MONKEY 2023

MONKEY Vol 4: Music

Vol. 4 of MONKEY is 156 pages of full color, featuring the best of contemporary Japanese literature and new work by American writers—all friends of MONKEY. The pieces in this volume center on music in new and surprising ways: from a ghostly DJ, to pianos that come alive, a jazz cafe on the verge of closing, synesthesia (“Listen to the Perfume”), the music of the spheres, and more! Satoshi Kitamura not only contributed a series of graphic vignettes but also created the cover design and “musical monkey” illustrations that appear throughout the volume.

Paperback 156 pages, full color
Dimensions ‏ 7x 10 inches
ISBN paperback: 978-1-7376253-8-4
ISBN ebook: 978-1-7376253-9-1

Paperback - $20.00
ePub, PDF - $9.99

BUY MONKEY VOL. 4

VOLUME 4 | 2023

Yoshiwara Dreaming
an excerpt from a novel by Hiromi Kawakami
translated by Ted Goossen

Selections from For the Transcription of Interstellar Music
five poems by Makoto Takayanagi
translated by Michael Emmerich

Flight
a story by Hiroko Oyamada
translated by David Boyd

Time as a Perpetual Motion Machine
a story by Kevin Brockmeier

The Zombie
a story by Haruki Murakami
translated by Jeffrey Angles

The Day Before
a poem by Mieko Kawakami
translated by Hitomi Yoshio

——————————————————————

Music: A Monkey’s Dozen

Angels and Electricity
a story by Aoko Matsuda
translated by Polly Barton

Heavensound
a chapter from an epic poem by Hideo Furukawa
translated and with an introduction by Kendall Heitzman

Transformers: Pianos
a story by Kaori Fujino
translated by Laurel Taylor

The Music of the Koto
a story by Ichiyō Higuchi
translated by Hitomi Yoshio

Five Parallel Lines
graphic vignettes by Satoshi Kitamura

Eleven One-Second Stories
microfiction by Taruho Inagaki
translated and with an introduction by Jeffrey Angles

Listen for the Perfume
a chapter from a novel by Kyōhei Sakaguchi
translated by Sam Malissa

Takasago: A Noh Play
from the modern Japanese translation by Seikō Itō
translated and with an introduction by Jay Rubin

Eight Modern Haiku Poets on Music
selected and translated by Andrew Campana

A man opens a cafe in a shopping arcade, dreaming that it will become like the jazz cafe he used to frequent as a student; the cafe is open for nearly thirty years, then closes down
a story by Tomoka Shibasaki
translated by Polly Barton

Swifts, Swallows
a story by Stuart Dybek

Cricket Girl
a story by Midori Osaki
translated by Asa Yoneda and David Boyd

What kind of old person would you like to be?
Responses from eight poets

Just Like Her by Mimi Hachikai, translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
Rain Clouds by Toshiko Hirata, translated by Chris Corker
Someday, My Annihilation Will Come by Iko Idogawa, translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
Reach Out Those Young Limbs by Mizuki Misumi, translated by Chris Corker
Ant as a Glass of Water by Sawako Nakayasu
I Cook, and Eat by Sayaka Ōsaki, translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
For Yoko Sensei by Shii, translated by Chris Corker
Dead Load by Rob Winger

What role, if any, does music play in your translation process?
Remarks from nine translators
Jeffrey Angles on musical alchemy
Polly Barton on translating in silence
David Boyd on feeling it
Anna Elliott on creating another melody
Ted Goossen on Dylan and translation
Sachiko Kishimoto on having a brain like a one-room apartment
Jay Rubin on the music of translating
Asa Yoneda on tour
Hitomi Yoshio on playing from a score

Contributors

Credits