More Stories of Sato the Rabbit

By Andrew Wong, Tokyo, Japan

As we ease into the end of World Kidlit month, I caught up with Michael Blaskowsky (MB), translator of Yuki Ainoya’s 『うさぎのさとうくん』 series into the Sato the Rabbit series with Enchanted Lion Books, the first of which was listed among the Batchelder Honor books in 2022.

AW: The last time we did an interview, we were celebrating the publication of the first Sato the Rabbit book. How many books in the series have been translated into English so far?

The first three books in the series by Yuki Ainoya

MB: To date, three books have been published―Sato the Rabbit; Sato the Rabbit, The Moon; and Sato the Rabbit, The Sea of Tea. The success of the English translations spurred the publishing company to ask the author for a fourth book, which was published in Japanese in December 2022. Hopefully an English translation will be coming out soon.

AW: The fourth book came out of the English translation? Can you share with us how you heard about it?

MB: I don’t actually recall precisely, but I think the author posted something about this on the “うさぎのさとうくん” X (formerly Twitter) account (which you should follow, it’s really cute). She mentioned that in talking with her publisher, the interest for translated versions of this series showed them that there is interest in the series, and so they encouraged the author to create another book.

AW: I’ve heard of translations spurring new print runs of the original, but this is quite amazing! Do you know if your English translation has been used for translating into other languages?

MB: The English translation was not used for translation into other languages, but it did catch the eye of people in other cultures and acted as a catalyst for them to reach out and create translations in Spanish and Catalan. The series is also available in French, but those translations preceded the English versions.

(AW: I see El Conill Sato (tr. Natalia Asano and Marta Martí Mateu) and El Conejo Sato (tr. Natalia Asano), both published by Pastel De Luna, who seem to have done quite a few Japanese favorites by Toshio Iwai and Shinsuke Yoshitake.)

AW: Besides making the Batchelder honor list, were there any particular reviews or comments that were particularly satisfying? Have you met any of your readers?

MB: I don’t recall any comments that stand out in particular, but I did enjoy seeing so many people love the series for the same reasons that brought me to it. “Whimsical” came up a lot in reviews, which was great to see. I was very pleased to see readers focus on the art and story and what Ainoya-san was able to create.

AW: It really is hugely satisfying to hear about readers enjoying your work, particularly if it was the way you had hoped they would. Are there certain parts that were particularly challenging to translate?

MB: The onomatopoeia were quite difficult, and many times we opted to use a more descriptive verb in English instead of using a sound word. There were a couple places where the most accurate term in English was too technical and so we needed to find a workaround to make the text fit better with readers. For example, in one story Sato removes one piece of a raspberry (つぶつぶのひとつ), which is technically called a drupelet, but I had never heard that word before this series, so adding that word would have been too confusing for 4-8 year olds (and their parents, too). 

The fourth book Asahi

“Blue Skies” in Sea of Tea contained a particularly challenging onomatopoeia where Sato ties a fork to a kite and the fork stabs into the sky. The Japanese uses “さく” which is a commonly used sound for stabbing or inserting something. I wanted to find a word that would convey the softness of the sky being stabbed and even asked friends how they would describe a marshmallow being stabbed by a fork to source ideas, which gave me a lot of very creative ideas to work with.

AW: I think you created a new sound word in the process and a “drupelet” would have stumped me! Other than onomatopoeia, Japanese children’s picture books often have a fair amount of repetition and use tense in a particular way, so I’m curious about how you dealt with the tense and repetition, whether with instances of similar sentence structures or sounds, or other techniques used in the original Japanese?

MB: We chose to put everything in the present tense to make it feel like readers were exploring along with Sato, even though the Japanese did use past tense in several places. Ultimately, we felt that keeping everything in the present tense neatly complimented the discovery-aspect of the series and the idea that anything could change at any moment. The Japanese did use past tense every now and then to set up something that had happened during page transitions, but in our discussions, Claudia (Enchanted Lion) and I felt that maintaining a consistent tense was more important and more in line with English story conventions.

AW: This is a very interesting and important choice that helps to draw us into Sato’s world and join him in exploring and interacting with things as we read.

MB: For similar sentence structures and other techniques, I don’t recall much in the original that was too challenging, but English children’s books do have a longer history of rhyming, and so I tried to add alliteration for some playfulness, and I also opted for more fantastical or nice sounding words. I would write lists of synonyms for each word in a sentence and play around with combinations until I found a couple that I liked, then see how those worked with the sentences around them.

