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brianbergstrom.bsky.social
Brian Bergstrom
@brianbergstrom.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1.1K following 2.7K posts
Lecturer & Literary Translator JPN -> ENG Currently out: DILEMMAS OF WORKING WOMEN by Fumio Yamamoto In progress: CAPITAL FROM ZERO by Kōhei Saitō, LOVEAHOLIC by Fumio Yamamoto Tarte 🥧 and Butt 🌈 Enthusiast (à Montréal) IG: instagram.com/asa_no_burei
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brianbergstrom.bsky.social
Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · Jul 3
To celebrate the release of Dilemmas in the UK, Foyles asked me to write an essay about Yamamoto and her life and work.

It's up on their site now, and I'd love it if you gave it a look—I love this book, and I'm so excited to have a platform to talk about it

www.foyles.co.uk/further-read...
Fumio Yamamoto and Skinship by Brian Bergstrom translator Brian Bergstrom reflects on Fumio Yamamoto's writing, and the central role of 'skinship'—a Japanese term meaning “the aspect of a relationship that arises from physical touch”. The inset photo is of Fumio Yamamoto, along with the UK cover of The Dilemmas of Working Women, the book by her that I translated that's coming out today
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 15h
This was a cliché of gay-adjacent narratives in the 90s in Japan, and it seemed regressive then!
cover of the english translation of Eguni Kaori's Twinkle, Twinkle, in which a straight woman marries a gay man on purpose
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 18h
This is fun though:

"My boyfriend's a little...different"

