That Admirable Lack of Orientalism: Jorge Luis Borges’s Translations into Japanese as Self-Orientalizing Acts in The Song Scroll of the Mansion of Fictions (Denkiteiginsō 傳奇亭吟草)

Abstract

This article delves into Jorge Luis Borges’s approach to translation and its implications within the context of Orientalism and literary authenticity. A point of departure is Borges’s prologue to “El incivil maestro de ceremonias Kotsuké no Suké,” wherein he praises A.B. Mitford’s narrative for avoiding the embellishments of local color, suggesting a more authentic rendition of the original Japanese tale. Borges’s preference for a domesticating translation—eschewing Orientalist tropes—can be seen within the context of Lawrence Venuti’s concepts of domestication and foreignization in translation. Venuti posits translation as an interpretive act, transferring networks of meaning rather than seeking strict equivalence. This perspective frames Borges’s adaptations of Japanese poetic forms, like haikus and tankas, as inherently translational, composed in Spanish but reflecting an imagined Japanese source. The article examines Borges’s seventeen Spanish-language haikus, originally published in La cifra (1981) and later translated back into Japanese by the esteemed Japanese poet Takahashi Mutsuo for the 1999 centennial of Borges’s birth. Takahashi’s adaptations, published in the prestigious literary magazine Subaru, exemplify a playful and intertextual approach, transforming Borges’s work into “The Song Scroll of the Mansion of Fictions.” Takahashi’s translation, more than a mere linguistic conversion, situates Borges within the Japanese poetic tradition, highlighting the kind of interplay between adaptation and cultural recontextualization that Borges himself made into one of the themes of his literature. This article further contextualizes the translated haikus against the background of commemorative events in Japan, including symposia and poetry readings celebrating Borges. Takahashi’s translations, appearing alongside traditional translations and other paratextual essays, underscore the dynamic interaction between Borges’s work and Japanese literature. The article posits that Borges’s haikus, through Takahashi's adaptations, achieve a new dimension of fidelity—not to the original text but to the aesthetic and cultural ethos of Japanese poetry, illustrating a profound cross-cultural literary dialogue.