Dreaming Murakami

Mette Holm has been translating the work of Japanese author Haruki Murakami into Danish for many years. This lovingly crafted glimpse into Holm’s life follows her on a trip to Japan while working on the translation of Kaze no uta o kike (Hear the Wind Sing) the world-famous author’s debut novel. The translator feels perfectly at home in Murakami’s fantasy world, in which animals can talk and multiple universes coexist. Conversations with fellow translators, sometimes about a single Japanese word, reveal just how deeply involved Holm is with her craft. Like the author’s work, the Japanese language also reflects a reality that's unlike what we know in the West. "It's like they are thinking in a totally different way," explains Holm. And that's precisely what challenges her and makes translating this work so much more than a job—it's a way of life. As Mette struggles to find the perfect sentences capable of communicating what Murakami’s solitary, daydreaming characters are trying to tell us, the boundary between reality and fiction begins to blur.