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Kenji Hayakawa

@kenjihayakawa.com
72 followers 51 following 252 posts

Based in Dublin, Ireland. Translator. Interpreter. JPN & ENG. Website: kenjihayakawa.com Host @finneganswake.net Founder @fairtradebook.org

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Reposted by Kenji Hayakawa
Paul Fagan @pauleamonnfagan.bsky.social · 4h
I've been excited to get my hands on Brian Ó Conchubhair's monumental Flann O'Brien biography for years, so it was the best possible "Flann's birthday" present to receive "An Saol Bocht" in the post today. Congratulations Brian on this phenomenal achievement & gift to all of us working on O'Brien!👏🎉
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 21h
Nice to see CMAT being interviewed on the Daily Show!
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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 01/10/2026
For the first time in 150 years, kiwi have returned to Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Driven by iwi and local communities, the Capital Kiwi Project has translocated over 250 birds following widespread predator control. Learn more on the Mongabay Newscast with @mikedigirolamo.bsky.social.
mongabay.cc
Iwi and community-led effort return kiwi to Wellington for first time in over a century
For the first time in 150 years, kiwi once again live in the hills surrounding Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. More than 250 manu (“birds” in the Māori language) were successfully translocated back…
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Marsh's Library @marshslibrary.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Today is Michaelmas, a quarter day in the Irish calendar, and traditionally when rents were paid & contracts signed. It's also the last day to eat blackberries - after today, they belong to the Devil and will make you sick!
Detail of a page showing text in Spanish and a woodcut of blackberries. From Dioscorides' Materia Medica, 1555
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Peter Chrisp @peterchrisp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A new post on Alastair White’s project to turn Finnegans Wake into an opera. I loved the overture. peterchrisp.blogspot.com/2026/09/finn...
peterchrisp.blogspot.com
Finnegans Wake as Opera
A blog about James Joyce's Finnegans Wake
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@maryfrancesness @maryfrancesness.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
▫️ walking past a lovely wall ▫️ turning it two ways sudden magic
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richard mortimer @richardmortimer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Kitchen #SaturdayShadows Saddell #aofoto
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 16/09/2026
The only interesting part was that difficult prose was seen as a threat because humans cannot easily monitor it. This tells us something about what makes the Wake valuable. It also points to an issue with the proliferation of "page-turners" written in wideawake language etc. branded as literature.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 16/09/2026
Yes. It is very clear that whoever wrote the Guardian article has never seriously read a page of Finnegans Wake. The examples cited in the article read nothing like the Wake. Also, they should stop using anthropomorphic language and start telling us more about the actual mechanism behind the output.
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Wim Van Mierlo @wvmierlo.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Lublin | May 2026 #photography #travelphotography #Lublin #Poland #Nikon #NoAI Prints for sale: www.saal-digital.net/profiles/wim...
An art installation with large flying bird hung high above the street between buildings.
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@maryfrancesness @maryfrancesness.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
▪️ dry drain tangling ▪️ [accidental art]
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 12/09/2026
As always, it was so much fun! ⚡
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 10/09/2026
Missed this this year but definitely going next year! www.rte.ie/news/2026/09...
rte.ie
Behind the scenes at Dublin Independent Fashion Week
The fourth ever Dublin Independent Fashion Week opened with 'Postmarked' - a live exhibit at Dublin's historic GPO.
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@maryfrancesness @maryfrancesness.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🍃 a magical walk ahead 🍃
..  just ignore for a moment that it is only the back of a huge bin outside a busy shop ..
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
What would you like to see happen to combat free, accessible and sloppy machine-translations of literature? How can we make this a win-win for both literary translators and readers?
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
An alternative solution would be for governments and literary foundations to adequately fund translation projects, particularly those which make the text freely available, so that the public can read high-quality literary translations without forcing the translators to shoulder all the cost.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
One possible approach is to make the genuine translations available online for free or at a ridiculously low price. This might encourage readers to avoid the slop, but at an unsustainable cost to the producers of that translation.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
Tackling this through government regulation is difficult. Introducing labelling requirements won't do much, given that readers will still choose to read the slop as long as it is free and easily accessible. An outright ban on publishing machine-generated literary translation would be too draconian.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
There were, however, at least four other "modern" translations. One of them was available on a slick-looking website. The other three were available on Amazon. Ten minutes of additional checks quickly exposed all four to be machine-generated translations which were dumped on the web.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
Here is what prompted this reflection. The other day, I was searching the web for different Japanese translations of a certain early modern Irish classic. There was one published versions in the pre-AI era which, unfortunately, was out of print and only available in paper.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
Literary translation is facing a real issue: competition with free slop. When free slop is available online for free while thoughtfully created translations are only available in print (or out of print), how can we incentivise readers to invest time and money into obtaining a copy of the latter?
