by Ash » Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:14 pm
Finished Donto Koi, Choujougenshou earlier this week. Ordered the sequel, Naze Best wo Tsukusanai no ka (Why don't you do your best?), which should tell the stories of Trick 3.
Read Nishimura Kyotaro's The Mystery Train Disappears yesterday, a somewhat disappointing police procedural. Not a big fan of the police procedural (golden age detective FTW!) and in the very, very specific type of "Japanese police procedurals concerning public transport translated to English", Matsumoto Seicho's Points and Lines was better.
And this morning I decided to translate Dazai Osamu's Hashire, Melos (Run, Melos!), a classic Japanese short story. Saw a drama yesterday that referenced it and as the story isn't that long, decided to translate it. It's about Melos, who tries to kill the evil tyrant king, fails and is sentenced to death. He wants to see his sister marry though and in exchange of leaving his best friend behind at the palace as a hostage, he gets 3 days of freedom. If he's not back in 3 days, his friend will be executed in his place. At the point where I am, it's the last day and Melos is running back to the palace, desperate to save his friend.
"Rationality, that was it. No esoteric mumbo jumbo could fool that fellow. Lord, no! His two feet were planted solidly on God's good earth" - Ellery Queen, The Lamp of God