"This former monster always wanted to do *this*?!"
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 18h
It's a "Horror Occult Girls' Manga Magazine" called Monthly Halloween (月刊ハロウィン) The rest of the text are names of manga artists/writers and their works, which are serialized in it
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mal-content.bsky.social
f̵̖̔̈ǎ̴͓g̵͈̩͎̏̄̾g̴̺̈ó̶͍̈́͆t̶̖̝̀ @mal-content.bsky.social · 18h
Spokane
merriam-webster.com
Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 1d
What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 18h
Yes! (I'm also from thereabouts)
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 18h
I translate from Japanese to English, and work with authors like Erika Kobayashi, Kōhei Saitō, Tomoyuki Hoshino, & Kōtarō Isaka. Forthcoming are new works by Saitō and the late, great Fumio Yamamoto, and a short piece by Hoshino. I'm going to be in Toronto at the end of the month talking w/Isaka!
Graphic for my upcoming event in Toronto: Crafting Twists and Thrills: A Conversation with Author Isaka Kōtarō (Japan Foundation Toronto) A picture from a recent event at Argo Bookstore where I'm posing with a table decorated with some books I've translated as a whole or collections containing short pieces I've translated: Slow Down by Kōhei Saitō, Sunrise by Erika Kobayashi, Animals Brag About Their Bottoms by Maki Saitō, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity by Erika Kobayashi, Hotel Lucky Seven by Kōtarō Isaka, The Dilemmas of Working Women by Fumio Yamamoto, Unusual Fragments: Japanese Stories, and The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 18h
But seriously, how are the rest of us supposed to follow that? 😉
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 18h
🫡
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 19h
You'd think that someone so bland couldn't be so irritating too, but you'd be wrong
rawstory.com
Raw Story @rawstory.com · 2d
Bari Weiss, the incoming editor in chief of CBS News, once auditioned for a role on the hit daytime television show "The View," but tested so poorly with audiences that she "wasn't invited back," according to a new report.
CBS News' new boss once auditioned for 'The View' — and 'wasn't invited back': report
Bari Weiss, the incoming editor in chief of CBS News, once auditioned for a role on the hit daytime television show "The View," but tested so poorly with audiences that she "wasn't invited back," according to a new report. Variety reported on Tuesday that Weiss auditioned for "The View" when host Me...
bit.ly
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brianbergstrom.bsky.social
Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 1d
It's apparently World Octopus Day, which reminds me of Bashō and his poem about octopuses staring up at the moon from the pots they unwittingly mistook for homes, as well as something I wrote a while back about "shiori" [撓] / "tenderness" in his poetry
ON POETRY AND 'TENDERNESS'— I was teaching Basho, the haiku master, last class, and one of the things he does is write about poetry, and he says haiku should possess three qualities: sabi (loneliness), shiori (tenderness), and hosomi (slenderness). They're all pretty vague, of course, but loneliness is something like the ironies that remind one of the transience of life (his example is old men with white hair acting as "flower guards" beneath cherry blossoms, which are associated with youth and freshness), and "slenderness" is basically what we would call "restraint" these days -- prizing simplicity in phrasing over needless decoration or pretty language/allusion. But "tenderness" is so hard to teach, and hard for students to understand. It's a quality that basically (I think?) is a reaction to the corrosive ironies and cleverness of "low" poetry of the time that ridiculed stock characters or known figures in a pursuit of showing off. Basho, at least in my interpretation, wanted to reject the pretensions of "high" poetry -- the kind that prized the clever allusion built on extensive education in classical forms -- while keeping its seriousness of purpose and philisophical depth; he also wanted to reject the empty cleverness and spiritual poverty of "low" poetry while keeping its unembarassed willingness to treat humble, everyday, or even vulgar subjects (one of his more famous poems describes a horse peeing near where he's trying to sleep), and use of plain, unforced language. I think that's what "tenderness" as a poetic quality means -- an embrace of the subject of the poem without critical or other kinds of distance, to be "tender" toward it, a respect for the thing being described/evoked that becomes an obligation to evoke it as fully and directly as possible (which is where the other principles come in). As I was (probably confusingly) trying to talk about this in class, I realized that this becomes, in modernity/modernism, "objectivity" as a grounding of r… Anyway, here are my own translations of some of his poems; unlike many translators, I tried to keep the 5/7/5 meter even in English [hence, the technically incorrect use of "ocotopi"; so sue me, grammar nerds]: --- O, the ancient pond! A frog jumps into its depths: The sound of water --- Fishermen’s faces. At first light, what do I see? White poppy flowers. --- Suma’s fishermen. What cries from their arrowpoints? Flying nightingales. Nightingales flying disappear into the distance: A single island At Suma temple Listen to the ancient flutes Beneath the trees’ shade --- Octopi in pots Dream unattainable dreams ‘neath the summer moon. --- The moon is there, but there’s a feeling of absence. Summer in Suma. I can see the moon yet, something is still missing. Summer in Suma. --- Hair shaven and shed On Kurokami mountain – Old robes changed for new.* *[by his companion on The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Sora, who took the tonsure at the beginning of the journey] For a little while I watch the waterfall’s spray. My first summer’s rite. --- How cruel it seems! Beneath this warrior’s helmet: Only a cricket. --- Whiter than the white stones of Stone Mountain Temple blows the autumn wind. an octopus backed up into a pot/trap
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Reposted by Brian Bergstrom
celeste.lgbt
Celeste Trianon @celeste.lgbt · 20h
Any and all ICE agents entering Canada should be arrested under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

