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I'm curious about the Chekov passages which Tengo reads aloud to Fuka-Eri.

Presumably they are in Japanese in the original. Were they copied from an existing Japanese translation of Chekov?

In the English translation (by Rubin and Gabriel), did they take the Chekov from an existing English translation, or translate the Japanese?

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    There was one Japanese novel I once saw a quote from that quoted The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock "I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me." But they didn't restore the original; they translated the Japanese translation, so it came out different.
    – Peter Shor
    Apr 4 at 12:56
  • @PeterShor a bit like watching dubbed anime with subtitles, which always seem to use a different translation to the dubbed audio. (well, almost exactly unlike. But only almost)
    – tgdavies
    Apr 5 at 4:57
  • And Googe found the actual translation of Prufrock from Japanese: "The years are taking their toll. It’s time to roll up the cuffs of my pants — Time to part my hair from the back — Time to eat peaches. I put on my white flannel pants and walked on the beach. I heard mermaids singing to each other — Mermaids who would never sing out to me." [From What the Maid Saw, by Yasutaka Tsutsui, translated from the Japanese by Adam Kabat.]
    – Peter Shor
    Apr 29 at 23:10

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The English translation of 1Q84 has used the translation by Brian Reeve. Here’s a passage from 1Q84:

The Gilyak is of strong, thick-set build, and average, even small, in height. Tall stature would hamper him in the taiga. [“That’s a Russian forest,” Tengo added.] His bones are thick and are distinctive for the powerful development of all the appendages and protuberances to which the muscles are attached [...]

Reeve’s translation of Sakhalin Island (2013 Alma Classics edition from archive.org, but there’s also an older 1993 edition):

The Gilyak is of strong, thick-set build, and average, even small, in height. Tall stature would hamper him in the taiga. His bones are thick and are distinctive for the powerful development of all the appendages and protuberances to which the muscles are attached […]

I don’t have any information on the Japanese original.

Murakami’s Russian translator is a guy from Sakhalin, Dmitry Kovalenin. In the interview to P&I journal he says that Murakami visited Sakhalin at his invitation and later used this experience in 1Q84:

Да, в дороге Мураками читал «Остров Сахалин» Чехова в японском переводе, работал с текстом, делал какие-то пометки.

And on the road Murakami read Chekhov's Sakhalin Island in Japanese translation, worked with the text, made some notes.

So it’s plausible that Murakami’s included excerpts from his own copy of Sakhalin Island.

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