Shoyo Tsubouchi, well known as a representative translator of Shakespeare’s works and Japanese playwright encountered John Dryden through his efforts to find the best way of translating English plays into Japanese for the purpose of promoting the growth of modern Japanese drama.
Chapter. I. Tsubouchi’s search for a way of translation
Having translated Julius Caesar in 1882 and observing the contemporary practices of translation by Shimei Futabatei, Ogai Mori and others, Tsubouchi felt that translation methods were extremely important for the promotion of modern Japanese drama.
Chapt. II. The influence of Dryden’s theory of translation on Tsubouchi
Tsubouchi was an omnivorous reader. Among the many books he read, the ones which most influenced his views of translation were, Comparative Literature by Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett and the Life of Dryden by Samuel Johnson. Tsubouchi learned what comparative literature was through reading the former and found what for him was the most suitable way of translation in the latter. Through the Life of Dryden, he came to understand Dryden’s theory of translation. He was now able to include his view of translation into his lecture entitled, Hisho Bungaku, by which title he meant comparative literature. In this lecture he quotes some passages from the Life of Dryden on how translation should be done and from Dryden’s Preface on Translation prefixed to the Second Miscellany, the kind of mind required in a translator.
Chapt. III. Dryden’s theory of translation
Dryden identified three ways of translation; namely, metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation in his Preface to The Translation of Ovid’s Epistles. But among these three ways in his Dedication of the Aeneis, he endeavours to persuade a translator to take the way of paraphrase. Indeed, he himself translated Virgil’s Aeneid into English by way of paraphrase.
Chapt. IV. Tsubouchi’s encounter with Dryden
I conclude my essay by describing Tsubouchi as being an adherent of Dryden’s theory of translation. Tsubouchi translated Hamlet into Japanese by the paraphrase method following closely Dryden’s way of translating the Aeneid.
