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Hideaki Kawashima

かわしま ひであき

Kawashima Hideaki

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1933-11-22 （Tokyo Prefecture）
Died
2018-05-25 age 84
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese, Italian

Career

Occupations
Italian literature scholar, Translator, University professor
Active Years
1960-2018
Affiliations
Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Director, Center for Italian Literature Studies
Influenced By
Cesare Pavese, Dante Alighieri, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italo Calvino, Alberto Moravia

Education

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Department of Italian
Period: 卒業年不詳
Country: Japan
After graduation he served as assistant, lecturer, full-time lecturer, and associate professor at the same university.
Sapienza University of Rome
Italian literature
Period: 1960年代後半（留学）
Country: Italy
Studied abroad in the late 1960s; exact enrollment period unknown.

Awards

Pico della Mirandola Prize
1988
Work: Ungaretti: Complete Poems
Organization: Pico della Mirandola Prize Committee
Result: 受賞
Japan Translation Culture Prize
1990
Work: The Name of the Rose (translation)
Organization: Japan Association of Translators (Japan Translation Culture Prize)
Result: 受賞
BABEL International Translation Prize
1991
Organization: BABEL International Translation Prize Committee
Result: 受賞
Japan Translation Grand Prize
1991
Organization: Japan Association of Translators (Translation Prize)
Result: 受賞
Yomiuri Literature Prize
2006
Work: Landscapes of Italian Jews
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Glaciers and Butterflies: Italian Travel Reflections

1983 Travelogue

A collection of essays and reflections from travels across Italy, blending travel writing and cultural commentary.

TravelItalian cultureMemory

The Spirit of the Epic: Pavese and Dante

1990 Literary criticism

A study that explores the spirit of epic poetry using the works and relationship between Cesare Pavese and Dante as a focal point.

Epic poetryDantePavese

Ungaretti: The Life of a Poet

1994 Biography / Literary history

A biographical study tracing Giuseppe Ungaretti's life and poetic oeuvre.

PoetryUngarettiModern poetry

Strolling Through Rome

2000 Travelogue

Cultural and historical essays written while walking through the streets of Rome.

RomeHistoryUrban essays

Landscapes of Italian Jews

2004 Literary study / Cultural history

A study portraying the history and culture of Jews in Italy from a literary perspective.

Jewish communitiesItalyCultural history

On the Returning Summer Days

2007 Essays

A collection of essays reflecting on seasons and memory.

SeasonMemoryEssays

Bibliography

  • Glaciers and Butterflies: Italian Travel Reflections (1983)
  • Travels Around Italy (reissue, 1994)
  • The Spirit of the Epic: Pavese and Dante (1990)
  • Ungaretti: The Life of a Poet (1994)
  • Strolling Through Rome (2000)
  • Landscapes of Italian Jews (2004)
  • On the Returning Summer Days (2007)
  • The Indifferent (translation of Alberto Moravia, 1966)
  • And Suddenly Evening (Quasimodo poems translation, 1968)
  • Cesare Pavese Complete Works 1: Exile (1969)
  • Cesare Pavese Complete Works 2: Homeland (1969)
  • Cesare Pavese Complete Works 3: A Beautiful Summer (1970)
  • The Baron in the Trees (Italo Calvino translation, 1971)
  • Roman Tales (Alberto Moravia, 1980)
  • The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco translation, 1990)
  • Quasimodo: Complete Poems (1996)
  • The Prince (Machiavelli translation, 1998)
  • The Decameron (Boccaccio translation, 1999)

Translations by Author

  • The Indifferent (Alberto Moravia)
  • Attenzione / Interest (Alberto Moravia)
  • And Suddenly Evening (Salvatore Quasimodo, poems)
  • Cesare Pavese: Complete Works (multi-volume)
  • The Baron in the Trees (Italo Calvino)
  • Green Little Bird: Selected Italian Folktales (edited by Italo Calvino)
  • The Castle of Crossed Destinies (Italo Calvino)
  • Cavalleria Rusticana (Giovanni Verga)
  • The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
  • Caterina's Strange Tales (Elsa Morante)
  • Quasimodo: Complete Poems (Salvatore Quasimodo)
  • Eros (Alberto Bevilacqua)
  • The Prince (Niccolò Machiavelli)
  • The Decameron (Giovanni Boccaccio)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Clear, scholarly proseTranslations are faithful to the original while emphasizing literary quality in JapaneseOccasionally adopts experimental approaches (e.g., rendering Dante in colloquial free verse)
Recurring Motifs
ItalyRomeDanteTravel and memoryTranslation and poetry

Health

  • Cerebral infarction
    2018-05-25（急性）
    Died from a cerebral infarction on 2018-05-25 at age 84.

Legacy

Hideaki Kawashima was one of Japan's leading scholars and translators of Italian literature. Through his translations of Cesare Pavese, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Umberto Eco and others, and his teaching at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, he significantly shaped the reception of Italian literature in postwar Japan.

Academic Societies

  • Center for Italian Literature Studies

Trivia

  • Born in Tokyo Prefecture.
  • After graduating from Fukushima Prefectural Shirakawa High School he worked for three years to finance his studies.
  • Studied Italian at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and later served there as assistant, lecturer, and associate professor.
  • Serialized a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno) in colloquial free verse in the magazine 'TOSHO' (June 2005–June 2008).
  • Won the Pico della Mirandola Prize for his translation of Ungaretti's complete poems.
  • Received the Yomiuri Literature Prize in 2006 for 'Landscapes of Italian Jews'.