We have a legal framework designed to address the unconscionable. We ought to use it!
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brianbergstrom.bsky.social
Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 1d
It's apparently World Octopus Day, which reminds me of Bashō and his poem about octopuses staring up at the moon from the pots they unwittingly mistook for homes, as well as something I wrote a while back about "shiori" [撓] / "tenderness" in his poetry
ON POETRY AND 'TENDERNESS'— I was teaching Basho, the haiku master, last class, and one of the things he does is write about poetry, and he says haiku should possess three qualities: sabi (loneliness), shiori (tenderness), and hosomi (slenderness). They're all pretty vague, of course, but loneliness is something like the ironies that remind one of the transience of life (his example is old men with white hair acting as "flower guards" beneath cherry blossoms, which are associated with youth and freshness), and "slenderness" is basically what we would call "restraint" these days -- prizing simplicity in phrasing over needless decoration or pretty language/allusion. But "tenderness" is so hard to teach, and hard for students to understand. It's a quality that basically (I think?) is a reaction to the corrosive ironies and cleverness of "low" poetry of the time that ridiculed stock characters or known figures in a pursuit of showing off. Basho, at least in my interpretation, wanted to reject the pretensions of "high" poetry -- the kind that prized the clever allusion built on extensive education in classical forms -- while keeping its seriousness of purpose and philisophical depth; he also wanted to reject the empty cleverness and spiritual poverty of "low" poetry while keeping its unembarassed willingness to treat humble, everyday, or even vulgar subjects (one of his more famous poems describes a horse peeing near where he's trying to sleep), and use of plain, unforced language. I think that's what "tenderness" as a poetic quality means -- an embrace of the subject of the poem without critical or other kinds of distance, to be "tender" toward it, a respect for the thing being described/evoked that becomes an obligation to evoke it as fully and directly as possible (which is where the other principles come in). As I was (probably confusingly) trying to talk about this in class, I realized that this becomes, in modernity/modernism, "objectivity" as a grounding of r… Anyway, here are my own translations of some of his poems; unlike many translators, I tried to keep the 5/7/5 meter even in English [hence, the technically incorrect use of "ocotopi"; so sue me, grammar nerds]: --- O, the ancient pond! A frog jumps into its depths: The sound of water --- Fishermen’s faces. At first light, what do I see? White poppy flowers. --- Suma’s fishermen. What cries from their arrowpoints? Flying nightingales. Nightingales flying disappear into the distance: A single island At Suma temple Listen to the ancient flutes Beneath the trees’ shade --- Octopi in pots Dream unattainable dreams ‘neath the summer moon. --- The moon is there, but there’s a feeling of absence. Summer in Suma. I can see the moon yet, something is still missing. Summer in Suma. --- Hair shaven and shed On Kurokami mountain – Old robes changed for new.* *[by his companion on The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Sora, who took the tonsure at the beginning of the journey] For a little while I watch the waterfall’s spray. My first summer’s rite. --- How cruel it seems! Beneath this warrior’s helmet: Only a cricket. --- Whiter than the white stones of Stone Mountain Temple blows the autumn wind. an octopus backed up into a pot/trap
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 1d
Just saying!

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 1d
🫡
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 1d
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 1d
Whaaat?! -- well, if you really need to get in, I think I know a guy....
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 1d
Toronto people! I will be in town at the end of the month, moderating a discussion with Kōtarō Isaka (author of Bullet Train and Hotel Lucky Seven) for the Japan Foundation, among other activities. I'd love to see you!

tr.jpf.go.jp/isaka-kotaro...
Event description: Crafting Twists and Thrills: A Conversation with Author ISAKA Kotaro Thursday, October 30, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM (ET) In-person at the Japan Foundation, Toronto Event Hall | Admission Free | RSVP Required Author ISAKA Kotaro will share rare insights into his life as a creative at the Japan Foundation, Toronto, in conversation with Brian Bergstrom, translator for one of his novels Hotel Lucky Seven. The pair will talk about creative processes, inspirations, and challenges, in addition to experience with translation and film adaptations. Audience can also expect to learn more about Isaka’s most recent English translations Seesaw Monster and Hotel Lucky Seven and ask any burning questions they may have about his intricately woven plotlines.
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 2d
Haha I love this movie!
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 2d
Rainy Tuesday
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 2d
🫡
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 3d
If nothing else, it's nice to have a conveniently bald example of how so-called centrism is just the most craven mendacity
razzball.bsky.social
Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 3d
Built in a lab to appease billionaires
"I know that there are some people in this room who don't believe that my marriage should have been legal," Ms. Weiss told the Federalist Society, an influential conservative legal group, in 2023. "And that's OK. Because we're all Americans who want lower taxes."
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 3d
Look, I teach at 8:30 on Monday mornings
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 3d
Even neighsayers too?
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 3d
🫡
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Brian Bergstrom @brianbergstrom.bsky.social · 3d
I'll be honest—I appreciate most reactions to The Dilemmas of Working Women, including negative ones (those can be interesting too!), but there's a knee-jerk type of reaction to the fact that a character in one of the stories cheats on her boyfriend that always makes me go, "Oh, grow UP"
A reader review upset at the cheating element of one of the stories in The Dilemmas of Working Women by Fumio Yamamoto: "I hate the part where cheating is considered nothing ?????? Like HOW ????" Also, if you've read this story, the cheating is in fact not "nothing" - it has personal and professional consequences; the fact that the main character does it and then feels little guilt about it is part of her journey of realizing what the problem with her relationship actually is
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