Night on the Milky Way Train occupies the place in the literature of Japan that Alice in Wonderland does in the English-speaking world. This amazing story of two boys – Kenji named them Giovanni and Campanella – who find themselves on a miraculous train running through the heavens, has entranced Japanese readers for many years. What happens to the boys is a tale of both immense sorrow and equally immense hope. In addition, Pulvers offers nine other translations, all of them appearing in print outside Japan for the first time. The comical character Gauche, whose cello playing soothes the animals at his humble little cottage. The two hunters who find the tables literally turned on them as they are about to be served up to the animals they have been hunting. The pig at the Frandon Agricultural School who refuses to die. The nighthawk who, rejected by the other birds, chooses immortality in the form of a star … and more. Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) has been compared to Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. But his profound compassion, stemming from his Buddhist faith and his scientific background, makes him that unique combination of East and West that symbolises Japan’s great gifts to the world. A dedicated vegetarian (a rarity even in today’s Japan) and a staunch believer in animal rights mark him as a pioneer of his time and a writer who speaks directly to the greatest concerns of the twenty-first century. In his Afterword, Pulvers writes … In so many ways, Kenji Miyazawa was a twenty-first-century author born in the nineteenth century, a supernova that exploded in 1933. The light may be just reaching us now. This is a book that will excite, enchant and enlighten readers around the world who, until now, have not had access to these astonishing and beautifully translated stories. ‘Roger Pulvers has translated Kenji’s Japanese in the most dramatic style and with a poetic intensity that fully recreates the author’s cosmic thrills.’—Yasunari Takahashi, author, translator, professor at the University of Tokyo
Author
His name is written as 宮沢賢治 in Japanese, and translated as 宮澤賢治 in Traditional Chinese. Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) was born in Iwate, one of the northernmost prefectures in Japan. In high school, he studied Zen Buddhism and developed a lifelong devotion to the Lotus Sutra, a major influence on his writing. After graduating from an agricultural college, he moved to Tokyo to begin his writing career but had to return home to care for a sick sister. He remained in his home in Iwate for the rest of his life. One of his best-known works is the novel Night on the Galactic Railroad, which was adapted into anime in the late twentieth century, as were many of his short stories. Much of his poetry is still popular in Japan today.
