編集者「今度のエッセイ集のタイトル何にしますか」
佐々木「『日本語の森』というのはどうでしょう」
編集者「それでは村上春樹の二番煎じでおもしろくないですね」
Niban Senji
Henshusha: Kondo.no essei-shu no taitoru nani ni shimasu. ka.
Sasaki: "Nihongo no Mori" to in no wa doo deshoo.
Henshusha: Sore de wa Haruki Murakami no niban senji de omoshiroku nai desu ne.
Editor: What title should we give to your next collection of essays?
Sasaki: How about "Nihongo no Mori?"
Editor: I don't thinkpeople would find that very in teresting. They'd think you were just trying to copy Murakami Haruki.
* * *
Niban senji refers to either using the same tea leaves to make two pots of tea- the aroma and flavor isn't as good the second time around - or to using the same Chinese medicinal herbs (kanpoyaku) to make "medicine to drink" (kusuri wo senjite nomu) twice (i.e., the herbs are weaker and so the medicine less effective the second time around).
Though Chinese herb medicines made from grass roots and tree bark (kanpoyaku) are said to have no side-effects, most people today (like me) would rather take their medicine in tablet form. As for me, I just can't forget how strange I felt when I visited a medicine shop in China and saw all those grass roots on display...
Having passed the one million mark some time ago, Haruki Murakami's novel Norway no Mori, now in its 25th printing, is still on the bestseller.'.list. And though the book is interesting, I can't help but think the title and book covers are what have attracted people's attention. What do I mean?
Though forests are said to cover 60 percent of the land in Japan, most of them (50 percent) are not natural. For Japanese who live in concrete jungles far from the green of a natural forest, a book with a title like Norway no Mori (Norwegian Woods, from the Beatles' song), can thus be very nostalgic. The green and red book covers (a forest of Christmas trees?) don't hurt either.
They are to be published at the end of March and my collection of essays on the Japanese language are still without a title. The reason I suggested the title, Nihongo no Mori, must be because I'd read Murakami's book.
The expression "Sore wa...no niban senji desu" ("That's just a revival of...") is often used. Imagine you present what you think is a new idea at a meeting only to find out something similar has been done by a competitor. The boss says: "Sore wa A sha no niban senji de wa arimasen ka?" ("Isn't that just what A company did?") You: "Niban senji no tsumori wa nakatta desu ga" ("Well, I hadn't intended to present something which had already been done...") Your 'excuse,' no matter how honest, doesn't diminish the fact that if A company is really already doing precisely what you had suggested "Niban senji da to iwaretemo shikata ga nai" ("Saying that your plan smacks of something already being done can't be helped)." In the end your boss may say, "It's an interesting plan all right, but I want to avoid doing what's already being done (niban senjt wa saketai). Let's move on to something else. "
It's no easy thing to decide on the title for a book. Isn't that why there are professional copywriters to help? How about you? Anyone have a title which is new and fresh, and not simply a take-off on someone else? (i.e., niban senji de nai.)