(Click here to jump right to the book on Amazon)
Mimei Ogawa (小川未明), a literature figure sometimes referred to as the father of modern Japanese fairy tales, holds a special place in my heart; not only were his works one of the things that nudged me to start seriously translating and publishing classic Japanese literature, but they kept me coming back with a total of seven volumes of stories over a six-year period.
I finally decided to make a proper collection that groups all the stories from the seven books in one place, and the result is “Dreams of a Child”. In total there are 36 stories, plus an essay containing his thoughts about children’s stories, making this the largest collection of Mimei Ogawa’s works available in English. I also included a never-before-translated story, “The Old Woman and the Zeppelin”, as well as did heavy editing of all the stories to improve the quality level (including fixing a few minor translation mistakes).
As most of the stories were originally made for children, Ogawa’s stories are short and generally easy to read. But what kept my interest over the years was inclusion of various spiritual and philosophical themes, such as the cycle of birth and death.
With over a thousand works to his name, I spent much time reading Mimei’s stories and finding those that spoke to me in some form or another. Some of them like “The Mermaid and the Red Candles” are well-known works of his, but I managed to find unique and compelling works that were less common (and much longer than his average story), such as the novella “The Forest of the Dark Night”.
All the stories (as well as the essay) are included in two forms: an English-only as well as bilingual English/Japanese. I think these stories are great for Japanese students looking to a bilingual reader to practice reading, especially considering the varying lengths and difficulty levels.
If you are a fan of Japanese literature, a student of Japanese, or simply want to help support this site, please consider taking a look.
Thanks to Kaimai Mizuhiro (開米瑞浩) for helping confirm some of the meanings of the tricker passages. Also thanks to Jim Miles for help proofreading most of the stories in the original round, and to Priya Singh for doing a full readthrough of this collection and providing great feedback.
For the short term I’ve set the price cheaper than the total of the original 7 books (USD $4.99 or equivalent). Click here to jump to the book in the Amazon store for your region. With a total of nearly 800 pages, I think it’s a pretty good option for anyone looking for a bilingual Japanese reader.