April 26, 1970

On April 26, 1970 the World Intellectual Property Organization went live. For some though, the rules of copyright are disregarded with a kind of idealism sometimes associated with cat lovers. A case in point is Robin D. Gill, (born in 1951) who has published a number of books on Japanese literature and made them freely available on the web. Gill was born in Miami and, after many years absence, returned. In between he spent decades in Japan writing, editing, and translating. Currently Robin Gill is living in Hawaii, I gather.

Here is a list of his titles, available for full consultation at books.google.com. I feel free to quote the Google blurbs, with some elaborations, in a wee bit perverse celebration of the anniversary of WIPO, and those who merely want to share knowledge. (Besides the English works below, Gill also has a number of titles in Japanese, and I am not sure how many of his books in Japanese have been translated.)

Orientalism & Occidentalism: Is the Mistranslation of Culture Inevitable? (2004) Being in denial is not the same as being cured. This book, like the author's seven books published in Japanese, treats prejudice by uncovering its roots and exposing them to the healthy light of reason.

Topsy-Turvy 1585: A Translation and Explication of Luis Frois S.J.
(2004) This book translates and examines a tract by an early missionary to Japan. Frois claimed there were "611 ways Japanese" and Europeans were contrary, stuff like "we sniff the top of our melons to see if they are ripe / they sniff the bottom of theirs."

Cherry Blossom Epiphany: The Poetry and Philosophy of a Flowering Tree
(2006) This is a selection, translation and lengthy explication of 3000 haiku, waka, senryu and kyoka about a major theme from I.P.O.O.H. (In Praise Of Olde Haiku), that is hanami. "In the Occident, too, flowers embody beauty and serve as reminders of mortality, but there is no [other culture where one flower]..." the cherry blossom, stands for all flowers."

The Woman Without a Hole & Other Risky Themes from Old Japanese Poems
(2007) Here Gill continues his practice of using his own translations in a variety of versions to ensure that something is caught of the original. He always, to my knowledge, includes the Japanese original also.

Mad in Translation: A Thousand Years of Kyoka, Comic Japanese poetry in the waka mode
(2009) This is the first book to translate a broad spectrum of the informal, improper and generally comic side of 31-syllable Japanese poetry called `kyoka', that is 'mad-cap verse.' This book is dedicated to the "Poor scholars of the world" and to "to all poets of good wit."

The Cat Who Thought Too Much An Essay Into Felinity  (2010) Imagine a cat who mastered more tricks than a highly trained dog, covered up cans of food he did not want to eat before they were opened and could delicately touch a tiny finger-spun top repeatedly without stopping it.

All of the above titles are, in Gill's phrase, "kindly on-line." Some of his work deals with varieties of Japanese literature which are not before translated, much less analysed. I have only myself read the last title, but that book is lovely:  full of wide-ranging, erudite, references used to light up a very personal relation with his cat while he lived in Japan. I have to assume the others are equally commendable. And of course if you wanted to buy a copy of anything, he is available at his own house: Paraverse Press.