The obituary of Edward Seidensticker, the translator of much of Kawabata’s work to English in the 20th century had the following story.
Not so with Kawabata. “Do you not, my esteemed master, find this a rather impenetrable passage?” Mr. Seidensticker recalled asking him, ever so gently, during the translation of Snow Country.
”He would dutifully scrutinize the passage, and answer: ‘Yes,’” Mr. Seidensticker wrote. “Nothing more.”
I include this interaction because Kawabata’s work is in general very impenetrable. It’s easy to get swept up by his prose, uniquely distinct among translated work, but in general it remains impenetrable. Readers can make some attempt with longer prose works precisely because they are longer prose works.
Kawabata’s Palm-of-the-Hand Stories don’t really look like short stories we might be familiar with, because short stories in the West are generally pretty long in comparison. These stories span somewhere from 3 to 10 pages, mostly around 4 pages (they quite literally fit in the palm of the hand). I think I struggled with these mostly because of their short length — Kawabata’s sparse writing and meaning are already stretched thin by the shortness of the stories.
I didn’t finish the collection - perhaps these were a little too impenetrable for me. I think my lack of understanding really hit me this time - I don’t think I can justify assigning a rating nor giving any deeper thoughts than what I’ve given here. Ended the book at “Lavatory Buddhahood” at page 127 out of 238. May revisit in the future.
Written 2 February 2023 Adapted from my review on Goodreads.