The following was my entry for the May 2021 Leeds Centre translation competition. Please find the original text below, and the winning entry by Francesca Jordan via this link.
Please note I did make the error of using hanyu pinyin. Given the context of Japan-occupied Taiwan, I should’ve used Wades-Gilles.
When Violets1 Bloom
By Yang Shuangzi
Hatsuko adored novels by Nobuko Yoshiya, and most eagerly anticipated each month’s release of the Girls’ Friends and Girl Pictorial magazines. Sadly, none of them landed within the realm of possibility when it came to actual purchase of these treasured items.
In contrast, for her classmates Sakiko and Yukiko, the latest Girls’ Friends was undoubtedly just a quick errand run away. Their families could simply dispatch servants to the canopy bookstore in the town of Nishiki2 for the newest periodicals. As for other books of recreation, following in the footsteps of the library’s collection expansion efforts was enough.
I don’t mind what condition any other book is in, but one day, just for once, I’d like to buy the newest release of Girls’ Friends. Even though that wish wove itself among the thoughts of Hatsuko’s mind—flaring from time to time—she never mentioned it to her mother Sachie.
After all, as the eldest daughter of the Yamaguchis, Hatsuko was she-who-awaited-the-library’s-harvest.
Her classmate Sakiko hailed from the hereditary peerage that was the Matsuzaki clan. Rumor had it that the Matsuzaki patriarch had especially moved his family, from Kyoto to the island, in pursuit of a lifelong affection for the local flora. Regardless of their means, the Matsuzaki manor situated in the town of Kawabata3 kept to an understated, spacious style.
Rare and exotic flowers sourced from both the mainland and island bloomed within a garden beyond brick walls. Everlasting riots of multicolored blossoms feted a deeply cherished, old Bougainvillea tree. If the family had remained on the mainland, Sakiko would surely be a princess living in the lap of luxury.
As for Yukiko… well. Compared to Sakiko, Hatsuko held a more complicated view of this classmate.
Numbering among the precious seven local students of their year, Yukiko’s birth name was Yang Xueni. The Yangs were prosperous landlords with holdings around the train station4, and they counted titled officials who’d passed the imperial examinations of the Qing Dynasty among their ancestors. A prominent and influential clan in both deed and name, such a heritage was reflected in the name of their descendent Yang Xueni. Taken from a line of Chinese poetry, it was an exceptionally elegant and lyrical name.
Whether it was Matsuzaki Sakiko of noble descent, or Yang Xueni of a local tycoon, both girls possessed family backgrounds that Hatsuko couldn’t even begin to dream of. As her most ordinary name indicated, Yamaguchi Hatsuko was a commonplace girl possessing of no distinctive qualities. Her most defining characteristic was the meaning behind “Hatsuko”—the first daughter of her parents’ children.
Her father Takao had relocated from Kyushu to the island, bringing along her mother Sachie, in the ninth year of the Taisho era5. Their firstborn was delivered the next year, followed by Hanako (for flower girl) one spring, then Natsuko (for summer child) in another summer. Their only boy incorporated the first character of his father’s name and was named Ryuichi (for vigor).
Hatsuko’s worries veered toward run-of-the-mill, a habit quite in line with her name.
The hefty responsibilities for a family of six on his back, her father counted every sen6 to put four children through school. He was a civil servant who drew a monthly stipend of sixty-seven yen, and there was never surplus enough to grant Hatsuko’s fondest wish of the latest Girls’ Friends. Though fifty sen per copy did not mark it as a luxury good in an age where the newfangled and fascinating abounded, it was still fifty sen too much.
Advertisements for shiny new “air coolers that doubled as heaters,” “electrical cold storage,” and “gas generators” beguiled and vied for attention in the daily newspaper. Forming a wish list from their pictures, her mother Sachie would occasionally sigh wistfully at the clippings. ”Goodness gracious, a cold storage unit for five hundred yen! How could we ever afford that?”
Even on the off chance that Hatsuko successfully requested some allowance, could a big sister like her ignore the bright eyes of her siblings and spend fifty sen on a girl’s magazine? Even if it was her favorite? Could she ever?
