/lit/ - Literature

I wonder if his prose is worth a penny in Japanese. We lose too much from the Eastern with the language barrier.

>>10827633
This, i'm giving up on Japanese literature. Mishima's prose is supposed to be great but it's awful in English. I find basically every Japanese book i have read in English has really bland prose filled with cliches.

>>10827640
Check out some of Shusaku Endo's work. Silence is his most famous, but I feel The Sea and Poison is his best work. I felt the same as you, where a lot of eastern literature lost it's supposedly beautiful phrasing (only time I've ever wished I was a weebscum that learned japanese) while european languages seem to hold up rather well. But in The Sea and Poison, the kind of sparse language he uses (or at least the translation) is what really makes the book perfect for me.

>>10827603
naw

>>10827603
>>10827633
To be honest, I read OP and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Spanish and they did nothing for me either.
He's a very naive analysis. In Confessions, Temple and The Sailor, all 3 main characters (I take the kid to be the MC in the latter) have some secret dark side to them, and it felt like Mishima was just exploring 3 potential ways in which people turn out that way. The first is autobiographical to some extent, and he was made a hateful sadistic queer because he was dressed as a girl iirc and later just couldn't come out openly gay. In Temple of the Golden Pavilion, the MC is that way because he was born with a physical defect. In the third, the kid becomes a sadistic cunt after watching his mom fuck some dude.

This all felt somewhat trite. I thought Mishima was overrated until I got to Spring Snow and the rest of the Sea of Fertility, which I loved (mostly the first 2 books). The Sound of the Waves was alright, some very pretty scenery. I don't know if I'll ever read Forbidden color(s?).

>>10828264
This is a fairly shallow reading. I'd recommend reading some of the scholarly work on Mishima.

I unironically got a semi when he described St. Sebastian's rippling abs and athletic body. I'm not even gay, so if that's not powerful writing I don't know what is.

>>10828625
>I'm not even gay
I've got some news for you, hombre.

>>10828625
>>/Fit/

>>10827603
>>10827633
>>10827640
This is another motivation in order to learn Japanese desu.
Counting of course the big fucking anime titties.

Also bumping

>>10828264
I read Confessions in Spanish too and it was dried as fuck

>>10827640
>>10829535
idk why people keep saying this, I think his prose is great even in translation.

I'm reading a Mishima collection called Acts of Worship at the moment and I'd have to agree something is lost in translation. I find myself losing interest in each story pretty quickly.

Perhaps a case of the man himself being more interesting than the work. I will persist with it, however. Hopefully it will grow on me

This place been inundated with normative faggotry .

>>10828264
Spring snow was absolutely beautiful, i read it in spanish too and the prose was great