Murakami and Apple Pie
June 7, 2024 12:30 AM   Subscribe

I'm reading Haruki Murakami's latest novel 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' ( 街とその不確かな壁) in Dutch translation. In the book, the two main characters go out for 'koffie met appeltart' or 'coffee with apple pie'. Can anyone who has access to the Japanese original tell me if this is changed from the original and if so what the two characters are actually eating.

This occurs near the beginning of the novel (Chapter 2) and the surrounding text reads, in my English translation: "When I visit your city, we go to a park in your neighborhood or to a public garden. To enter the garden, you need a pass but near the entrance is a cafe that is not too busy and is our favorite place. There we buy a coffee and apple pie (a bit extravagant but thats ok)..."

The whole thing sounds very Dutch to me and I'm wondering it the translator took extra liberties to localize it... or not!
posted by vacapinta to Writing & Language (5 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Mod note: Couple answers removed, please help the OP by sticking to the very specific question they've asked, thanks!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:13 AM on June 7, 2024


Best answer: From the original Japanese text:
ぼくがきみの街を訪ねるとき、ぼくらはきみの家の近くにある小さな公園か、それとも公共の植物園に行く。植物園に入るには入場料が必要だが、温室の隣にはいつもあまり混んでいないカフェがあって、そこがぼくらのお気に入りの場所になる。そこでぼくらはコーヒーと林檎のタルトを注文し(ちょっとした贅沢だ)
My English translation:
When I visit the city where you live, we go to a small park in your neighborhood, or to a public botanical garden. There’s a fee to enter the botanical garden, but next to the greenhouse there is a cafe that is never very crowded, which has become our favorite place. There we order a coffee and an apple tart (a bit luxurious!)…
“Apple tart” is 林檎のタルト (ringo no taruto). Google Images shows that this is a bit different from アップルパイ (appurupai / “apple pie”), which is a more American-style pie.

Cafes and European-style pastries are a very common part of Japanese culture today.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:34 AM on June 7, 2024 [23 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks mbrubeck! It doesn't seem that important but had me fearing that they had European-ized the story and I'm glad to hear that that is not the case.
posted by vacapinta at 7:42 AM on June 7, 2024 [2 favorites]


Apples are kind of fancy, expensive fruits in Japan. Some specialty apples are like, twenty bucks per fruit, and they can be absolutely huge, or extra special in other ways. So that would be part of why an apple tart would feel luxurious and they would take such care to arrange the apples when baking them.

By comparison in the US a slice of apple pie and a coffee would be seen as a very approachable treat you might get in a diner or homey restaurant that many people could afford and would have associations with maternal cooking and cultural tradition. When I was in Kyoto many years ago there was a tiny bakery that specialized in American style apple pie, with an owner/baker who spent many years in the US learning all about desserts here, and it was absolutely the best apple pie I’d ever had. The bakery was decorated all tacky red white and blue USA flags Stars and Stripes themed, it was so funny. But notable because it was also the most expensive slice of apple pie I’ve ever had (worth it) and the fanciness of apples could justify that price and a super focused single item bakery in a fancy part of Kyoto.
posted by Mizu at 3:33 AM on June 8, 2024 [3 favorites]


(Not an answer, just continuing the discussion.) That's actually pretty funny then, in how it resonates culturally. On the one hand, apple pie in the Netherlands would not be quite that expensive. On the other hand, being frugal is kind of a Dutch 'thing', so the remark about 'a bit extravagant' doesn't seem odd at all. So by not adjusting for context, the translation ends up being quite appropriate.
posted by demi-octopus at 4:52 AM on June 8, 2024 [3 favorites]


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