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/09/2026
🎉
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 04/09/2026
They're simply brilliant. If you happen to be in Dublin on this day then you wouldn't want to miss this!
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 03/09/2026
OEDに引用されているソースには‘A name given by Prof. Cayley (Proc. of British Association, 1862) to a surface [...]’とありました。 archive.org/details/adic... その典拠はおそらくこちらのArthur Cayley報告です。 archive.org/details/repo...
archive.org
Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
1831-1938 [L] ; 1864, 1886-1918, 1933[T]
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Marsh's Library @marshslibrary.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This week is the last chance to see our exhibition 'Gulliver 300', celebrating the 300th anniversary of the publication of Jonathan Swift's masterpiece. Catch it before it closes on Friday 4th September, and sets off on its travels to the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris!
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 01/09/2026
Great episode. Indiana Stones... 🤣 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
podcasts.apple.com
David Keohan, "The Wind Beneath the Stone: My Quest to Unearth a Piece of Ireland's Folklore" (Bloomsbury and Chelsea Green, 2026)
Podcast Episode · New Books Network · September 1 · 25m
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Marsh's Library @marshslibrary.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The beautiful watermark on a letter to our librarian in 1943 tells us the paper was made in Swift Brook paper mills, founded in 1785 in Saggart, Co. Dublin. They produced paper for bank notes, stamps, and also the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, before finally closing in 1972.
Sheet of notepaper showing a watermark of a tower and a hound and text 'Ancient Irish Vellum' [class of paper] and 'Made in Saggart Co Dublin'
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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 29/08/2026
Planted post-WWII for timber, Japan’s sugi and hinoki trees now trigger hay fever in over 40% of the population. To tackle the crisis, the government plans to clear 750,000 hectares of these forests and replant them with newly bred low-pollen and no-pollen tree varieties. Jonathan Vit reports.
mongabay.cc
As hay fever sufferers grow in Japan, the country is looking to plant no-pollen trees
TOKYO — For Mariko Aoki, the new year began with an itch. “Right after the New Year in January, my nose starts to get a little itchy,” Aoki said. “It peaks in March, and the sneezing, runny nose,…
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richard mortimer @richardmortimer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The Daily Rothno is a Window on the Foot Bridge at Hackney Downs station #aofoto
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@maryfrancesness @maryfrancesness.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
💫 💫 just found - one of my favourite wonderwalls 💫💫 [I caught it years ago at the back of a church yard - it didn't last long as the stones around it began to fall but just for a while it was a kind of magic]
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 25/08/2026
This is wonderful news! www.rte.ie/news/busines... The website mentioned in the article, RepairMyStuff.ie, is a great idea, but as the article says it needs a bit more work before being better than Google Maps. (I noticed a few shoe repair places around me that are not listed, for example).
rte.ie
New EU-wide product repair rules come into force
New EU rules have come into force aiming to tackle the 35 million tonnes of waste the premature disposal of consumer goods generates across the bloc.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 17/08/2026
P.S. The source might not be very reliable and you might've already known it, in which case apologies in advance! The Preface to Yonge's book lists a number of sources dealing with Anglo-Saxon names, but these might be even less reliable in which case the "older sources" will have to be discarded.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 17/08/2026
According Charlotte Yonge (a source listed on FWEET), Harold derives from Harivald meaning "warrior power" (p.414). www.gutenberg.org/files/70419/... In the same book, Humphrey and its variations are explained as meaning "support of peace" (p.350). www.gutenberg.org/files/70419/...
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Read Japanese Literature @readjapaneseliterature.com · 12/08/2026
Prepping Japanese Women Writers and truly enjoying this gorgeous cover art for the 1911 first issue of Seito (Bluestocking) magazine by Chieko Naganuma (1886-1938).
A bright yellow cover with an art deco style image of a woman with geometric patterns behind her. The kanji reads "Seito" or "Bluestocking".
