近刊のヨーロッパ文学の紹介 | European Literature Festival 2022

5-6

Paula Meehan, a poet from Ireland, and José Luís Peixoto, an author from Portugal, will talk about their works which have been recently published in Japan. Meehan will read some poems from As If By Magic, followed by Japanese versions read by the translators. Peixoto, whose first novel Blank Gaze was recently translated into Japanese, will talk with the translator of Galveias, a previously translated book of his.

Part 1

Paula Meehan: As if by Magic: Selected Poems

Paula Meehan will discuss and read some poems from As If By Magic: Selected Poems, followed by Japanese versions, read by each of the five the translators.

Paula Meehan

Paula Meehan was born in 1955 in Dublin where she still lives. She studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Eastern Washington University in the U.S. She has received many awards, including the Marten Toonder Award for Literature, The Butler Literary Award for Poetry, the Denis Devlin Memorial Award and the PPI Award for Radio Drama. She has published seven collections of poetry, the most recent being Geomantic (Dedalus Press, 2016). A selected volume, entitled Mysteries of the Home, was published in 1996. Her writing for stage includes the plays Mrs Sweeney (1997), Cell (1999), and, for children, Kirkle (1995), The Voyage (1997) and The Wolf of Winter (2003/2004). Her poetry has been set to music by artists as diverse as the avant-garde composer John Wolf Brennan and the folksinger Christy Moore. She has collaborated throughout her working life with dancers, visual artists and film makers. Paula Meehan is a member of Aosdána, the Irish affiliation of writers and artists. Professor Paula Meehan’s As if By Magic: Selected Poems published by Dedalus press in 2020 has been translated by Professor Mitsuko Ohno and others and published by Shichosha in September 2022.

Mitsuko Ohno

Professor emerita, Aichi Shukutoku University. Specialises in Irish literature and culture.

Nobuaki Tochigi

Professor, Waseda University

Kazuko Kawaguchi

Lecturer, Aichi Shukutoku University

Kumiko Yamada

Lecturer, Aichi Shukutoku University

Rie Kawai

Lecturer, Aichi Shukutoku University

Part 2

José Luís Peixoto: Blank Gaze

José Luís Peixoto’s first novel Blank Gaze, published in 2000, was awarded the 2nd José Saramago Literary Award when he was only 27 years old. It is now acclaimed as a monumental work which has marked the opening of the new era of the Portuguese literature. Peixoto will talk about his path from Blank Gaze to Galveias (translated to Japanese in 2018).

José Luís Peixoto

Born in 1974. He made his debut as a writer in 2000, in the following year, his first novel, Blank Gaze, was awarded the 2nd José Saramago Literary Award, which immediately positioned him as one of the leading writers of contemporary Portuguese literature. Saramago then acclaimed him as “one of the most surprising revelations in recent Portuguese Literature”. Some of his works have been translated into Japanese, such as Galveias and short stories which were included in Selected Short Stories of Portuguese Contemporary Literature and in the web magazine Kangaeru Hito.

Maho Kinoshita

Translator of Portuguese litertature. Translations include: Galveias (José Luís Peixoto), The Elephant’s Journey (José Saramago), Jerusalem (Gonçalo M. Tavares), and A General Theory of Oblivion (José Eduardo Agualusa).