Jay Rubin (born 1941) is an American academic and translator. He is one of the main translators of the works of the Japanese novelist
Haruki Murakami into English. He has also written a guide to Japanese, ''Making Sense of Japanese'' (originally titled ''Gone Fishin
'''), and a biographical literary analysis of Murakami.
Rubin was born in
Washington, D.C., in 1941.
Rubin has a PhD in
Japanese literature
Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...
from the
University of Chicago. He taught at the
University of Washington for eighteen years, and then moved on to
Harvard University, which he left in 2008. In his early research career he focused on the
Meiji state censorship system. More recently Rubin has concentrated his efforts on Murakami, and
Noh drama. His most recent publications are ''Modern Japanese Writers'' (Scribners, 2001), and ''Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words'' (Harvill, 2002; Vintage, 2005). His translation of 18 stories by
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa appeared as a
Penguin Classics in 2006. His
debut novel, ''The Sun Gods'', was released in May 2015 (Chin Music Press) and explores the relationship between a Japanese mother, Mitsuko, and her adopted, American son, Billy, as they face American internment during
World War II.
Rubin also translated the "Thousand Years of Dreams" passages by
Kiyoshi Shigematsu for use in the Japanese-produced
Xbox 360 game ''
Lost Odyssey''.
Rubin's translation of ''
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' by Haruki Murakami won the 2003
Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature.
Translations
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Published works
* Tansman, Alan and Dennis Washburn. (1997). ''Studies in Modern Japanese Literature: Essays and Translations in Honor of
Edwin McClellan''. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. (cloth)
* ''Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You'' (Power Japanese Series, Kodansha's Children's Classics), Kodansha International (March 1, 2002), paperback, 144 pp., – first published as ''Gone Fishin
''' (1992)
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See also
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Alfred Birnbaum – another translator of Haruki Murakami
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Philip Gabriel – another translator of Haruki Murakami
Notes
References
External links
Jay Rubin– Harvard faculty homepage (archived)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Jay
1941 births
Living people
20th-century American translators
21st-century American translators
Japanese–English translators
American Japanologists
Japanese literature academics
University of Chicago alumni
University of Washington faculty
Harvard University faculty