The Japanese Translations of the Jesuit Mission Press, 1590-1614: De Imitatione Christi and Guia De Pecadores (Studies in the History of Missions, V. 22)

Edwin Mellen Pr, 2003-03-01. Hardcover. Good. 2002 The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. (Lewiston, New York), 6 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches tall orange cloth hardcover, no dust jacket, white lettering to front cover and spine, iii, 146 pp. plus publisher's ads. Moderate to heavy soiling and rubbing to covers, with bumping to upper and fore edges of front and rear covers, and to tips. Inside, a very good to near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked. ~HHH~ [1.5P] The purpose of this study is to examine thoroughly, through examples, the methods of translation and editing used by the mission press in its attempt to produce a native Christian literature for Japan. Part One examines two translations of De Imitatio Christi - Contemptus mundi jenbu and the Kontemutsusu munji, a later version. Part Two examines Guia de Pecadores - Giya do pekadoru. The study details their background, structure and style, with a textual analysis and comparison. The author identifies the translations' Buddhist terminology, the only religious language available to the Jesuits in Japan, and explains how Buddhist terms were used to convey Christian ideas. Clear evidence of the translators' knowledge of Japanese religions, aesthetics, waka poetry, and classical literature can be found in both the style and the content of the Jesuits' translations of European Catholic books. Rev. Farge's book focuses on an important, yet largely unexplored, area of inquiry - namely, the multiple contexts, cultural, linguistic, religious, and psychological, within which a number of Christian classics were not only linguistically but also culturally translated into Japanese. This is the only in-depth literary study in the English language of Japanese Christian texts from this period.