his text, and German readers were curious enough to buy and read the book once more.”
(Accessed 18 April, 2025)

Here is an article discussing case 2 titled “In the Translator’s Toolbox: Direct vs. Indirect Translation Techniques Unraveled”.

https://future-trans.com/translation-...
(Last accessed 18 April, 2025)