For example, page two of “Walnuts” in the first book describes how sometimes walnuts contain really special things. The text as lain out in the book is:

ときどき
とくべつ　すてきな　ものが
はいている
くるみが　あります。

So I wrote:

• Every so often a walnut has
• Now and then a walnut has
• Once in a while a walnut has
• Sometimes a walnut has

and

• something extraordinary and wonderful inside.
• something unique and magnificent inside.
• something extraordinary and magnificent inside.
• something unique and marvelous inside.
• something extraordinary and marvelous inside.

And then tried different iterations like this:

• Once in a while a walnut has something unique and wonderful inside.
• Once in a while he finds a walnut with something unique and wonderful inside.
• Every now and then a walnut has something unique and wonderful inside.
• Every now and then he finds a walnut that contains something unique and wonderful.
• Every now and then he finds a walnut with something unique and wonderful in it.
• Every now and then he finds a walnut with something unique and wonderful inside.

I settled on “Every now and then he finds a walnut with something unique and wonderful inside” for the first draft, which was later subjected to reviews and conversations with Claudia.

AW: You said before that the positions of the images were flipped for this spread, which I think made the English text and pictures work better together. Do you face any issues or challenges in the translation or publication process, whether with these books or with any projects you’re working on?

MB: The translation process itself was very fun and I really liked working with an editor. I was very lucky in that Enchanted Lion was precisely the right publishing house for this series and they were also the first people I reached out to, so the hardest part of the process was very smooth. For other series I’m interested in publishing, I’ve since tried this same process and just finding people to respond to book inquiries and trying to line everything up is probably the most time- and energy-consuming aspect, since there is no guarantee that a publishing house will respond and if they do, there is no guarantee that they will be interested. Since Sato the Rabbit, I’ve spoken with both US and Japanese publishers and both sides understandably prefer that the pieces are in place on the other side before committing too much (e.g. Japanese publishers want to have a US publisher lined up and US publishers that I’ve reached out to want to make sure that rights and everything are in place before going much further). Translation may require a lot of time and energy, but it is creative energy towards a finished product. 

AW: I think we know how difficult it can be to find a publisher, and how things can quickly develop when we make that connection! Can we look forward to your translation of Sato’s latest adventures in English?

MB: I hope so! Claudia is working on that side of things and so I don’t know much about what is going on with regards to that. I would like to add that I’m seeing more Japanese children’s books with English translations, which is fantastic! I’m always on the lookout for new books and many times in the last year I’ve found existing translations.

AW: It is really pleasing to hear that more children’s books from Japan are being translated into English! The Publisher’s Weekly translated titles web search is a resource you might turn to to find out whether a title has been translated for publication in the US. Good luck and we hope to hear more good news from you!

Catch Sato the Rabbit at Enchanted Lion or follow @hanerusato on X (formerly Twitter)!

Michael Blaskowsky’s translation website

*Japanese original titles are 『うさぎのさとうくん』(2006);『うさぎのさとうくん　つきよ』(2008); 『うさぎのさとうくん　こうちゃのうみ』(2014);『うさぎのさとうくん　あさひ』(2022) by Yuki Ainoya (相野谷 由起), Shogakukan.

 

Interview with Michael Blaskowsky, Translator of Sato the Rabbit

By Andrew Wong, Tokyo

The English version of Sato the Rabbit launches in the US today, nearly 15 years since Yuki Ainoya’s delightful picture book of a boy having adventures dressed like a rabbit was first published in Japan. I caught up with translator Michael Blaskowsky, a self-styled digital nomad, as he hopped across Wifi networks across the Pacific to find out more.

Translator Michael Blaskowsky with the Japanese title that started it all

Andrew (A): Hello Michael, thanks for joining us, and happy book birthday to Sato the Rabbit! For a start, how did you come across this book?

Michael (M): Seattle, oddly enough, was where my wife and I first came across Sato the Rabbit. After our son was born, we wanted to make sure we kept reading him Japanese books and thankfully Seattle and the surrounding cities—with their large Japanese/Japanese American population—stock a large variety of Japanese children’s books. My wife found Sato on the shelves one day and we loved the book so much that we bought the entire series the next time we went back to Japan. About a year later, we came across the US edition of Chirri & Chirra at a local library, which is how I learnt of Enchanted Lion Books, so I reached out to see if they were interested. They came back with a resounding yes and we’ve been working with them ever since.