Though theirs was an open-minded era of progress, not everyone enjoyed the same equality and happiness. For Hatsuko, her two beautiful classmates were hardly within touching distance like Girls’ Friends. Rather, to bridge their gap would be to shoot for the stars or an electrical cold storage unit.
1. Violets are associated with lesbianism and Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570), a Greek poet fabled as the world’s first woman-loving woman. Her works contain many references to flowers and nature, of which violets and the color purple are mentioned multiple times. Violets are further associated with lesbianism in the 1926 play The Captive, when a female character sends a bunch of violets to another female character.
2. Nishiki-cho was an administrative district in modern day Taipei City, now part of Da-An District. Its inhabitants were mostly Japanese.
3. Kawabata-cho was a town in the administrative district of modern day Taipei City. Located in the southern part of the city, it bordered the waters of Xindian and was an area of rest and relaxation.
4. The train station was wang tian — government owned property.
5. From 1912 to 1926, coinciding with the rule of Emperor Taisho and marked by a liberal political movement.
6. The Taiwanese yen was the currency of choice in Japanese Taiwan from 1895 to 1946. Each yen was further divided into 100 sen (錢).
This is an excerpt from a longer work by Yang Shuang-Zi 楊双子, chosen for the Bai Meigui Translation Competition. The full text can be found here.
初子喜歡吉屋信子的小說。最喜歡的雜誌是《少女之友》和《少女畫報》。不過，無論小說還是雜誌，初子都買不起。
如果是早季子同學或雪子同學，肯定是由家裡使用人到錦町的棚邊書店購買《少女之友》的新雜誌吧？至於其他作為消遣之用的圖書，等待圖書館的藏書就足夠了。
初子有時候也會想，「其它的書怎麼樣都可以，只有《少女之友》，真想買一次新雜誌。」即使懷抱著這樣的念頭，初子也不會如此向母親幸江抱怨。
因為初子是只能等候圖書館藏書的山口家的長女。
早季子同學來自京都華族的松崎家。傳言松崎家的一家之長著迷於本島的特有植物，特意攜家帶眷落腳本島。儘管如此，位在川端町的松崎宅邸低調而寬敞，磚造圍牆裡的花園，不但有來自內地與本島珍稀的盆栽，還有一株呵護備至、常年花團錦簇的九重葛老樹。若是在內地，早季子同學想必過著如同公主一般的生活。
而雪子同學。
相較於早季子同學，初子對雪子同學懷抱更複雜的心情。
作為同級生裡僅僅七名之一的本島人學生，雪子本名楊雪泥。楊氏是王田車站一帶的富裕地主，清國時期祖上曾有秀才功名，名符其實的望族之後。雪泥一詞出自漢詩文，是異常秀美又富有詩意的名字。
血統高貴的松崎早季子，本島地主富裕之家的楊雪泥，都是初子沒有辦法望其項背的出身。如同山口初子的名字，初子既平凡無奇，也沒有特色，只是山口家三女一男之中的第一個女孩。
大正九年，父親隆夫攜母親幸江自九州奔赴本島，大正十年誕生的頭一個女孩命名為初子。接著是春天出生的花子、夏天出生的夏子。唯一的男孩以父親之名取名隆一。
與平凡無奇的姓名一致，初子的煩惱也相當平凡。
父親隆夫是月俸六十七圓的公務員，背負山口一家六口的重擔，勉力供四個孩子讀書，沒有餘錢為初子實現買到一本《少女之友》當月雜誌的願望。儘管五十錢一本的《少女之友》在這個新興事物不斷湧現的時代，還算不上是奢侈品。
報紙刊登著「冷房兼暖房機」、「電氣冷藏器」、「瓦斯發生器」的廣告，母親幸江剪下廣告上的圖片，不時望著剪報興嘆，五百圓的冷藏器啊，我們家怎麼買得起噢。
就算能夠向母親索取零用錢，身為姊姊的初子要毫不顧慮弟弟妹妹的目光、花五十錢買一本少女雜誌，不是也根本做不到嗎？
即使是在這樣進步的、開明的時代，也並不是人人都一樣平等幸福的呢。
對初子來說，那兩名美麗的少女並不是有如《少女之友》，而是如同電氣冷藏器一樣遙遠。