Lovely morning.Just as the world we live in continues to change, so does the language we use. For example, if you watch a film from before the Second World War, you will notice that the picture quality, the clarity of the images and the colours are very different, but the language used in the film, the phrasing of the dialogue and even the accents are different from what we use today. And if you read a novel or an article in a magazine or newspaper written decades ago, you will notice that it is different from the impression we have of what is actually written now.
For example, even if The Tale of Genji was written 1,000 years ago and rewritten using the language of today, the reason why it is so moving to read it is because the translator has put him/herself in the shoes of the writer in the past and has given much thought to the circumstances and historical background of that period, while considering how people today can understand the story.
In other words, even if the words are changed so that those of us living in the present day can understand the story, it may be because the translator is trying to convey the essence of what the story was trying to say, which is why the modern translation is so moving to read. It may be that the translation conveys to us people living today what people felt 1,000 years ago because it is able to fully translate the words and what lies between the words.
And even if it was a thousand years ago, there are things that we can understand as a feeling because we live in Japan. From the cherry blossoms in spring, to the rainy season when the rain never stops, to summer when the blue sky and white clouds roll in and you can hear the sound of cicadas, to autumn when the sound of insects can be heard at night and the leaves on the trees change from green to yellow and red during the day, to winter when the harsh winter winds blow and snow flakes fall, you can feel the changing seasons. It may be that it is precisely because we experience these changing seasons that we are able to understand them.
Considering this, when reading various novels from overseas, if we know a little about the time period and background in which the novels were written, we may be able to further understand the words of the characters in the novels and the true feelings hidden behind those words. Or you may simply enjoy reading the novel and then do a little research to find out more about the country, its history, language, religion, clothing, food, places of residence, changes in nature, etc., which will surely enrich your mind even more. However, the reason why we can learn so much from a novel or an article written by someone in a different country or in a different language is because the translator is trying to convey the essence of what the author is trying to express. And this is probably because human nature has something in common, no matter what time period or place we live in. And if we can read it in the original text written by the author, the essence may be conveyed to our hearts even more.
Considering the above, I sincerely believe that words have great power to move our hearts and have great potential to make the society in which we live even richer and happier.