Chapter The Existential byt’ in the Translations of I.A. Bunin’s The Gentleman from San Francisco into English and Japanese

Abstract

This article deals with the translations of a Bunin’s story The Gentleman from San Francisco into Japanese and English. Japanese translations of the phrase with the existential verb byt’ reflect a different understanding of death. A comparison of the original text with the translations also helps us understand the image of the gentleman’s being, bytie, which changes as the story develops.