A: Before we go any further, I notice “Shizuka Blaskowsky” is mentioned in the credits page.

M: Shizuka is my wife and very much a part of the Sato team. We discussed it and decided to list just my name for the English translation, but we wanted to make sure that she was credited as well, since we both love and worked on the series. She goes over everything I write and then we talk over every sentence, decide what best reflects the Japanese while flowing well in English, and work to find text that maintains the overall feel of the world. I translate and Shizuka edits, so while I am credited for translation, we’re certainly a team on this and every project.

A: It’s really heartening to hear about the strong family focus behind Sato, and I certainly agree that teamwork and collaboration play a big part in translation. Having seen Chirri & Chirra and then this book, something definitely clicked, so I’m not surprised Enchanted Lion took it up. Sato, though, isn’t a one-story 32-page picture book. Made up of seven separate episodes, I found each episode’s four spreads as imaginative, in a calming and dreamy sense, as the next. My younger daughter and I both like A Night of Stars, where Sato collects shooting stars to fill the observatory on a moonless night. I also like Forest Ice, especially the part about “sipping stories” in bed! Do you happen to have a favorite?

M: Picking one is really difficult. There are some that I like more than others, of course, and in the first book I love Walnuts and Forest Ice. I absolutely adore the creativity and the way that in only eight pages, some common, everyday action takes a fantastical turn to some dreamy place or event. I hope that it sinks into my son’s subconscious and inspires his imaginative play. If he mirrors a Sato story or the flow of the Sato world then I’ll have a huge grin on my face.

A: Speaking of mirrors, after reading both versions separately, putting the English and Japanese versions side by side felt like looking into a mirror. We thought we were reading it back to front, or even turning back time. The layout didn’t affect the translation, did it?

M: The layout was pretty straightforward. Very few things were changed, but as the Japanese text in columns reads right to left, sensible text placement for smooth reading flow is a little different than in English. It didn’t affect much, but we did swap locations of two images in Walnuts to match the text about Sato opening the walnut, to work better with the suspense of what he finds as people turn the page.

A: I thought the second and third pages of each vignette almost always involved a fantastical leap in thought! How did you go about translating the accompanying text?

M: I made the most literal translation of each sentence I could, then went back and tried to make it sound more interesting in English. I took each sentence and wrote down all the synonyms for each word or phrase in every sentence, then tried the combinations to see what I liked. As an example from A Window in the Sky, in the third and fourth pages, I played around with how “particularly”, “especially”, and “peculiarly” sounded with “clear” and “vivid”, like in “particularly vivid”. We went with “luminous” in the end, and while there was some talk about whether that word was too advanced for some readers, I like that more children’s books these days include larger words and so went with a more advanced word here. A counterexample might be in Forest of Ice. I started off with “melancholy” when describing the feelings of the blue ice, but we went with “sad” because it’s easier for kids to connect with.

A: It’s clear a lot was put into every word, and those choices also made Sato really enjoyable to read aloud, so I’m thinking that this was probably one aspect you particularly worked on. Were there any passages or sentiments that were challenging?

M: I really wanted the sentences to flow nicely and sound soothing when read aloud, plus I wanted to use alliteration and similar wordplay when possible (but not puns). Having a fun, imaginative English text that matched the fun, imaginative images was very important to me. I also tried to give everything in the book’s world as much agency as possible and to avoid expressions that conveyed that Sato was controlling the world or making things happen. Instead, I tried to show that he was interacting with the world and was generally rolling with the punches. The longer sentences were challenging, but thankfully Sato doesn’t contain many. Sometimes like when, in Forest Ice, Sato goes out for ice, the description of the ice is one long sentence. Japanese allows for much longer sentences and easier merging of clauses, so it was challenging trying to get all the information into the space without the sentence becoming too awkward. Claudia at Enchanted Lion was a big help with that, talking about how we wanted to phrase sentences so that we reflected the world Sato lives in using language that was natural and associable to children. All those conversations really helped hone the language and make enjoyable sentences that were true to the Japanese.

A: I certainly had fun joining Sato in interacting with his world, so I think you and your team have successfully conveyed the reading experience. As you said, Sato is the first of the series, and I already see a placeholder for the second one. Until then, thank you again for sharing!