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 15/08/2026
For those interested in learning about the on-the-ground realities of the final stages of WWII in Japan, I highly recommend the classic "Listen to the Voices from the Sea" which is a collection of notes and letters written by young soldiers and recruits in the Japanese army at the time.
japantimes.co.jp
Translation of young soldiers’ letters shows other side of war
Two U.S.-based scholars have recently published the first full-scale English version of a longtime Japanese seller, featuring letters written by Japanese student soldiers during World War II.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 15/08/2026
Every year on this day we remember the reckless follies as well as the eventual surrender of the Japanese government and the lessons learned, at much too high a cost, about the importance of enduring peace, the sincere aspiration for which is enshrined in the current constitution of the country.
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 13/08/2026
People should sign up to Blooms & Barnacles on Patreon, as all of their bonus episodes are excellent. I particularly enjoyed the latest one where Kelly and Dermot manage to reconstruct and play James and Lucia Joyce's favourite board game. www.patreon.com/barnaclecast...
patreon.com
Bonus Ep. 43 - Labyrinth | Blooms & Barnacles
Dermot and I discuss the board game Labyrinth -- a favorite of James and Lucia Joyce, and an inspiration for the "Wandering Rocks" episode,
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Marsh's Library @marshslibrary.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
An early user of this book of Donato's madrigals found the music incomplete and continued it themselves #rarebooks #music
Page showing the Basso part of Baldessare Donato's setting of Petrarch's Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta XXII with additional notes added in ink
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 11/08/2026
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 11/08/2026
Our "Finnegans Web" project in Japanese aspires to eventually reach the level of the above listed websites. Work is ongoing. It takes a lot of time. But it's worth it if it helps people discover the magic of Joyce's literature. Finnegans Web, 2025 Activity Report: finneganswake.net/activity-rep...
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 11/08/2026
(3) The Joyce Project: Colour-coded annotations to Ulysses with in-depth analyses on key terms, names and motifs. www.joyceproject.com/1 (4) The many blogs by Joyce enthusiasts (Blooms & Barnacles, John Gordon, Peter Chrisp, Sceptre, etc. etc.). bloomsandbarnacles.com
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 11/08/2026
(1) JJDA: the go-to website for annotations to and draft histories of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. jjda.ie/jjdahome.htm (2) FWEET: A searchable database of over 100,000 annotations to Finnegans Wake. fweet.org/pages/fw_src...
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 11/08/2026
I've noticed that over the past year or so, quite a few AI-generated James Joyce websites have popped up. They all tend to have elaborate, colourful designs to dress up some very sloppy content. Here is an (admittedly) incomplete and biased list of four excellent human-made resources:
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 10/08/2026
興味深い書籍ですね。冒頭部を拝読しました。そもそも欧州各国の人たちがなぜケルトを話題にするのか、その動機についてもより包括的な導入があると良いですね。 たまたま本日ダブリンの大手書店の「アイルランド史」の棚を漁ってみたのですが、ケルト研究関連書籍の著者の大多数はイギリスに生まれ育った学者たちでした。 現代アイルランドにおいては、「ケルト」という概念はナショナリズム云々というよりも観光客向けのビジネスバズワードとして使われている印象が強いです。アイルランド語がQケルト語群だから……みたいなレベルで自分の系譜を考えているアイルランド人は一部の歴史学愛好家を除けばいない気がします。
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@maryfrancesness @maryfrancesness.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
unexpected wonders ... in a football shed
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Light House Cinema @lighthousecinema.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
"A loving portrait of budding and fading." New York Times Glenn Close and Anders Danielsen Lie star in the adaptation of the Tove Jansson’s beloved novel, THE SUMMER BOOK. Screening from August 7 🎟 www.lighthousecinema.ie/film/the-su…
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 07/08/2026
Amy Goodman has been a source of inspiration for many, including yours truly. I hope this film comes to Ireland too! @irishfilminstitute.bsky.social @lighthousecinema.bsky.social stealthisstory.org
stealthisstory.org
Steal This Story, Please! Documentary
Explore the story of journalist Amy Goodman in 'Steal This Story, Please!' — a documentary on truth-telling, resistance, and journalism. Stay informed about upcoming screenings.
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@maryfrancesness @maryfrancesness.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
- one of my favourite walls - I stop to look for one moment and a new world appears
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nina theda black @ninathedablack.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
12x12 mixed media on wood
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Kenji Hayakawa @kenjihayakawa.com · 01/08/2026
Can't wait to see the whites next!
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