The Basque Language jumps to the Japanese Square

2015/09/18

Euskara. Kultura. Mundura.

The Japanese translators and teachers Hagio Sho and Hiromi Yoshida presented in Donostia the Japanese version of ´Linguae Vasconum Primitiae´ by Bernart Etxepare, the first work  written in Basque language. They were accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Linguistic Policy, Patxi Baztarrika and by Aizpea Goenaga, director of the Etxepare Basque Institute.


For the Japanese translation of this book, which is so relevant to the Basque culture, Hagio and Yoshida have received financial support from the Etxepare Basque Institute through its annual call for aid for literary translation. This call supports each year an average of 17 literary works written in Basque to be translated into other languages.


The authors of the Japanese edition, which has seen the light in the famous editorial Heibonsha, have been divided , this new edition into three parts. The first one includes the translation of the text of Etxepare (done by Hagio and Yoshida Hagio). They have also collected a section with paratextual information, collected by  Sho Hagio, and also linguistic information, written by Hiromi Yoshida. The edition also includes an introduction by  by the writer and philologist from Lapurdi Ur Apalategi.

The Japanese translators and teachers Hagio Sho and Hiromi Yoshida presented in Donostia the Japanese version of ´Linguae Vasconum Primitiae´  by Bernart Etxepare, the first work  written in Basque language. They were accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Linguistic Policy, Patxi Baztarrika and by  Aizpea Goenaga, director of the Etxepare Basque Institute.


For the Japanese translation of this book, which is so relevant to the Basque culture, Hagio and Yoshida have received financial support from the Etxepare Basque Institute through its annual call for aid for literary translation. This call supports each year an average of 17 literary works written in Basque to be translated into other languages.


The authors of the Japanese edition, which has seen the light in the famous editorial Heibonsha, have been divided , this new edition into three parts. The first one includes the translation of the text of Etxepare (done by Hagio and Yoshida Hagio). They have also collected a section with paratextual information, collected by  Sho Hagio, and also linguistic information, written by Hiromi Yoshida. The edition also includes an introduction by  by the writer and philologist from Lapurdi Ur Apalategi.


On the other hand, and as a result of the agreement between the Etxepare Institute and the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Basque Language, culture, Society and History are taught in this Japanese university since Spring of 2015. The first Basque readership for Basque Studies created so far in Japan, and the reader in charge of the program is precisely Hiromi Yoshida.


The grants received by this new work is not the only line of support for the translation carried out by the Etxepare Basque Institute. This very year Etxepare and Laboral Kutxa have called the Etxepare-Laboral Kutxa Translation Prize for the first time, whose winner will be announced on September 30, the International Translation Day. And Etxepare has also launched, together with Donostia 2016 and with the support of EZIE, the Itzultzaile Berriak project.

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